IPA membership and licence renewals opening on 10th October

Kevin Hellard, President

Hi everyone. I am delighted to be writing this article alongside new CEO Paul Smith’s first article this month. It is proving to be a summer full of activity, as we continue embedding relatively new regulatory processes and respond to developments such as the IVA protocol, as well as continue on with our busy events and training programme, hot off the back of the recent Essential Briefings on Anti-Money Laundering (AML). We sent out a subsequent bulletin in summary of the key AML considerations that our members need to ensure are part of their day-to-day work. I wish to highlight the seriousness of AML risks and the vital importance of compliance in this area. You can access a copy of the bulletin here.

It’s not long now until the next IPA Learning workshop, in which we look at the development of the Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act and its effect on insolvency work. And then the week after, on we go to the first of the 2021 Regional Roadshow Series events on 13 September, in which we’ll cover the latest in the profession in Scotland.

Our expert panel for Scotland is set to include John Cook, Depute Accountant and Executive Director of Case Operations at the Accountant in Bankruptcy; Martin Swain, Director of Strategy, Policy and External Communications at Companies House; Jemiel Benison, Senior Policy Officer at Citizens Advice Scotland; and more to be confirmed. We’ll also hear from the IPA inspection team, with an update on the IPA’s monitoring activity and how it affects you. For our Scottish Insolvency Practitioners, this is not to be missed. Places are limited, so I’d recommend booking quickly – click here.

We follow with Northern Ireland on 23 September, with speakers including Sinead Campbell, Head of Money Debt and Quality at Advice NI; Christopher Morrow, Head of Communications and Policy at Northern Ireland Chamber of Commerce; and Maria Glover, Director at Napier Solicitors. We’re then off to Manchester, Leeds, Cardiff and Birmingham, before concluding the series in London on 11th November.

The programme for each event will follow the same format, with a dedicated panel considering regional economic impacts from Covid and their relevance to the insolvency profession, and an IPA inspection update at each. As well as Martin Swain of Companies House, speakers will include Andrew Goodacre, CEO of the British Independent Retailers Association; Paul Slevin, Director (Financial Advisory) at Quantuma; Corin Crane, Chief Executive at Black Country Chamber of Commerce; and Subrah Krishnan Harihara, Head of Research at Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce.

View the full calendar and book your place here.

Finally, I am delighted to offer our members an expanded portfolio of preferential rates from IPA training partners ISS and BPP, on a range of professional development courses – all of which you can read about here. I hope that these offers will be useful to you.

That’s all for this month. Enjoy the rest of the (hopefully less soggy) summer!

Kevin