To celebrate the achievements of our United Arab Emirates exam candidates and to recognise academic excellence, the CISI is hosting its inaugural awards ceremony, confirming the Institute’s global standing

View the photos from the dinner here.

Christoher Jones-Warner produced an excellent talk on effective client communication, clarifying among many other wonderful points, how the manner in which we listen affects what is said. Harry Walker, from Dimensional, spoke with great clarity about Cialdini's Science of Persuasion, and, if delivered with integrity, how it can provide a fast track to an effective relationship. Both speakers during 'questions' supported the view that good communication leads to a significantly more profitable firm.

Harry kindly gave us a video link to Ciadini's findings here.

Next CPD event 27th April: JP Morgan in their 'Long Term Market Assumptions' says that to achieve higher returns investors will consider investing more in emerging markets and alternatives. We are holding the only 3 hour event for the West Country in 2017, to hear from two speakers, and then look interactively at asset allocation solutions, incorporating higher allocations to 'e/m' and 'alternatives', and also paying attention to the effect of tax reliefs, in the new markets. If you want to join, and pose your questions, book your seat!

Top performing CISI exam achievers were recognised at the Scotland branch’s principle social occasion of the year, which also raised £1,543.75 for Action for Children

Read the full article in the online Review.

The CISI Southern branch enjoyed an excellent and inspiring presentation from Jonathan Lucas of Elstead Lighting Limited on the evening of 13 December, as well as the opportunity to socialise over drinks and canapés afterwards. The CISI kindly allowed a collection for a local charity, Headway Surrey, during the evening. Headway Surrey provides support and services across Surrey for those affected by brain injury and for their families. Close on £60.00 was donated, and we would like to express our sincere thanks to all those who donated so generously.

More detail on the work of Headway Surrey can be found at www.headwaysurrey.org

We wish you all a great Christmas and, of course, a very prosperous New Year!

November 2016

CISI Education – “Griff on Tour”  

10^th & 15^th November 2016

Anne Chisholm, Regional Education Development Liaison, started the month with a visit to Maricourt Catholic High on the 10^th November followed by Cardinal Hennan Catholic High school on the 15^th.  Anne got the chance to speak to both students and teachers about the career opportunities the financial industry has to offer young people in the region. Anne also discussed CISI qualifications and the educational support CISI provides to students to assist them in achieving their career goals.

CISI CPD Event 1– Credit Markets and the Murky World of Interest Rate Policy

22^nd  November 2016

On the 22^nd of November we saw a full house at Rathbones for our CPD event centred around credit markets and interest rate policy.  Noelle Cazalis, fund manager and credit analyst from Rathbones, provided a detailed account of recent bond market activities and the impact of interest rate rises on the US, UK and European markets.

CISI CPD Event 2 – Half day North Wales CPD seminar

30^th November 2016

We ended the month with a half-day CPD seminar, held at Glyndwr University campus, St Asaph, Wales. We were delighted to have a mixed variety of investment management and financial planning related speakers. The morning session covered a number of relevant subjects including International Investment risk post Brexit and IHT tax planning and tax liabilities on trusts.

The event was a great success and we look forward to organising and hosting a similar event in 2017.

CISI Social – Reminder - Branch Christmas Drinks Reception

15^th December 2016

If you haven’t already, don’t forget to sign up to our 2016 Christmas Drinks reception. We look forward to celebrating all the hard work of 2016 with food and drinks at the Doubletree by Hilton Hotel. Our charity partner this year is the wonderful, Children Cancer Support Group CHICS.

WE LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING YOU THERE.

Charity Auction!

We are delighted to announce that we will be auctioning off a signed Liverpool FC team photograph and a signed Everton FC football on the evening of the drinks, to raise money for CHICS. The Children’s Cancer Support Group provides support and information for parents of children with cancer. For those of you wishing to make an initial sealed bid, ahead of Thursday’s event, please get in touch with Branch President, James Charlton, Chartered FCSI, who can be reached on James.Charlton@Tilney.co.uk.

Our world is changing. 2016 has been a momentous year and in our world of money and money management, change is never far away. This is nothing new, but what is new is the real need to be involved with the professional organisations that you belong to. You need them, they need you and our regulators want to know that we are together truly engaged in ensuring that great (and ever improving) consumer outcomes are at the forefront of our actions now and our ambitions for the future. This applies to you, your business, your colleagues, your competitors, to us all!

