Today Compliance Matters talks briefly to Ruth Martin, the CEO of one of the largest 'accredited bodies' in the UK.

Ruth Martin is the managing director of the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (CISI), a  large 'accredited body' or AB in the UK which has the job of training and accrediting retail investment advisors with the statements of professional standing (SPSs) that they now need if they are to practise in accordance with the Retail Distribution Review.

Q: Where does FCA rule-making end and your rule-making begin? Does the CISI impose some extra-stringent standards of its own on the people it trains/accredits that go above and beyond the FCA's criteria?

A: One of the things about being an AB is that when we are regulated, the FCA sets down the fundamental parameters of that regulatory relationship. For SPSs, we have to make sure that people we issue them to are entitled to have them. The SPSs have to be valid and meaningful. We try as hard as we can to align what we do as the AB with what we do as a professional body that provides people with a charter and a chartered nomenclature. We expect people to declare if they've had a disciplinary issue over the last 15 months. We can add a flavour to it all.

We try not to expect of our members anything more rigorous than what the regulator expects. But we exercise the right to demand a high level of evidence for things. When we're accrediting CPD (i.e. awarding qualifications to people for attaining 'continual professional development', an amalgam of logged experiences and things learnt), it's no use them telling us 'I've done it all!' We expect to see evidence that they've done it all. They have to produce evidence to show that they've attended a conference.

Q: Why do it? Why go to the bother of being an AB? What's in it for you?

A: I think it's important to be able to undertake roles that a regulator needs to be undertaken in the area. If it [the regulator] needs professionalism, we are a professional body and should support the growth of professionalism. We show that our way of undertaking that professionalism is in line with what the regulator thinks. It makes us look like a serious body.

Q: So part of your decision to be an AB is that 'duty calls' and part of it is that you agree with what the regulator is doing and that's why you want to help it?

A: We don't agree with the regulator on everything, not at all. The vision of professionalism is what we agree with. We're flying the flag for professional standards. Whenever they do a consultation and we have an opinion, we're very open about it.

* There are eight ABs in the UK. Besides the CISI, they are: the CFA Society of the UK; the Chartered Institute of Bankers in Scotland; the Chartered Insurance Institute, which is the biggest; the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales; the Institute of Financial Planning; the Institute of Financial Services; and the Pensions Management Institute. So far, the CISI has handed out SPSs to 6,320 people for passing its tests, a figure that does not include renewals.