Yesterday's webcast was a great start to CISI Ireland’s 2021 programme of events.

There was a strong attendance and very high level of engagement for this very timely look at the implications of the new disclosure regulations for sustainable finance.

Chaired by Council member Martin Collins, we had presentations from Sam Tripuraneni of Blackrock and Louise Dobbyn and Barry O’Connor of Matheson, the premier Dublin-based legal firm. Matheson count seven of the world’s top  ten asset managers among their clients and so were exceptionally well placed to give a perspective. Sam provided a master class on best practice in the lead up to the new requirements for the fund manager.

Our use of polls during the session show that for the majority it is very much a work in progress, though a lot has been achieved.

CISI Ireland were delighted with a very interactive Q&A session and subsequent very positive feedback.

Note from your President, Eugene Kiernan FCSI 

Well, as we all know it’s been a year like no other! I feel that our industry and our Institute has faced, and risen to, challenges that we would never have envisaged.

For our part in Ireland, after our first (and last) physical event at the start of the year, we moved into the virtual world and in fact delivered what I think were very innovative and timely sessions. As well as high engagement from our own members, for the first time perhaps we reached out to a global audience throughout Europe, Africa and Asia. In terms of speakers and panellists I  was delighted to continue our partnership with the Central Bank of Ireland as well as working for the first time with the IDA and the 30% Club.  Our chat with two time Olympian Neville Maxwell was also a highlight of the year.

I would like to thank all the firms and individuals who helped us in these endeavours.

I believe that 2020, for many of our members, has shown the value of the strength and breadth of our CISI TV offering and indeed all the virtual material on our site.

Still... still I long to get back to the “real world “ and meeting members and guests in person.

We are working on an exciting program of events to build on the success of 2020 and I believe that before too long these events will come with a cup of coffee!

I would like to thank our National Advisory Council for unrelenting support and hard work. On their behalf, on behalf of our members, and my own I would like to sincerely thank our country executive Deirdre Heffernan for quite simply keeping the show on the road  - which requires a very wide range of skills!

New National Advisory Council Members

We were delighted to welcome two new NAC members during the year. Clark Elder, Chartered FCSI, Country Head of Compliance & MLRO at RBC Investor & Treasury Services, and Noel McMonagle ACSI, Account Manager at Citi. Noel has taken on a Social Media role for the NAC.

2020 Events

The CISI moved to a virtual events programme to continue to meet your CPD requirements and together increase our knowledge, build new skills and shine a spotlight on integrity and ethical behaviour. CISI Ireland, with the help of your National Advisory Council members, ensured that we maintained our own programme on topics which are relevant, timely and topical by leading industry experts in their respective fields.  We have run 7 events this year with our only physical event in January, on sustainable investment by Des Lawrence, Senior Investment Strategist, at State Street Global Advisors. Moving to a virtual platform, we then hosted six further events with the added benefit of attracting CISI members around the globe. Our event with Jim Power in June, Rebuilding the world - Investment in the new landscape, holds the CISI record for the largest audience at over 300 attendees on the day.

We were delighted to welcome Neville Maxwell, ex-Olympic rower for an insight on business lessons from Sport, transferable skills and high performance culture.

Our final event of the year focussed on gender diversity and the role financial services can play in moving the agenda forward. George Littlejohn graciously hosted a lively and informed debate with panellists from the 30% Club, Legal & General Investment Managers and the London School of Economics. This is a subject we will be returning to. Events are recorded and available to view on CISI TV.

   

Book Competition

A great response to our recent book competition, thank you to all those who entered. The fastest responses came in from John Shanahan and Paul Duke and who have received a copy of  “Fundamentals of Investing - a practitioner’s guide” by Brian O’Loughlin and Frank O’Brien.

CISI and IFS Skillnet

We are delighted to have been successful in our recent tender to have the CISI’s Investment Operations Certificate  included in the training programmes approved by the IFS Skillnet. Also approved was Combating Financial Crime &  Managing Cyber Security exams and Risk in Financial Services and some of our Professional Refresher e-learning modules.  Contact deirdre.heffernan@cisi.org for more details.

