Senior managers working in the regulated finance industry in the UK can now access online training courses for SMCR through e-learning. 

With many regulated firms suffering a slowdown due to covid-19, those working remotely can still become fully trained and up-to-date with the latest Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) compliance practices and requirements. 

A new e-learning platform called SMCR Compliance has devised a series of four interactive CPD-accredited e-learning courses, starting from £36.00 per course.  

The SMCR (Senior Managers and Compliance Regime) was introduced in 2016 for a small number of financial institutions, such as banks, and was extended to cover almost 60,000 FCA regulated entities on 19th December 2019. This new regulation emerged following the financial crisis of 2008 where firms and individuals suffered huge losses, but regulators were unable to associate the decisions on specific individuals or personnel of an organisation.   

With accountability at the forefront of the new regime, the SMCR is designed to hold senior managers and any other staff responsible for any financial investments and transactions, especially when exposed to large risks. 

Compliance and senior managers of certain FCA-regulated organisations can watch and learn through training courses which cover: 

  1. SMCR Overview 
  2. SMC Senior Manager’s Regime 
  3. SMCR Certification Regime 
  4. SMCR Conduct Rules 

All courses stream online and can be watched, paused and picked up at the user’s convenience, followed by questions to assess their understanding and knowledge of the course’s content. Users are issued with a downloadable CPD-accredited course certificate upon completion. 

The SMCR regime applies at all levels within a financial institution, or an entity providing financial services. The Senior Managers Regime is designed to improve accountability at the top level. The Certification Regime requires certain key employees to be vetted at least annually to ensure they are fit and proper and stay on the right side of regulation. The Conduct Rules is a newly introduced code of conduct for the financial services industry that applies to employees across the board. 

Users can also access a free demo course that takes just 15 minutes to be complete, for a tangible experience of the content and user-experience of the courses.