ΠΕΡΙΓΡΑΦΗ

The EIMF Live Online Learning Experience

EIMF subject-matter experts deliver engaging and interactive courses across a broad spectrum of areas, that can be enjoyed in the comfort of your own chosen environment

Course Overview

Everyone wants to know how to put their product or service out in front of future customers in a multi-channel world. It is also a world where the European Securities and Markets Authority and CySEC have already intervened in a significant way to dictate the forms of marketing allowed in the Contracts for Differences market. Marketing regulation is not confined to financial services regulators. The Cyprus Advertising Regulatory Organization (CARO) has its own rules. All of these regimes are modelled around the “fair, clear and not misleading” found in MiFID 2. That directive and its subordinate legislation create a common financial promotions regime for Europe. This in turn has created a common industry involved in trying to reconcile compliance rules designed for a static advertising world with the demands of modern media.

Product governance is probably the most important new subject area for financial services professionals in the EU. It finally entered the regulatory vocabulary at European level with the implementation of MiFID 2, closely followed by that of the Insurance Distribution Directive’s own provisions on the subject.  ESMA has already intervened in the marketing and promotion to retail customers of binary options and contracts for differences and Cyprus has responded to the ending of the ESMA measures by implementing its own intervention in September 2019.

This course looks at promotions under MiFID of all kinds, not just from the financial services compliance viewpoint but also advertising standards and good marketing. Adam always brings to courses examples of good, bad and sometimes dangerous promotions. He also likes looking at websites of participants’ competitors and various digital media channels to see what works and what does not. The course will also cover the process of carrying out product governance, the structures that businesses need to have in place to meet the regulators’ objectives.

ΣΚΟΠΟΣ ΣΕΜΙΝΑΡΙΟΥ

• apply the rules contained in MiFID 2 and Article 44 of MiFID Org Regulation to all types promotions
• appreciate the role played in advertising by the Cyprus Advertising Regulation Organization’s Code, ordinary law and good taste
• identify an image advert or non-promotional communication
• disclose risks involved in investments
• understand the core systems and controls and risk management needed for financial promotions
• identify the key elements of product governance work and the MiFID rules on the subject
• decide when to carry out an appropriateness test
• determine how to carry out an appropriateness test
• deal with negative or incomplete results of such a test

ΣΕ ΠΟΙΟΥΣ ΑΠΕΥΘΥΝΕΤΑΙ

The programme will benefit those who need to know and understand the Product Governance, Suitability Assessment and Independent vs Non-Independent Investment Advice framework and will be of particular benefit to:

• Product Development Staff and Technical specialists involved in product development
  
• Compliance Officers and Staff
• Sales, Marketing and Business Development Executives and Staff
• Customer Relations and Customer Service Staff
• Risk Managers
• Internal Lawyers
• External Lawyers
• Financial Consultants
• Any person who provides investment services

ΠΕΡΙΣΣΟΤΕΡΕΣ ΠΛΗΡΟΦΟΡΙΕΣ

Training Outline

Introduction

• Materials covered
• Definition of a promotion
• MiFID Principles
• Article 44 rules on financial promotions
• Examples of the law, good taste, internal procedures and the application of the Advertising Code away from MiFID

MiFID 2 and Article 44

• Image adverts
• Fair, clear and not misleading
• Disclosure generally and risks
• CFD risk warnings
• Meaning of prominence
• Comparisons, pricing claims and tax
• Past, simulated and future performance

Digital media

• Particular promotional issues with social media
• Search engine optimisation
• Websites
• Disclosing how to complain
• Other internet issues as requested
• Dealing with customer reactions online including identifying complaints

Product governance basics

• Identification of the target market
• Designing products
• Stress testing
• Determining distribution methods
• Supplying material to intermediaries and customers
• Ongoing review

Governance and systems for financial promotions, digital media and product governance

• Governance
• Risk management
• Records
• Product management information

Appropriateness

• When appropriateness testing is required
• Meaning of non-advised and products covered
• Questioning and methods
• Risk warnings and their impact on whether to accept business
• Record-keeping

Training Style

This programme consists of an interactive presentation of the relevant rules and good practice with questions and comments to and from the participants, interrupted by a large number of practical examples, including views of historic and current promotions and customer interactions with firms on social media.

Trainer

Adam Samuel

Adam Samuel is a lawyer qualified in the UK and the USA. Since 1996, Adam has run his own training and consulting business, helping out regulators in three continents on customer-facing issues. He has the qualifications required of a financial, mortgage and equity release adviser and the UK CISI compliance diploma. Adam wrote the only book on consumer financial services complaint handling in the UK and a guide to the SFC Code for Intermediaries in Hong Kong. The Gibraltar Supreme Court followed his expert evidence in van Geens v. Jyske Bank on product risk, compliance and advice standards around the world. Adam has broadcast on a number of BBC domestic and World Service programmes, including the national news, on financial services compliance and banking issues.