The UK's Financial Conduct Authority has made its guidelines that force financial advisors to pursue Continuing Professional Development (CPD) less onerous because of the current pandemic.

During the present situation the FCA will temporarily allow firms to let people in exceptional circumstances carry over any uncompleted CPD hours to the next CPD year, i.e. the next 12-month period in which to complete the relevant CPD. This applies to CPD years ending before 1 April 2021.

A firm can allow this when someone, due to the current exceptional circumstances, is not able to complete his CPD hours in his current CPD period. He must then complete the carried-over CPD hours by the end of the next CPD period. The FCA will treat the carried-over hours as part of the required CPD hours of that next CPD year on top of the hours already required.

For example, if an advisor who is required to complete a minimum of 35 hours of CPD has completed 25 CPD hours and has two months left of the CPD year in which he finds himself, the firm may allow him to transfer 10 hours to his next CPD year. This means that in the next CPD year the advisor will have to complete 45 CPD hours. This can be structured and/or unstructured learning, depending on the make-up of the outstanding CPD.

It has written: "We expect firms to continue to demonstrate that relevant individuals remain competent to carry out their work. This includes employees as referred to in the Training and Competence sourcebook and employees carrying on insurance distribution activities as referred to in SYSC 28.2 and TC 4.2. Effective and consistent CPD is an essential part of this. But in these exceptional circumstances we are also allowing firms to defer individuals’ CPD to the next CPD year."

Keith Richards, the chief executive of the Personal Finance Society, told Compliance Matters: “We welcome this further acknowledgement from the FCA that some advisors will have genuine difficulties completing CPD. It also means that we don’t have to heap further unnecessary pressure on individuals, just because the rules weren’t written for a pandemic. I am pleased to say that the majority [of advisors] exceed the minimum hours required annually.

“Advisors who do need to defer CPD compliance into 2021 need to bear in mind that they must make up any gap for 2020 during 2021.”