Kevin Hellard, President
Other articles (Insolvency Practitioner, February 2021):
- Michelle Thorp, CEO
- Important reminder: Extraordinary General Meeting
- IPA Annual Conference
- New Joint Insolvency Committee role for the IPA
- Renewals
- ICO Data Sharing Code
- A reminder for members who deal with IVAs
- Changes to IPA membership criteria
- Business continuity and support
- Debt Relief Orders consultation
- Proposed FCA guidance for Insolvency Practitioners: How to approach FCA-regulated firms
- Insolvency Service guidance on monitoring Insolvency Practitioners: advertisements, marketing and debt advice
- Vacancy for a Disciplinary Chair of the Disciplinary and Appeals Committee
- Vacancy for a Head of External Affairs and Business Development
- Update: HMRC Enforcement and Insolvency Services phone lines
- IPA rules review
Hi everyone. I hope that you are continuing to manage in the current lockdown, and congratulations to anyone who has just completed a Dry January, Veganuary or a similar challenge! On we go to the slightly less dreary month of February!
I write this after a set of training workshops that we ran on the new Ethics Code and public interest regulation, with the help of the excellent Insolvency Support Services. I was pleased to note the high rate of attendance, both by members of our Volume Provider Regulation (VPR) scheme and others. I hope that those who joined left with better understanding of what the public interest entails and how this applies to insolvency work in various ways.
Young Professionals Network
I also hear that our new Young Professionals Network had a brilliant inaugural event on the topic of crypto assets and how to deal with them in insolvency. Many thanks indeed to our speaker Aidan Larkin of Asset Reality for joining us and sharing his expert knowledge of this relatively new and highly interesting area. I am delighted to say that we will be welcoming Aidan back to speak on the same topic at the Annual Conference in April. Given the growing prevalence of cryptocurrency (and associated rise in crypto frauds), this is clearly an important area of financing that will increasingly feature in the work we all do within insolvency. Our Young Professionals will no doubt already be tracking the rise and rise of Bitcoin, and the Annual Conference is a chance for the rest of us to get a piece of the action!
On a more serious note, I am pleased by the establishment of this new network and the events that we plan to put on for our student members, to help them get the most out of their IPA membership and careers. If you are reading this as a student member and there is a particular topic or type of event that you would like to see (educational, or, in the hopefully not too distant future, an in-person social event), get in touch with us on membership@ipa.uk.com.
As a brief update in the way of the Annual Lecture, I hear from the events team that Lord Leigh of Hurley is confirmed as the speaker. Further updates will follow soon.
Annual Conference
We are steaming ahead with the planning for April’s virtual Annual Conference, with more details to be released on our website and via other communications channels.
Expect to hear about subjects including strategic change and changing environments, why we need to save charities, attracting younger people to the profession, and the IPA monitoring view. The bill of speakers is shaping up very well and includes Jim Murphy, former Secretary of State for Scotland; Prof. John Tribe of the University of Liverpool; Sue Chapple, CEO of the Chartered Institute of Credit Management; and Martin Swain, Director of Policy and Strategy at Companies House. Stay tuned!
Until next time, stay safe and all the best in your work.
Kevin