Financial Promotions Workshop – Suitable for All Regulated Firms

Our financial promotions workshop trainer comes from a highly successful, long and varied “fast track” career in Lloyds Bank which led him to very senior management positions at an early age. He was then “head hunted” to join a merchant bank to head the risk function at the main board director level. He now has over 40 years of experience in the UK banking and financial services sector.

He has been a freelance Compliance, FCC & AML training consultant since retiring and is currently an external Master Trainer at both HSBC and Bank of China. At HSBC he has been a leading member of their Global FCC & AML training programme and a Risk Management Programme for senior managers. He has created and delivered training to a vast range of clients, from global giants to small firms and partnerships. He is an accomplished global trainer and has delivered extensive programmes in the UK, USA, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

He is comfortable training at any level of seniority and experience from “black belts” downwards.  His expertise includes but is not limited to Risk Management, Trade Finance, Regulatory Compliance, FCC & AML and all aspects of Corporate, Private and retail Banking. He can deliver soft skills training, including training the trainer.

• Keep up to date with the latest news and thoughts on this topic.
• Explain why financial promotions order matters and why there is so much focus on this area.
• Understand the rules and be able to follow both the letter and the spirit of FCA guidelines.
• Create powerful promotions that are capable of selling products appropriately.
• Understand the approval process and the need for clear internal instructions, guidelines and processes.
• Recognise the significance and importance of the brand or image advertising and how and when this should be used in preference.
• Consider some topical and selective practice guidance publications (Thematic Reviews) and their impact on FPs.
• Be aware of the impact of the Advertising Standards Authority on FPs.
• Become familiar with the “rules” of financial promotions and exceptions.
• Consider the rules from your organisation’s perspective, COBS 4 & or CONC 3 Know the difference between Real-Time Financial Promotion and Non-Real Time Financial promotions and what this distinction means in practice.
• Understand the responsibilities of intermediaries, brokers and other third parties.
• How to approve a Financial Promotion from start to finish.
• Have in place an effective review process.
• Expand the understanding of record keeping including time periods, recording communications and FP records requirements.
• Learn about financial promotions FCA using new media – probably the key marketing media for most firms.
• Gain insight into prominence and financial promotions by looking at the thematic review and the guidance in CONC3.
• Consider numerous examples and case studies to understand what good and bad look like.

• We regularly update the course to include the latest developments including ESG, Crypto Assets and the imminent Consumer Principle 12. There is a lot of fine-tuning of financial promotions at present.
• We have been delivering this training for many years and we have been fortunate enough to train different sized organisations from different sectors of the financial community. As such we are certain we understand the underlying principles fully for regulated firms of all types.
• We are completely up-to-date with FCA's current thinking.
• We are aware that recent FCA work has combined complaints handling with financial promotions with an expectation – not always met - that a root cause analysis should result in joined-up thinking and processes in these two critical areas.
• We realise that FCA guidance on web-based promotions is now stale. Fortunately, we have been able to discuss this in-depth with many regulated firms and we believe we can add value by sharing collective views on dealing with the regulatory gaps.
• We do not use academics to deliver this workshop. We prefer hands-on, highly experienced practitioners who reached top management levels during their careers and have real experience in managing risks.
• This financial promotions training is aimed at the practitioner and uses a commercial approach, where applicable. We emphasise the critical need to ensure promotions are fully compliant – that must always be the case - but we remind delegates that promotions must still be appealing enough for the front line to sell the underlying products on our behalf.
• We use real-life examples and interesting case studies that illustrate the key points.
• Feedback received from previous delegates has always been excellent.

Our financial promotions training course is a ‘must know’ for:

• All staff who work with financial promotions – whether as a product marketeer/creator or a compliance advisor/overseer.
• Staff in product marketing and/or product governance.
• Staff engaged in the new Principle 12 Consumer Duty.
• Senior Managers and Team Leaders seeking to gain a better understanding of their responsibilities in this area.
• Compliance and risk Officers who want to learn more about the risks and rewards involved.
• All frontline and other staff operating in a financial firm selling regulated products, who either need to know more about this topic or would like to refresh their skills.

Financial Promotions remain a very high-profile issue for the FCA. Based on client feedback, they are increasingly combining this with reviews of complaints handling procedures to ensure a joined-up process when it comes to marketing financial products to retail clients. Complaints are seen by the regulator as feedback from the client that something is wrong. Any lessons learned as a result must be fed through to the financial promotions team.

Financial promotions are how customers are persuaded to buy, invest or use regulated financial products. For retail clients, it is important to remember the FCA guidance. The firm promoting the regulated product or service knows all about the product, its suitability, its strengths and weaknesses and whether it meets the needs of the applicant. The applicant/client does not have this knowledge (normally!) and it is entirely reasonable for the FCA to expect all regulated firms to recognise this imbalance and manage it accordingly.

Increasingly, social media and the internet are becoming key marketing platforms. But promotion can be in almost any form via any media. All promotions must be clear, fair, and not misleading, and in many cases, this means exercising judgement. Since the FCA took over consumer finance, the list of products, investments and services that are now regulated by the FCA financial promotions rules is wider than ever. The FCA expects all financial promotions for regulated activities to provide the prospective client with the information needed to make a clear and balanced judgement.

Our financial promotions training course provides participants with a comprehensive overview of the FCA approach and how it applies in practice. We cover the handling of complaints briefly in the context of the expected impact on promotions. We look at new media, prominence, and image advertising, as well as good and bad practices, including exceptions to the rules. There are examples of good and bad practices and the course points out some common pitfalls to be avoided.

Please Note: if requested in advance there is the option to add some specialised modules such as MCOB 3/ Funeral Plans / Claim Handling / Leveraged Products. Motor Finance/Funeral Plans etc.