Autorité Des Marchés Financiers: Professional Certification Of Regulatory Knowledge For Market Professionals: Financial Skills Certification Board Established

Following the introduction of a system to certify the regulatory knowledge of market professionals, the Financial Skills Certification Board (FSCB) has held its first meeting. The board's ten members, appointed by the AMF after consulting with industry groups, appointed Jean-Pierre Pinatton as chairman and adopted a work programme.

Work programme

The procedure whereby investment services providers verify the professional knowledge of their employe wiesll come into effect on 1 July 2010. To allow financial institutions and training organisations to make the necessary preparations, the FSCB has set itself a deadline of first-half 2009 for advising the AMF on core knowledge requirements and the conditions for certifying examinations.

The first phase of the FSCB's work programme will consist in:

determining the content of the minimum body of core knowledge (scope, scoring weights for test items, etc.);
drawing up terms of reference for organisations wishing to prepare examinations and submit them for certification.

An operational committee composed of experts in regulatory training and professional examinations will assist the FSCB during this first phase.

Applications to certify examinations can in principle be made during the second phase, starting in September 2009.

Remit of the FSCB

The FSCB is tasked with advising the AMF on determining both the content of the minimum knowledge corpus needed by employees in key posts (trader, salesman, investment analyst, asset manager, head of clearing and post-trade services, and compliance officer) and the practical conditions for certifying examinations.

Composition

Chairman:

Jean-Pierre Pinatton, AMF Board member

Members:

Vincent Bazi, certified investment analyst, head of equity management, Nextstage SAS
Frédéric Bompaire, Vice President, BFT Gestion, a Crédit Agricole Group asset management company
Alain Closier, Global Head, Société Générale Securities Services
Denis Dubois, Professor, CNAM
Jean-Luc Enguehard, Chairman, Banque Postale Asset Management
Michel Fleuriet, Former Chairman, HSBC France; Professor, Paris Dauphine University
Christian Hodara, Compliance Officer, Goldman Sachs
Vivien Levy Garboua, Head of Compliance and Internal Control Coordinator, BNP Paribas
Bruno Pierard, Executive Vice President, Financière d'Uzès

Members are appointed for a renewable three-year term.