As we, our profession, and the CISI ever evolve, so do the requirements for CPD from April next year. As you will see below, being involved now has never been more important:

• Mandatory annual CPD requirement for ALL CISI members (excluding students) of 10 hours, of which 6 hours minimum to be structured, with 10%  (one hour being in the topics of Regulation, Risk and Integrity and Ethics.  Members will be required to declare their CPD annually on the CISI self-declare scheme.

• Whilst there are changes to the CPD requirements for SPS holders, Certified Financial Planners, Chartered members or members looking to become individually Chartered they are less significant.  These categories of members will continue to be required to complete 35 hours of CPD (21 structured, 14 unstructured), but with 10% (3.5 hours) in Regulation, Risk and Integrity and Ethics – Members will continue to be required to record their CPD on the CISI CPD scheme and reflect on their learning objectives and outcomes. The requirement for Chartered Members to complete one hour of ‘Developing Others’ will no longer be mandatory.

• All ‘existing’ members who will have joined the CISI before or on the 31^st March 2017, will need to ensure they meet the new mandatory CPD requirement by successfully completing one year of CPD by the 31 March 2019.

• All new members who join the CISI on or after the 1^st April 2017 will be required to meet the CPD requirements set by the CISI on an annual basis to maintain their membership.

I appreciate that CPD is not the most exciting of subjects, but one simple way of achieving huge inroads into these updated requirements is to attend CISI events in your Southern region. We need you, you need us…or am I repeating myself?

Join us soon, bring your fellow colleagues, and be involved. We hope to inspire and to be inspired!

See you soon.

Keith G Churchouse BA (Hons), FPFS

Chartered Financial Planner

CFP Chartered FCSI

ISO 22222 Certified

Peter Lucas is the current regional President and has been on the committee for almost three years.  When he assuming his role he cited three main objectives: breathing new life into the Annual Dinner, improving the experience of members at CPD events, and encouraging more local schools to include CISI qualifications in their timetables.  Halfway through his term of office, he is most satisfied with the progress made with the Annual Dinner.  The 2016 event was widely acclaimed a success, but Peter is looking to taking things up a notch in 2017.  In particular, he is keen to broaden the demographic of the event and in that vein, is pleased that, for the first time in many years, the speaker will be a female comedienne, in the form of Holly Walsh.  

Zena Whiteley is currently the Vice President and is the longest standing committee member, having been on the committee since 2009. Zena has held the position of Social Officer for the last seven years and for the last three years has taken on the additional responsibility of CPD officer role. This role is responsible for researching, planning and implementing the CISI CPD programme, with the objective to support the provision of CPD opportunities and networking events for the CISI Jersey members.

Paul Clohesy has recently joined the committee as CPD Officer and is looking forward to continuing the good work of arranging the many locally held seminars which CISI members find so useful. Paul is also very interested in supporting the current initiatives such as promotion of the CISI qualifications to a wider audience and in particular the local student population.  

Claire Graves has been on the CISI Jersey committee for four years in the position of Sponsorship Officer. Claire’s role is to interact with local firms and secure sponsorship for the Jersey branch annual dinner. This event was extremely popular and well attended last year, and Claire is hoping the numbers continue to grow in 2017. 

Niall Husbands joined the CISI Jersey Committee in 2015, taking on the role of Treasurer at the start of 2016. In addition to ensuring that there is sufficient funding for the increasingly well attended CPD events as well as for the for the Social  and Networking events, Niall is keen to support the CISI's objectives of promoting knowledge and standards about the securities and investments industry within Jersey.

David Joshua joined the CISI Committee in 2015 and holds the position of Education Officer. David is in the process of setting up an engagement day with local schools, where industry professionals will work with school leavers to bring the investment profession to life, and provide an insight into what a career in finance is like. 

Ed Loader has been on the CISI Jersey committee for just over two years and held the position of Press Liaison officer for a year. Ed’s role is to engage with the local membership and promote awareness of the CISI in Jersey through social media, the CISI’s website and the local press. In the next year, he hopes the membership of CISI Jersey Branch’s LinkedIn group continues to grow and would love to hear feedback from CISI members. 