 

Ireland LinkedIn

Have you joined the CISI Ireland LinkedIn Network?  Until we can safely host our events in person again, we want to provide our members with a platform to network with their fellow CISI members in Ireland.  

 

 

The lifestyle benefits for individuals and families were highlighted as well as the whole ecosystem including academic access, improved connectivity, support services etc. Improved productivity, higher staff retention, lower costs were just some of the business “wins” for companies.

Neville Maxwell, a two-time Olympian rower and multiple world champion medal winner, delivered a “tour de force” performance in conversation about the lessons from sports and how they can readily be applied in the business world. In a wide-ranging talk, Neville discussed leadership, goal setting, targets, stress management, time keeping, and how to turn people into winners. Drawing on his current leadership role in the High Performance unit in Rowing Ireland, he highlighted both the strong current position and the pipeline of talent coming through. One key takeaway, both for business management and sport, is the need to focus efforts and resources purely on areas of competitive advantage rather than spread across the waterfront.

This was a very highly attended webcast with a great level of interaction and feedback from CISI members.

CISI members can log in to watch the webcast here.

This was an extremely well attended webcast moderated by CISI National Advisory Council member Adele Spillane MCSI and featuring two asset experts, Natasha Sahi and Alan Coffey, both from Blackrock Alternative Investors.

Covering both the fundamental building blocks of the investment case and current trends in the sector, the session highlighted both the return benefits and lower risk attributes that inclusion of private assets can bring to a multi-asset investment portfolio.

Many of the trends underlying recent growth, such as the need for increased infrastructure investment globally, point to a continued need for private equity and private debt. While the speakers had a very clear global perspective, there was significant engagement “from the floor” on the relevance to the Irish pension market.

CISI members can log in to watch the webcast here.

This was a highly attended webcast with over 20 local firms represented, delivered by the Central Bank Wholesale Market Conduct team headed up by Steve Clark.

After revisiting the Five Principles for a properly regulated securities market, the session went on to look at issues of forbearance and market conduct in a COVID-19 environment. In an environment of increasing “WFH” in financial service companies, the Central Bank highlighted the need for individuals to have a full understanding of the risks in their own role.

The Central Bank team also dealt with a range of questions on subjects such as ESMA risk buckets, illiquidity in funds, crypto-currencies and Brexit risks.

At CISI Ireland we were delighted once again to engage with the Central Bank in what continue to be “full house” events in either the virtual or the real world.

We hope you are keeping safe and well during these unprecedented times.

Having to move to such a different way of working will sometimes impact on our wellbeing. Since we cannot meet face to face at the moment, we wanted to remind you about the 'virtual events' that CISI is broadcasting to help - please have a look at the CISI events calendar, where you will be able to find live webcast sessions such as:

    Managing Mental Health in Challenging Times

    Resilience in the Time of the Virus

    Young Professionals Network - Be More Productive Working from Home

There are lots of other great webcasts to choose from too, such as an Update from the Bank of England the Wealth Management Forum.

Also do not forget CISI TV continues to upload new programmes whilst the Professional Refresher eLearning modules can help refresh your knowledge on a myriad of subjects.

Finally, we wanted to announce that CISI Yorkshire has elected a new Branch President, Charlie Thompson. Charlie brings with him extensive wealth management experience, and is excited to help continue to ensure our members have access to excellent, relevant CPD. Charlie wishes to thank Emma Spratley for her service as previous President and looks forward to meeting you when our face to face events start up again.

Best Wishes

CISI Yorkshire Branch

The Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (CISI) is delighted to announce the appointment of Eugene Kiernan FCSI as President of the CISI National Advisory Council for Ireland. He takes over from Frank O’Riordon MCSI who held the position for the last four years.

