SMCRCompliance was set up by a team of compliance lawyers to help companies get ready for upcoming regulation in the financial services industry. The website offers 4 e-learning courses, starting from just £30.00 and provides a CPD certification upon completion.

Managers working in the UK’s financial industry have been under pressure to get their staff compliant for Senior Managers & Certification Regime, or known as SMCR for short

SMCR was set up to hold senior managers accountable for any large decisions relating to finances, investments or transactions, that could potentially put their clients at risk.

Following the credit crisis of 2008, where people lost huge sums through investments and bonds, many senior managers were able to slip through the net and continued trading without taking responsibility or accountability for the losses. The SMCR regime was set up to overcome this, putting senior managers at the front of their decisions and understanding that they hold a level of accountability for the positives, but also any potential negatives.

The Certification Regime requires certain key employees to be vetted ever year to ensure they are fit to act and can work according to regulatory requirements. With the regime, there are ‘The Conduct Rules’ which is a newly introduced code of conduct for the financial services industry that applies to employees across the board. 

The initial deadline was the 19th December 2020 for the 60,000 regulated firms in the UK to be up-to-speed with SMCR practices, but this has recently been postponed to the 21st March 2021, giving managers more time to prepare due to interruptions caused by covid-19.

The training courses available from SMCRCompliance.com are aimed to be used by limited scope firms, core firms and enhanced firms.

The average course runs from 25 to 45 minutes and can be paused, stopped or restarted at any point, with some questions at the end of each to check how much information has been retained by the user.

A free demo course and learning version is available, allowing HR managers or other senior staff to try out the course before rolling it out across their organisation. 

The course is the first online proposition for SMCR training to be released in the UK – and is it something compulsory for all senior members to complete by 21st March 2021 if they wish to continue operating in a regulated environment.