ACEPI won the prize Best Educational Initiative at the SRP Europe 2021 Awards

ACEPI won the prize Best Educational Initiative at SRP Europe 2021 Awards

Here follows a synthesis of the educational activity carried out in 2020.

The promotion of knowledge and culture of certificates have always been one of the priority objectives of ACEPI. In this regard, in the awareness that a sustainable and harmonious growth of the market passes through a good knowledge and proper use of certificates, ACEPI since 2015 has promoted its own training program (www.training.acepi.it) whose details are always available on the website (www.acepi.it/en). It is a program aimed at financial advisors and private bankers, delivered in several Italian cities, free of charge for the participants, EFPA accredited and focused on two courses: one at basic level (7 hours equal to 7 EFPA credits) and one at advanced level (4 hours equal to 4 EFPA credits).  A total of 3478 attendances were recorded in 69 courses.

With reference to 2020, after having realized 3 editions in presence in the first two months, due to Covid-19, other 14 editions have been delivered online so as to maintain a constant connection between the association and the world of financial advisors.

These 17 editions were organized in 32 days, 71 hours, recording 1250 attendees, for a total of 4577 hours and 530 EFPA credits delivered. The participants belonged to 138 different financial institutions or were independent financial advisors and family offices.

In the evaluation questionnaire 96% stated that the course objectives with respect to the stated program were completely achieved, 95% rated the quality of the course content with the highest score and 90% said they were completely satisfied with their participation in the course.

Going into detail about the course programs, the basic course introduces the certificates, their characteristics, the methods of constructing certificates, the costs and risks that an investor incurs by operating in certificates. A particular focus is made on the taxation that, in the Italian system, makes the certificates extremely effective tools for the purpose of compensation of capital losses. An overview of the different types of certificates and how they can be used in different market scenarios and different investment objectives is also offered with the help of two tools developed by ACEPI: the ACEPI Certificate Map (www.map.acepi.it) and the Certificate Selector (www.selector-eng.acepi.it). The Map, adopted by Borsa Italiana, classifies the various types of certificate referring to them each product on the Italian market and is traceable with the European map of EUSIPA. The selector is a free certificate search engine (including the corresponding KID) by type, asset class, underlying and strategies.

The advanced course is focused on the interpretation of volatility, theta and correlation, the knowledge of the guidelines in the analysis of certificates with multiple underlyings. Finally, leverage certificates are analysed.

New for 2020 was the introduction of a third thematic course focused on certificates for efficient portfolio managements, the switch to recovery, the restructuring of loss-making portfolios and portfolios capable of generating cash flows flows. 

In 2020 ACEPI has also created in collaboration with Assoreti (Italian association of distributors, www.assoreti.it) an online course dedicated to an introduction to certificates and their uses.