Thousands of staff covered by the FSA are at risk of imprisonment or heavy fines due to unknowingly breaching regulatory laws covering their work, claimed a survey.
The 2004 Wide Learning Survey of Financial Services Competence Training revealed that 11% of respondents did not realise they fell under the jurisdiction of the FSA, although this figure showed a marked improvement from the 33% who were unaware of the FSA’s jurisdiction two years ago.
The survey also revealed that 28% of respondents were unsure of their regulatory duties, while 27% said they felt they did not have enough compliance training.
Of the manager surveyed, 23% did not know who their money laundering reporting officer was. While this is better than the 34% in 2002, Wide Learning said many staff were in danger of breaching procedure rules.
Overall, 21% of respondents said they had never received any compliance training, a slight improvement on the 29% who had not been trained in 2002, said Wide Learning.
A further 16% of respondents said they had received very little compliance training, which Wide Learning said left many companies hugely exposed to penalties from the FSA.
Of those who had received compliance training, the survey revealed that 185 has not received training in the past two years, and 37% had never been on a refresher course.
Wide Learning chief executive, Steve Dineen, said: “Considering the number of companies suffering heavy fines and even an individual receiving a prison sentence, and allowing for the increasing status of the FSA, it is very surprising that so many staff still cannot answer these key questions and have not yet been trained.
“We were certainly expecting a greater improvement over the past two years.
“The lack of refresher and continual training is also a concern. If staff are out of date, the authority and security of the market will be undermined and, with it, customer confidence.
He added: “It seems to be easy to breach the regulations unwillingly and the FSA is acting powerfully with little flexibility.
“Senior management, compliance managers and training teams should be reassessing who they have trained and whether some people need to be updated.
“With high-quality e-learning readily available, it is in the interests of organisations to ensure that all staff are trained and up to date in their knowledge and understanding of the legislation.
