Wide Addresses shortfall in UK FSA Compliance Training

In response to a recent survey that uncovered a shortfall in compliance training among financial sector workers, Wide Learning has unveiled a suite of solutions to assess a company's compliance position and deploy learning and testing solutions to bring them in line with the FSA's Training & Competence guidelines.

The results of the survey paint a somewhat surprising picture: one in three City workers has yet to receive compliance training, and more than half of them do not expect to receive any in the coming six months.

Jan Hagen of Wide Learning commented: "This shortfall has been uncovered at all levels of City organisations, at a time when FSA rules for training and competence clearly require that employees are adequately trained, when the money laundering threat is high on everyone's list of concerns, and when the industry is seeing a succession of high profile fines and scandals."

"This training shortfall is coupled with the increasingly apparent need within the financial services industry for clarity on how compliance can be achieved within the framework of the Financial Services & Markets Act 2000. All eyes are on the emergence of an industry best practice, and so Wide Learning has developed a number of solutions designed to support its clients in developing their compliance strategy."

The Wide Learning Compliance Suite consists of fifteen titles ranging from Money Laundering to Data Protection and includes:

• The Compliance Health Check: an assessment of compliance in relation to the T&C Guidelines of the FSMA 2000, followed by a summary report on the findings, and key recommendations.
• Proof of Concept: the assessment, training, testing and tracking for a three month period of a department to ensure that they are compliant in line with the Training & Competency guidelines of the Financial Services & Markets Act 2000.

April 12th, 2002