The International Capital Market Association (ICMA) today announced that the Operations Certificate Programme (OCP) is the first "Recommended Exam" on the Wholesale Banking / Operations list, compiled by the UK's Financial Services Skills Council (FSSC). The programme has also met the FSSC's Key 6 "Appropriate Exam" standards for Activity 16 - Overseeing on a day-to-day basis safeguarding and administrating investment or holding of client money) and Activity 17 - Overseeing on a day-to-day basis administrative functions for managing investments including, arranging settlement; monitoring and processing corporate actions; client account administration, liaison and reporting, including valuation and performance measurement; ISA, PEP or CTF administration; Investment trust savings scheme administration.

This is the second of ICMA's Executive Education programmes, which are all administered and overseen by the ICMA Centre, University of Reading, to meet FSSC exam standards. ICMA's International Fixed Income and Derivatives (IFID) Certificate programme met the FSSC's Key 2 standards and is an"Appropriate Exam" list and a "Recommended Exam" in the Wholesale Banking list for people Advising on Securities and Advising on Derivatives.

FSSC Director of Education Sam Rees-Adams says, "The FSSC's Appropriate Exam Standards are designed as quality benchmarks for best practice. We regularly review and update them to meet the needs of employers, professional bodies and trade associations in the industry. We are delighted that ICMA has met these benchmarks for best practice including front office and operations qualifications."

"We are pleased that after a very comprehensive review process the FSSC has determined that our OCP Certificate Programme is now an Appropriate and Recommended Exam," said Professor John Board, Director of the ICMA Centre. "We realise both the importance of financial markets education in general and ensuring that market participants are properly qualified in their activities. Thus, we fully support the review and approval process of the FSSC and the ICMA Centre will have further financial markets courses being submitted to the FSSC in the future."