Rholo Mba is one of the newest members of the committee and is excited at the prospect of being able to inject some youthful enthusiasm into the running of the Institute on the island.

CPD seminars are very well attended with the focus on presentations given by leading industry practitioners, which are timely, topical and relevant to the needs of the members.  We will continue to hold events of this quality in 2017 and we encourage you to let us know, through your CISI representative Deirdre.heffernan@cisi.org or your committee, possible CPD topics.

The presentation by Greg B. Davies was recorded for CISI TV and can now be viewed by clicking here.  A short learning test accompanies the video.

Greg was also interviewed by Vincent Wall at Newstalk for Business Breakfast on 3rd December, while he was in Dublin and the Irish Times printed an article on the topic on 30th November.

The end of tertiary education seems a distant memory. A blessing for some, and a bind for some others who perhaps fear change and the unknown.

But change is usually good (as long as it is embraced), although it can come from unforeseen directions, with legislation being a good example. And you will be well aware that legislation and UK financial services are never far away from each other.

I find it a little depressing when you look at the adviser numbers revealed by the FCA in 2016 that demonstrated that the number of authorised UK individuals fell from their highs pre-2006 of around 105,710 (as of 01 January 2006) to the level of around 29,144 (at 11 February 2016). More detail can be found here: https://www.ftadviser.com/2016/05/18/regulation/adviser-cull-since-a-day-creates-lost-decade-of-advice-uO51r5ECr43yg2z1e9vV8H/article.html

So where does this leave us? Well, the word ‘opportunity’ springs to mind for a start! Sure, it will take time for adviser numbers to increase and some might argue that there are still threats to this market in the form of ‘robo-adviser’ arrangements. We disagree, seeing this as further opportunity for our profession to evolve a stage further as client needs - and possibly more importantly expectations - increase. Technology will help this progression as individuals seek to have greater understanding of their personal and business funds and this change is being experienced by advisers and investment managers alike. This change is to be embraced as we move into the ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution’, as the World Economic Forum has described the technological revolution that it expects to fundamentally alter our world (more here: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/01/the-fourth-industrial-revolution-what-it-means-and-how-to-respond/ ).

We need to consider whether this transformative opportunity is for us to engage with and benefit from. I am sure we will – however, it is the younger generations who will be the driving force behind the coming changes and who deserve to benefit most. How can we help this evolution? We can start by engaging with younger generations by bringing them into the work place through accredited Apprenticeship programmes.

We are pleased to have recently recruited an Apprentice, Sam Bell, direct from local sixth form into the workplace to undertake a City & Guilds Business Administration course. Allied to this, we have also enrolled Sam as a student member of CISI. His challenge, along with completing the City & Guilds course programme over the first year, is to work towards his ACSI qualification over a two year period. We wish him every success as he progresses.

There are also eight new employer created apprenticeship programmes, with CISI qualifications incorporated into the training. This, coupled with government initiatives to grow new talent and develop existing staff through apprenticeships, demonstrates that there has never been a better time to review the way the sector develops and nurtures talent.

These opportunities, together with the CISI’s employer engagement initiatives in which students studying CISI qualifications (whilst at school/ college) are connected with employers through insight days and work experience, are a powerful prospect in attracting new talent to our varying professions.

More on this can be found here: http://www.cisi.org/cisiweb2/cisi-website/schools-colleges-universities/schools-colleges/work-experience

As we move into winter, and probably a period of business planning for 2017, have a think about how you can embrace the future and consider the opportunity of enhancing your business with an Apprentice, for more information on recruiting an apprenticeship and the upcoming changes to employing apprenticeships go to cisi.org/apprenticeships.

Vicky Fulcher MSc Dip PFS

Associate Director

Chapters Financial Limited

It’s a busy time for the Education Committee, as students across the region head back to school, college and university.

MSc in Financial Management Induction at Liverpool John Moores University

On the first day of their new term, the Masters students learnt how the CISI can support them into their studies and beyond.




The session also involved practitioner support from LJMU Alumni Tom Calland from Quilter Cheviot and Committee Member Susan Travers from Rathbones, and a networking session afterwards.

