Paul Smith, CEO

IPA Insolvency Practitioner newsletter, August 2022

Contents

• Samantha Keen, President
• Awareness of CEO fraud and impersonation frauds
• 2023 renewals: AML information and Regulation 18 risk assessments required
• Amendments to the 2017 Money Laundering Regulations
• Join the IPA in celebrating the outstanding accomplishments and successes made in the insolvency sector this year!
• IPA Learning | AML: A Practical Guide to Risk Assessment
• The IPA’s regional Roadshows are back this autumn – join us for the final four 2022 events
• Personal Insolvency Conference early bird rates closing soon – book now!
• Exclusive discounts on training from the IPA and our partners – make savings on essential CPD
• Change of IPA registered office address
• NEW member benefit: save money on your airport parking with APH! (Member login required to view)
• Need new IT products? Claim exclusive IPA membership offers from Dell
• CPI training with BPP – special offer for IPA members (member login required to view)
• Membership and licence renewals
• IPA exclusive industry update from Insolvency Insider

Hello all. I hope you are having an enjoyable summer. Having entered the year with the Future of Insolvency Regulation consultation underway, and with autumn now on the horizon, I thought it would be useful to update you on the IPA’s activity to date and some priorities for the coming months.

Our 2022 inspection programme is on track, with 103 completed or in course, 34 of which form part of our Volume Provider Regulation (VPR) Scheme. When measured against our appointment taking practitioner base, it will be recognised that this is a very active programme and reflects our commitment to maintaining our regulatory obligations while the future of regulation in the sector is resolved.

Complaint levels remain relatively subdued, with 36 referred to us in Q2, down from 51 in Q1, and all complaints in hand (98) are on track, keeping us well within targeted performance levels.

I was also pleased to see  the number of students taking our exams increase – 126 in June, with a November sitting to come, compared with 170 in total last year.

The focus of IPA Learning on the practical application of regulatory requirements appears to have been well received, with strong attendance at all of our webinars so far this year. With the sustained high levels of fraud in the business and consumer worlds, our next webinar on 8^th September examines the very important subject of Anti Money Laundering (AML) risk assessments and the practical approach to dealing with them. Our commitment to training, development and CPD continues this autumn, with the second part of the Roadshow series through September and October and the popular Personal Insolvency Conference in late November.

I recently attended a meeting of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Debt and Personal Finance, where the subject was Individual Voluntary Arrangements (IVAs). We will be following up on this in September with the APPG Committee to highlight the work we do in this space, and have scheduled a discussion with Citizens Advice who also presented at the meeting.  

We are working on the IPA’s response to the review of the personal insolvency framework. The above discussions are expected to help inform our response, plus we will be asking members for views you may have in response to this Call for Evidence, so please look out for further communication on this topic.

Paul