Simon Culhane, CEO of the CISI: “You achieve trust when customers see that their agents work professionally and ethically.”

In 2009, a year after the start of the financial crisis, the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment (CISI) was founded in London by means of a charter signed by Queen Elizabeth II. The Royal Charter is a special privilege in the United Kingdom, set aside for institutions that work in the public interest. As such, the CISI became a pioneer organisation for certifying and promoting professional expertise for financial advisors and for generating trust in the financial sector.

Now, the CISI provides financial consultancy certification, which is recognised in 45 countries, which proves that anyone who can pass the rigorous exam is able to provide excellent financial consultancy services.

The MiFID II framework coming into force in January 2018 means that it is highly important that banking agents have the right level of training and that they have a certificate to prove this. CaixaBank was the first financial institution in Spain to offer its employees access to the CISI certification, by completing the university course created by the Pompeu Fabra University-Barcelona School of Management especially for CaixaBank employees. To date, more than 7,000 agents working for the Institution have been awarded CISI certification. CaixaBank, the CISI and the Pompeu Fabra University have already extended their collaboration agreement until 2019 to get a further 1,500 professionals certified.

Since CISI CEO, Simon Culhane, was visiting Barcelona, we took the opportunity to speak to this professional banker with an outstanding career in international banking institutions, such as Deutsche Bank and Lloyds as well as political experience as a member of the Prime Minister’s Efficiency Unit under John Major and Tony Blair.

Why do the new regulations of financial advice place so much importance on training?

As a result of the financial crisis, society has lost trust in financial institutions. One of the goals of MiFID II is to raise the bar for professionalism in the sector and win back the public’s trust.

From left to right: Simon Culhane, CEO of the CISI; Francesc Xavier Coll, CEO of CaixaBank and the Human Resources and Organisation Director; and Carme Martinell, CEO of the Pompeu Fabra University - Barcelona School of Management.

How should we go about doing this?

Professionalism for a bank employee can be defined by three factors: knowledge, skills and integrity, and the customer must be aware of all of them. You achieve trust when customers see that their agents are working in the right way both professionally and ethically.

Do you think that it will be a long time before we can say that the public’s trust has been won back?

Not at all. In fact, it’s already happening and I’m not the only one saying it, the European Central Bank is as well. Anyway, there’s a saying in English that goes: “Trust arrives on foot but leaves on horseback.” It’s going to be a slow process.

The CISI is thought to be one of the most important financial training certifications in the world. Why is that?

Mainly because of our credibility and international recognition. The CISI certification has been validated in 45 countries, which means that employees awarded the certificate can easily work in other jurisdictions

What has been the key for achieving this creditability and standing out among other forms of certification in the sector?

One of the secrets is our collaborators who help us to create the exams and write the questions. We have support from around 350 financial advisors, all of them still working in the sector. Most of them are based in London, but we are getting more and more volunteers in from around the world.

What does a financial adviser need to do to pass the CISI exam?

The same thing as with any other exam: study! It’s not just about focussing on the theory because there’s also a practical part that needs to be worked on, which, in light of the new regulations, is hugely important.

The CISI was a pioneer organisation in introducing ethical matters into financial training. Is it possible to measure ethics?

No, it’s very complicated. What we have is a questionnaire made up of 500 questions in which moving on to the next question depends on how you respond to the previous one. You can’t give a score or certificate to show that someone is more ethical than other people, but we can check that they know the difference between right and wrong.

Are there differences in how countries understand ethics?

We provide a seminar on ethics in banks around the world and most people have a good grasp of the fact that they need to be clear and transparent. Though there are differences that, in my opinion, are due to the salary structures. In Europe a bonus is added on to your salary but in the States a bonus multiplies your salary, sometimes up to amounts well above the base salary. This system sometimes drives people to the edge of ethics.