 

SkillsCymru Careers Event for North Wales students in Llandudno

Attracting up to 10,000 people each year, students and young people can learn about the huge range of careers in Wales.



Representing the CISI was Committee Member Colin Wickens accompanied by his colleague Chris Marshall from Dragon Investment Managers, St Asaph who helped man the stand. It was a fantastic opportunity to provide young people with the advice and guidance needed to follow a career in the world of finance.

New committee branch members

We are pleased to welcome two new members to the CISI Liverpool, Chester and North Wales Branch committee: Paul Loughlin, Deputy Chief Operating Officer at Rathbones and Ryan Cruise, Investment Manager at Investec.

Additionally, we welcome Alison Moore, Investment Director at Quilter Cheviot, as the branch’s first appointed representative.

 

Bank of England speaker Donna Kehoe, presenting 'Bank of England and Monetary Policy Committee Outlook for the UK Economy'

The excellent presentation was followed by an open and enthusiastic discussion amongst attendees.

Please look out for details of future local events, and ensure that the dates are marked in your diaries.

We are delighted to announce that the Institute of Banking in Ireland and the QFA Board have agreed that holders of the CISI’s Investment Advice Diploma (where a candidate holds 3 modules including the private client advice module) qualification are eligible to apply for exemption from the Professional Diploma in Financial Advice in the following modules:

•             QFA Life Assurance

•             QFA Pensions

•             QFA Investments

Click here for the full press release and here for more information on the exemption application process on the Institute of Banking website.

Click here for the IAD webpage

September was an eventful month for the region with a new school registration event being held at Rathbone Hall along with our annual football and netball tournaments.

CISI School Registration Event: 14th September 2016

The Education Committee held an open evening in Rathbone Hall for Year 12 students in the Liverpool Area to find out more information about the CISI Introduction to Investment programme.

Despite it being one of the hottest days of the year, we had a full house of parents and potential students.  Rob Shutt, our Education Secretary opened the event outlining our vision for the programme,followed by Anne Chisholm (CISI Education Development Executive) who discussed careers in Investment Management and the qualification in more detail.     

Paul Loughlin and Connor Day, both from Rathbones, brought the qualification to life, with Paul talking about the industry’s passion for supporting young people and Connor talking about his experience as an apprentice.

Afterwards, there was a Q&A and networking session where parents and students could talk first hand to a range of people in the industry, with most of the North West investment firms represented.  We are pleased to report that student numbers have been strong and we have managed to recruit some very intelligent and driven young people into the programme.

  
  Here’s to a successful school year!

Successful September Annual Sport Tournaments – Football & Netball

Football 2nd September
Our annual football tournament at Powerleague saw 10 teams battle it out for the highly coveted shield. It was a glorious evening so some of the goalkeeping errors on the night can be attributed to the sun being in the goalies’ eyes so caps hopefully will be a must next year! Investec team 2 won the overall tournament which saw their captain Darren O’Reilly being the only player in the CISI to have scored in 3 consecutive finals. Well done Darren and team!

Netball 9th September 
Our second annual charity Netball event in aid of SMART (Steven McEvoy Always Remembered and Treasured) which benefits the Walton Neurological Centre was held at IM Marsh. Seven teams competed for the new shield and without losing a game the Walton Centre stormed to victory. Congratulations Walton Centre!

Both events were well received by our members and we look forward to encouraging more teams to take part in the next football and netball tournaments.

See you all again next September!

2016 has been a momentous year for the UK following the Brexit vote in June 2016. The immediate reaction from the UK public and the markets was one of shock – however, subsequently to this we have seen many markets recover significantly, with UK Equity funds seeing an uplift of approximately 10% at the time of writing.

 

Other areas, such as commercial property, initially did not fare so well, and we saw suspensions or fair value adjustments on many funds in this sector. These restrictions are now being removed by most funds.

 

With some respite being achieved towards the end of summer 2016, and looking forward to the balance of 2016 and into 2017, the question has to be raised - "Where to now?".

 

The balance of 2016 is not going to be without its significant highlights. The obvious main contender would be the US presidential election which will occur at the beginning of November and this is going to be a closely fought - and some would argue rather scrappy – election, with both sides attracting much support but also negative comment. It will be interesting to learn the result and to observe the subsequent fallout.

