CML launches online regulatory training software

The three modules for mortgage brokers are still under development with the launch planned at the Mortgage Business Expo Manchester on 19 May.

Plans are also in place for an ICOB (insurance regulation) module. But, this first edition, which condenses 337 pages of regulation into a 90-page interactive e-learning package, is aimed at lender employees of all levels from administration staff to management.

Kate Main, senior policy adviser at the CML, collated the bulk of the syllabus material, which runs in the order of the MCOB rulebook. The interactive site allows firms to mix and match modules for staff sectors and adjust pass mark levels for different employee groups. Students can also test themselves at the start of a module to see whether they need further study and take an unrestricted number of tests, offering a random question facility. To try out a demonstration module, visit www.cmle-learning.com.

The course costs £50 per user, with discounts for multiple use and the system offers a full competency trail and white-labelling, if required.

Pink Home Loans’ Elliott Stoneham, said distributor Pink had already bought the system for its senior management and network propositions.

“We wanted to be able to time the tests and absolutelytraining.com have added the capacity to do that to our system, “ said Stoneham.

“But more importantly, the system will allow us to centrally monitor what everybody is doing on the training front and we can go and nag those falling behind, and automatically keep records of which employees have achieved what.”

Chris Cummings, director of mortgages at AMI, said considering the number of e-learning solutions in the market, for example, Mortgage Assess, Ensure or Competent Adviser, which Mortgage Intelligence recently signed up to, none are in a position yet to splice all the technology brokers need together.

“The one thing I’m looking for is a way to pull all the training and competence, sales software and sourcing systems together because with six-monthly regulatory reporting on the way, all these systems are just making more work for the broker, which may well, along with the costs, eventually put firms out of business,” he said.

Online technology supplier, The Exchange, has teamed up with the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) to provide a compliance and competency solution for IFA firms. The Exchange will offer brokers access to the CII’s ed.Learn and financial ASSESS training and assessment packages.