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Meeting the needs of the IDD
We’re now halfway through 2021. Are you up to date with your CPD requirements? The Insurance Distribution Directive (IDD) continues to apply to all staff involved in insurance distribution – including those responsible for supervising or managing such activities.
The European Commission defines insurance distribution as “to sell, propose to sell, advise on or prepare in any other way the conclusion of insurance contracts. It also covers sales of insurance products through websites, including comparison websites if they allow concluding an insurance contract.”
Part of the requirements of the IDD are that staff need to complete a minimum of 15 hours of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) each year. This is a regulatory requirement and is something that the FCA is monitoring closely. During the coronavirus pandemic, the regulator expects firms to continue to demonstrate that relevant individuals remain competent to carry out their work.
As a reminder, the eight key themes that run through the IDD, and must be covered, are:
- minimum necessary knowledge of terms and conditions of policies offered, including ancillary risks covered by such policies;
- minimum necessary knowledge of applicable laws governing the distribution of insurance products, such as consumer protection law, relevant tax law and relevant social and labour law;
- minimum necessary knowledge of claims handling;
- minimum necessary knowledge of complaints handling;
- minimum necessary knowledge of assessing customer needs;
- minimum necessary knowledge of the insurance market;
- minimum necessary knowledge of business ethics standards; and
- minimum necessary financial competence.
Because the requirements relate to your knowledge and skills and the role that you have, they will be slightly different for you when compared to other people in your firm or even to others that perform the same/similar role to you. CPD is personal.
Understandably the Covid-19 pandemic will have turned most of our working lives upside down, but training and development remains an important consideration. Many of us have had to change our roles or the way we work, as well as assessing the impact of the pandemic on our clients – as such, upskilling and training matters. Now more than ever, professional and personal development should be prioritised.
Over the following weeks, we will publish a series of articles focusing on CPD and learning and development requirements for firms.
If you need any help with the above, please get in touch with your RWA Business Manager. You can also contact the RWA team via the helpdesk on 01604 709509 or helpdesk@rwagroup.co.uk.