An interview with Lydia Romero, the CISI’s Global Director of Learning, on the importance of keeping up to date and integrating ethics with qualifications
The entry into force of the new Markets in Financial Instruments Directive, known as MiFID II, will impose stricter regulations on banks. Some Spanish banks have already started working to meet the new standards of transparency and integrity.
To help achieve this objective, representatives from the CISI recently travelled to Madrid with the aim of evaluating and qualifying the knowledge of professionals in the finance industry.
The CISI encourages professionals in the industry to not only focus on obtaining a certificate, but to also keep informed of current and future regulations in order to adapt to changes.
In an interview with news agency EFE, Lydia Romero (pictured right), the CISI’s Global Director of Learning, explained that bankers receive 35 hours of continuous professional development (CPD) training per year and undergo a variety of tests. They are also required to sign a code of conduct.
Lydia says that when the new Directive comes into force, it will be vitally important that client-facing bank employees are well qualified and aware of the latest developments.
"They must be constantly learning," she noted.
These challenges that the European markets will face in the coming years, and thus the Spanish banks, are already happening in the UK, where legislation obliges the bank employees to maintain a continuing training.
But Lydia says this does not mean that UK banks are "more advanced" but that they have already gone through the process and already have that experience, while "ten years ago banks in England thought they did not need anything and they used to do what they wanted."
For now, the CISI, which arrived in Barcelona in November 2015 and which will open offices in Madrid, has only given advice in Spain to CaixaBank, Bantierra and Laboral Kutxa, although it is in conversation with "very large Spanish banks with international presence" to work on the certification process.
The task of improving the image of banks and regaining the trust of customers, especially after a crisis and scandals like those of current times, is "very difficult and can take more than ten years," said Lydia.
“There is a big job to be done because there have been many years of distress and there is no other way out; if banks want to succeed and overcome the current situation they have to do their best."
To achieve these objectives, it is necessary to "have a plan" because, says Lydia, "the changes will not happen tomorrow.
"Everything has to do with qualifications and development, with competence and integrity, and you have to put these things into the heart of the bank to have them circulate to all employees", says Lydia.
The interview was conducted by Spanish news agency EFE, and was originally published in Spanish publication Expansión.