Eugene joined the global financial services professional, not-for-profit body CISI in 1998 becoming a Fellow in 2005. He has over 35 years’ experience in the Asset management and Funds industry.

Eugene (right) began his career in Irish Life Investment Managers, initially as an Investment analyst, and then fund manager, before moving on to executive roles in firms such as AIB investment Managers and Appian Asset Management, in a wide range of roles including asset allocation and manager selection.

He has served on pension fund boards and recently qualified as a Professional Trustee. He currently acts in a consultancy role on asset management issues for a number of firms.

Eugene is a regular contributor to the media (print, TV and radio) on investment and market issues. He has also delivered keynote addresses to major industry conferences both in Ireland and the US.

Commenting on his appointment, Eugene said: “I believe this is a pivotal moment for CISI in Ireland. While we continue to be a global leader in delivering knowledge and skills for practitioners in the financial services sector, enabling them to develop their careers both in Ireland and internationally, we are also able to bring our deep experience and learning structures in the increasingly important areas of ethics and culture to support member firms, and indeed the broader profession. Our long-standing focus on the three key elements of knowledge, skills and behaviour ensures CISI membership is a compelling marker of professionalism.”

Kevin Moore, Chartered FCSI, CISI Director of Global Business Development said: “We would like to thank outgoing President Frank O’ Riordon for his excellent leadership of the Irish NAC. We are delighted to welcome Eugene and look forward to supporting him in his programme for the Committee and membership, helping to inspire the next generation of practitioners looking to join our financial services profession.”

The next CISI CPD webinar for Ireland is on Thursday 11th June at 12pm - Rebuilding the world - Investment in the New Landscape with Jim Power, Chief Economist, Aviva Ireland.  Full details here.

Economist Jim Power stressed the vital role Irish small and medium enterprises can play in leading the Irish economy successfully out of the current downturn. He was speaking today to over 250 investment professionals in Ireland and across Europe in a virtual seminar organised by CISI Ireland, as part of their virtual CPD programme.

“It is imperative,” he said “that we don’t let a health crisis, which has led to an economic crisis, morph into a banking crisis, through the escalation of bad debts.”

The new programme for government, pending the formation of the new Irish government, will have to fully and firmly address this risk. Mr Power is supportive of a new agency to specifically address the potential of the sector especially in a period when FDI flows may become pressurised.

Business support must be material and may need to be in place for a prolonged period and, said Mr Power, this will push deficits higher but he noted “austerity is not an option.”

CISI members can view the webcast here.

CISI students and university students were recognised for their high achievements at the CISI Northern Ireland annual dinner, held at the Drawing Office in the Titanic Hotel on Thursday 6 February.

View the photos from the ceremony here.

English stand-up comedian Ivo Graham was guest speaker at the CISI South East branch annual dinner, held on 17 October 2019 at The Spa Hotel, Mount Ephraim

View the photos from the ceremony here.

CISI were delighted to be part of the Irish Banking Culture Board’s recent workshop for over 80 retail banking staff. Richard Bennett, Assistant Director, gave our Speak Up workshop to an engaged audience with plenty of discussion and opinion on the scenarios presented.

A great start to the year with our first event at CISI Ireland. It was a full house to hear Des Lawrence, a senior strategist at State Street Global Investors, give a guided tour of what maybe the single biggest topic in asset management today - ESG. This was a real world approach to the issue and the Q&A session showed how engaged the audience were. Des produced survey results to show how asset managers are increasingly seeing this as a core part of their of their business development and how trustees are seeing it as a core to their fiduciary duties. The trend to ESG is irreversible driven by regulators, governments and investors. Des pointed out how sophisticated portfolio construction enables a fine tuning of outcomes to meet investor demands. The watchword for managers, trustees, and investors according to Des is "Inertia is not an option".

SSGA very kindly hosted the event.

As we come to the end of 2019, I would like to wish all our members and particularly overseas members, who have recently taken up positions here in Ireland, a very Happy Christmas.