 

New to the agenda is the Italian referendum called by Italy’s Prime Minister, Matteo Renzi, which is due to take place on 04 December. Although this is effectively only a referendum on constitutional reform, many are seeing it as a referendum on the tenure of the current Prime Minister, and possibly another signal that Italy, as a member of the European Union, may not be content with its current progress.

 

It will also be interesting to see how currencies such as the US Dollar, Sterling and the Euro are affected by these changes as the remainder of 2016 rolls out. 2016 will certainly be firmly on the investment agenda as a year of change and, some might argue fairly, controversy.

 

Focusing on the UK, we have a new Chancellor of the Exchequer in the form of Philip Hammond MP, and he will deliver his first Autumn Statement on 23 November 2016. I, along with many financial planners and investment managers, will watch this with interest to see if the strategy and policy for the new incumbent of the UK Government remains unchanged or seeks new paths. We have seen the Bank of England base interest rate fall from 0.50% down to 0.25%, with some indicating that we should anticipate further rate falls before the end of 2016. Also of note is the program of quantitative easing continuing as an economic tool to help smooth the UK forward following the summer, although struggling in some markets to inject the capital they require for their purposes through the planned purchase of assets.

 

We live in changeable times and I have no doubts that the balance of 2016 will keep financial planners and investment managers on their toes. We look forward to 2017 and the southern committee of CISI is already planning a dynamic program for 2017 to focus on some of the points noted in this blog, amongst others, to ensure that all have the opportunity to gain insights to help our businesses move forward.

 

The next CPD event for the CISI Southern group will take place on the late afternoon of Wednesday 16 November – please save the date. Further details will be circulated by email soon.

 

Keith G Churchouse BA (Hons), FPFS
Director

Chartered Financial Planner

CFP Chartered FCSI

ISO 22222 Certified

The Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment South Coast regional committee are delighted to invite you to join them for their 2016 annual dinner at the Hilton Hotel Bournemouth on Friday 18 November 2016.

The dinner, open to members and guests, is the region's principal social occasion of the year and we hope that you will be able to join us to celebrate the local, national and global achievements of the CISI.

The drinks reception will commence from 19:30, with dinner called at 20:00. Formal proceedings to the evening will conclude at approximately 23:00, with the bar closing at midnight.

Tickets for this event are £50 per person or £500 for a table of 10. The ticket price includes a welcome drinks reception, a three course meal and after dinner entertainment and anecdotes from our guest speaker, Rt. Hon Lord (John) Prescott. Please note that this does not include the cost of your wine which may be ordered separately.

We are delighted to have nominated Julia’s House as our charity for the evening. Julia's House is the only children’s hospice charity in Dorset dedicated to helping life-limited children and their families across the county and in South Wiltshire. 

If you would like to attend, please complete the attached booking form and return along with payment as directed. If you have any queries, please contact Nikki Macmillan, Regional Events Executive at the CISI, on +44 20 7645 0638 or at nikki.macmillan@cisi.org

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The Bank of England updates are always popular events in the West Midlands and Glynn Jones, Bank of England’s Deputy Agent for West Midlands and Oxfordshire, attracted good numbers to our September CPD event.

Glynn’s presentation covered the Bank’s most recent assessments of the economy and the factors that impact upon it. These include international and UK demand, the labour market, inflationary pressure and of course Brexit.

 

The first CISI Awards Ceremony for Ireland, was held on 21st October, at the Irish Stock Exchange with Simon Harris TD, Minister of State at the Department of Finance. 

There were nine individual prize winners announced on the evening for best performance in specific subject categories and Minister Harris presented the awards.  Cateriona Dooley won an award in two categories and is one of the Griffith College Dublin Diploma in Investment Compliance & Compliance graduates.  One of our winners has also won an individual prize globally for their performance.

The first group of successful candidates in Griffith College’s Diploma in Investment Operations & Compliance graduated in November and the 2015/2016 course is underway.  For further information on the qualification, click here.

Summer is coming to an end but we have an exciting line up of CISI events for the upcoming Autumnal months 

21st September
CPD - Behavioural Finance - Bulls & Bears, are we all sheep?

6th October
Jersey Branch Quiz night

29th November
CPD - The role of the CI Ombudsman

Two further CPD seminars to be announced for October and November