Certified Financial Planners must undertake one hour extra of ethics CPD from April.

Financial Planning members of the CISI with the CFPTM accreditation will be required to bolster their ethics study as part of broader changes to the professional body’s CPD.

Holders of a Statement of Professional Standing and Certified Financial Planners already must do 35 hours of CPD overall and this amount will remain the same.

Three and a half hours of that must now be on the subject of Integrity/Ethics, rather than two and a half hours.

Up until now in order to become a member of the CISI applicants had to complete the CISI Integrity Matters test, worth two hours of CPD.

Up until now the mandatory CPD requirement for CISI members has been for Chartered members only, holders of SPSs and Certified Financial Planners.

Under the reforms, taking effect from April 1 2017, all CISI members, from Affiliate grade upwards, will be required to complete a minimum of 10 hours of CPD annually, of which one hour must be completed on the subject of Ethics.

Although it was voluntary for all other CISI members previously, over 4,500 members were recording CPD on the scheme, officials said.

The CISI stated: “We are introducing these new CPD requirements to ensure that all our members, no matter what membership grade they are, will be unified by meeting strict annual CPD standards.”

The new CPD policy from 1 April will apply to all CISI members, both existing and new, working across every financial services specialism included in the professional body’s remit.

The CISI has 40,000 members in 121 countries around the world and merged with the Institute of Financial Planning in the UK in November last year.

The CISI says that the aim of the new CPD policy is to ensure that CISI members will meet the same CPD requirements to demonstrate professionalism and competence around the world.

Simon Culhane, Chartered FCSI and CISI chief executive said: “We are introducing these new CPD requirements to ensure that all our members, no matter what membership grade they are, job role they hold or jurisdiction they are working in, will be unified by meeting strict annual CPD standards.

“Our aim is to help our members demonstrate to consumers and the industry that they are committed to the highest standards of professionalism and integrity.

“We are phasing in these new CPD requirements gradually, over a two year period, to ensure that we are allowing all our existing members time to get used to these new requirements. All members receive their own online CPD record, where all their CISI activities are automatically added.”

Members who join the CISI prior to 1 April need to start their CPD year no later than 31 March 2018 in order to meet the new mandatory CPD requirements deadline of 31 March 2019.