The Financial Services Training College (FSTC) is breaking into the mortgage market with the launch of Ensure; a web-based training and competence (T&C) system.
The system is available to those in the life and pensions industry and the expansion plans are a result of the impending statutory regulation by the Financial Services Authority (FSA).
Ensure will offer users automatic reminders and suggestions for remedial action, as well as notifying managers of necessary action requirements to keep core competencies up to date. Its functions include one-off assessments, an indelible audit trail and access to ‘knowledge bank’ questions.
Paul Trew, executive director at the FSTC, said: “It is a highly flexible system. Firms can add specific questions to the system and it can cope with multi-sector enquiries. A number of large networks are already using it and we are close to finalising deals with another four.”
Although the FSA will not endorse any T&C system, the website includes a comment from Professor David Jackman, head of industry training and business ethics at the FSA, which stops just short of an endorsement.
Commenting, James Mayne, director of compliance services at rival firm Competent Adviser, said: “Competition is good news. So much time is devoted to the sales process that there is little left for anything else, so online propositions are one of the most efficient ways of ensuring that advisers get access to training and competence testing.”