2019 was a stand-out year for CISI in Ireland. A key topic which our members asked that we focus on was on the area of culture. The increased interest in this area is evidenced by a significant increase in demand for its Ethics and Integrity workshops. These now form an integral part of many companies training and development programmes.

There was standing room only when we welcomed the Central Bank for two presentations on ‘Are you Fit & Proper’ with Deirdre Norris and Rebecca Coyle. This was followed in September with Brenda O’Neill, Head of Division, Securities and Markets Supervision Directorate presenting on the topic of Wholesale Market Conduct.

Particular highlights during this year were having John Moran, former Secretary General of the Department of Finance giving a very timely presentation on ‘Time to move on from Brexit - Repositioning Ireland in an Increasingly Divided EU 27’, which followed the European elections. This was again a fully booked event.

A seminar on the future of Absolute Return Funds with an excellent panel of speakers from Aberdeen Standard, BlackRock, GillenMarkets and Clarus Investments ensured a very lively debate and contrasting views. An update on the pensions industry by George Nolan from New Ireland in the light of the decision to roll out auto enrolment met with considerable interest.

Copies of these presentations are available in the CPD archives when you log in to MYCISI. For 2020, we have put together a series of events on such diverse and thought provoking topics as

• The Future of Asset Management- Do asset managers have a future?
• The Inexorable rise of ETFs- Any hidden dangers?
• ESG Common Mistakes
• Business and ethics-The Regulator’s perspective

These will include speakers from the Central Bank, SSGA, Lion Trust and Blackrock. Details of these events will be posted on the CISI Ireland webpage.

To ensure that CISI continues to meet and evolve with members’ needs I would ask you to complete the survey below. It will take just a few moments of your time and will help ensure that your voice is both heard and listened to.

On a personal note, I would also like to thank the members of our National Advisory Council, whose contribution has proved invaluable and whose commitment is very much appreciated. I would also like to thank Deirdre Heffernan, Ireland manager for CISI, for her tireless work throughout the year. Deirdre is happy to discuss with you and your firms all matters relating to memberships and the provision of tailored CISI courses to financial organisations.

Congratulations to all those who have successfully completed your CISI qualifications this year. We look forward to recognising award winners and achievers at an awards ceremony in April.

Thank you again for all your participation and very best wishes for 2020.

Frank

Winter is coming and the Turkeys are starting to get a bit nervous about their fate as the shops start to stupidly put their Christmas decorations up even before the fireworks have started.  With only the Dundee event remaining we are bringing an end to the years CPD events especially since the Bank of England had to pull out of the events in Glasgow and Edinburgh as they’ll be under purdah restrictions until after the election.    
In Edinburgh last week we held a fabulous event at Blackrock where we heard from Royal London on the Hot Topics for Pensions, Legal & General on ESG Investing and Dimensional discussing Perspectives & Possibilities: Boomers, Gen X and Millennials. If you missed it then head on up to Dundee on 21st November.  
Clare Moffat of Royal London presented on the legislation changes relating to the State Pension, before moving onto discussing the main concerns raised by the Retirement Outcomes Review and how you can comprehend the issues with IHT and pensions.  After a short coffee and a Tunnocks Tea Cake (thanks Blackrock) Dan Attwood took to the floor. His talk on where ESG Investments where and how using active ownership L&G are trying to help improve the corporate agendas.  Finally, Blair Anderson from Dimensional took us through the Dimensional survey to their network of IFAs which was looking at the attitude of the different age groups regarding investments and financial advice.  Its comforting to know that although there are differences between the ages that there is more that bind us although when relaying this to my teenage son, he still rolled his eyes, sake!
There was still a chill in the air for the start of the Glasgow event this week as I walked up Bath Street to the Adobe Hotel for the 9:30 start. Jeremy Martin of Just started the day off with a couple of hours CPD presenting on the Six steps to better retirement outcomes. He took us through the developing consistent and robust advice processes before we had a lively debate on recognising the importance of establishing the client’s capacity for loss.  We then turned to the sustainable income and the recognition of guaranteed income within your retirement.  The last section touched on cash flow modelling, withdrawal policy and the review process.  
Just before the lunch was served George Kinder arrived.  If you haven’t heard of George before then his bio says that he is internationally recognised as the father of the Life Planning movement, revolutionised financial advice for over 30 years by training over 3,000 professionals in 30 countries in the field of financial Life Planning. This was his first visit to Glasgow; he was taking the opportunity to discuss his latest book A Golden Civilization and the Map of Mindfulness. This was a slight departure from our usual events but for those in the room it was quite inspiring.  He started talking about his 3 questions, but his key thing was to listen to your client; not how we normally do but really listening and on focusing solely on them.
After a cup of tea, George invited us to imagine a thousand generations had passed and humanity had at last accomplished a golden civilisation. What did it look like and what structures got us to this utopia before asking what is stopping us from making the change in just one generation? I’ll let you read and investigate yourself on his ideas and make up your own mind. In the room however there was a willingness to listen, learn and debate.  A truly unique talk and if you want to know; do I now have his book? the answer is yes.
Maybe a different perspective to be considered but the feedback from the room was fantastic and maybe we should be considering CISI events can deliver something more than just hours.

