Birmingham stockbrokers will be urged to update their professional skills by taking regular "refresher courses, when Simon Culhane, chief executive of the Securities & Investment Institute speaks at the dinner of the organisation's Birmingham and West Midlands branch tonight.
Yesterday he praised a series of evening teach-ins organised by the regional branch.
"They have done five or six in the last year," he said. "They were very useful."
Mr Culhane will also highlight new qualifications launched by the Institute - one in corporate finance devised in a joint venture with the Institute of Chartered Accountants and, most recently, a syllabus devoted to Islamic finance drawn up with the help of the Lebanese central bank and a business school in Lebanon.
He will also introduce a new code of conduct compiled with the help of Lord (Eddie) George, former Governor of the Bank of England.
This includes a section on disclosing possible conflicts of interest, and where necessary declining to act at all.
Mr Culhane believes the debacle on split capital investment trusts illustrates the value of updating training.
"People took the exam ten or 15 years ago when split capital trusts were much simpler," he said.
Some failed to recognise that a new breed of trusts was much more highly geared, therefore altogether more risky, and continued to recommend them the clients seeking a predictable return from a reliable investment.
"We put out an update on income shared in December, 2001," Mr Culhane recalled.
One of the institute's diploma papers that month included a question "Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the structured of a split capital investment trust".
Hedge funds are among the topical issues today.
Mr Culhane said the present exam for investment advisers requires them to "un-pick" the make-up of a hedge fund to find the pluses and minuses of a given product.
"This industry requires people to be regularly updated," he stressed.
"They do it regularly in America. I am in favour of doing it here."
