Highlighting the importance of compliance training for the financial services sector

New Delhi [India], January 28 : During the past decade or so, financial services firms have been flooded with a vast number and variety of regulations. Each day, greater attention has to be paid to regulatory issues by companies during the course of their regular business activities.
As a result, plenty of work is required these days by compliance, AML, onboarding, and senior management teams to fall in line with their company's regulatory requirements and avoid any sort of reputational or financial loss for their business.
In an effort to always remain compliant, many firms throughout this industry have opted to train their staff members or provide them with access to certification programmes that will help them perform their roles in governance, risk management, and compliance (GRC) in a more effective, speedy, and cost-efficient way.
Likewise, comprehensive trainings and certifications have become fundamental in building a strong culture of compliance, ethical behaviour, and transparency within an organisation, as this will establish and promote the high level of standards that must be pursued to propel the business forward.
In parallel, regulatory authorities throughout the globe are requiring companies to train their employees in many of these issues. This has exerted additional pressure on businesses to set up in-house training academies or certification programmes even if it's for the sole purpose of box-ticking.
This entire educational or training process should start at the top and work its way down to the entry-level employees. Simply put, a company is a reflection of its leadership.
Executives and senior managers have a crucial role in shaping an organisation's culture by setting an example and establishing the pace and the different strategies required to remain compliant.
These high-ranking professionals should also be held accountable if anything goes awry; they must have a clear understanding of their obligations to both regulators and stakeholders and the risks posed by non-compliance.
With these roles and duties in mind, executives and senior management should undergo extensive training in corporate governance and ESG, both subjects that will refine the way they relate and cater to stakeholders, regulators, and their employees, and build a solid, ethical, and transparent foundation for their business. Goes without saying, their education should not stop there, but this would be a good starting point or building block for improving the performance of a company's boardroom and upper management.
At the entry-level, employees who are recent graduates or professionals in the midst of a career change can benefit from courses in topics such as
,
,
and
, among others.
Opportunities in the fintech, regtech, and financial services industries have exploded in recent years, gaining plenty of protagonism and relevance in the global economy.
As a result, the number of jobs and positions opening in compliance are skyrocketing with help needed in business divisions handling reporting, KYC, CDD, onboarding, monitoring, AML, and more. In other words, as regulations go, so do the number of checks and controls that must be carried out by financial services firms.
The range of knowledge that is required to perform at a high level these days is pretty vast. Hence, specialising in niche or targeted topics has become necessary with more professionals being added to the staff to cover the many regulatory obligations in an effective, thorough, and responsible way.
The knowledge, skills, and tools acquired must then be nurtured on a yearly basis via Continuous Professional Development (CPD) and active participation in trade or industry associations such as the
. Both of these activities allow employees to network and build professional relations, stay up-to-date with the latest news and hottest trends, and keep things fresh in their mind.
Furthermore, one of the main (and possibly only) advantages of the ongoing pandemic might be that most of the trainings referred to in this article can be completed online, either via a self-paced or live online course.
While this shift started several years ago, the COVID-19 pandemic has sped up the education sector's transition from in-person to virtual and online trainings.
Many companies working within the education technology sector have introduced or are in the process of launching new tools that give businesses, organisations, and individuals greater access to more engaging content that is delivered online and helps support the overall learning needs of the sector.
It's important to note that attention spans among the current generations have decreased and time is of the essence, so greater emphasis has been placed on micro-learning or bite-sized courses. So, depending on your staff members and their preferences, shorter and more targeted courses covering some of these issues might be better than, say, longer professional certifications.
There's a wealth of education and training options out there for professionals in the financial services sector, offerings that vary in duration, method of delivery, language, and scope.
However, regardless of what is ultimately chosen, preparing executives, upper management, and everyone else in a firm to tackle the industry's growing regulatory requirements is paramount.
Besides ticking those annoying regulatory boxes, these kinds of trainings and certification programmes can only help an organisation build a strong culture of compliance, transparency, and ethics and avoid the many financial and reputational pitfalls caused by non-compliance. Whether one likes it or not, this is the only way forward.
If you're interested in courses on governance, compliance, risk management and more, please visit IGCA's official training partner's website
.