Another quality session with George Nolan, pension specialist at New Ireland Assurance, at CISI Ireland today. George was back by popular demand to give an informed and incisive view on the state of play across the Pensions landscape in Ireland. Progress on the government’s pension roadmap has been, according to George, “sticky” reflecting complexity of local structures and Brexit “diversion”.

Auto enrolment target dates now appear very challenging.

George presented a deep dive into the critical and complex issue of pension transfers and highlighted above all else the need for sound advice.

George also highlighted the risks and rewards involved in international pension arrangements.

This lunchtime seminar was very well attended with the audience fully engaged throughout.

British TV presenter and political columnist Steve Richards was guest speaker at the event, held on 5 September at DoubleTree by Hilton Glasgow

Read the full article in the online Review.
Click here to view the event photo gallery.

The CISI Board of Directors attended the event, celebrating ten years of the CISI Cyprus National Advisory Council (NAC).

Click here to view photos from the event.

A truly engaging and thought-provoking CISI Southern Branch CPD event was held at G Live in Guildford on the morning of 17 September 2019.

With a good turnout, Keith Churchouse, President of the Southern Branch, introduced the speakers for the event.

The Southern Branch was pleased to welcome Suzette Jones, Health & Wellbeing Adviser for the Church of England in Guildford, as the first speaker. Suzette gave a powerful and moving presentation on modern slavery, how and where this takes place, how we can recognise those enslaved and what we can do about it. As Suzette clearly conveyed, modern slavery is a serious and organised crime and often unseen. It hides in takeaways, hotels, car washes, nail bars and private homes. There is no typical victim of slavery. Victims can be men, women and children of all ages, but it is normally more prevalent amongst vulnerable, minority and socially excluded groups in society. A key message was that if it looks or feels wrong, it probably is, and Suzette’s slides provide a range of contact numbers for reporting concerns.

The second presentation was given by Marie-Claire Gale, Mental Health Trainer with the Work Well Hub. Marie-Claire’s presentation focused on mental health awareness in the workplace and was an excellent and extremely informative session which helped attendees to better understand common mental health disorders, how to manage them more effectively and where to turn to for support.

Our thanks go to both the speakers for two stimulating presentations. If you would like a copy of the slides, please visit the CISI website or contact a member of the CISI Southern Committee.

The event will be repeated on 16 October in Reigate for those members who were unable to attend the September session. Highly recommended!

Your Committee meets on 19 September 2019 to look at the next events across Surrey and if you would like any financial topic discussed then please let Keith Churchouse know.

Keith also noted that he will be standing down as Chairman for the Southern Branch at the end of the year and invited all to consider joining the Committee.

Keith Churchouse CFP Chartered FSCI
President, CISI Southern Committee