L2 Ethics, Rules of Conduct And Professionalism Flashcards
How do you ensure you comply with bribery legislation?
Follow the ‘Countering bribery and corruption, money laundering and terrorist financing’ standard - Version 1, February 2019.
Do not offer or accept a bribe.
I understand to report any activity.
How do you ensure you comply with money laundering regulations?
Follow standards under ‘Countering bribery and corruption, money laundering and terrorist financing’ - version 1 (February 2019).
Do not facilitate or involve myself.
Report any suspicious activity.
Collect identification confirmation from each client.
How do you ensure you comply with your firm’s bribery and gift’s policy?
Ensure I understand the policy, including risks to look for.
Identify politically exposed person.
Tell me about an instance of when you have been offered a gift or hospitality by a client.
I haven’t been in such situation.
Tell me about what you would do if you felt that an instruction was outside your scope of experience or knowledge.
Decline. As this would be against rule 2 of the Rules of Conduct.
Tell me about an instance of when you have handled client’s money?
Received a compensation payment agreed on behalf of a client, in our client’s account from the local authority.
Our net fees were also included in one receipt. After receiving statement from the authority, I ensured the money was cleared in the account.
I wrote a letter to my client, along with a cheque of his compensation payment, fee invoice which had been paid by the authority and a fee invoice of the VAT on our fees, payable by the client. I transferred the net fees to our office account.
How would you keep your client’s money securely and safely held?
We do not accept cash. BACS and cheque only. Paying in books are kept in a safe.
We comply with Client Money Handling - - Version 1 (oct. 2019) and Client Money Protection - version 1 (April 2019).
Tell me how you would handle a client complaint.
Follow our firm’s complaint handling procedure.
Clearly identify the nature of the grievance. Forward to the relevant individual.
Tell me about your understanding of your firm’s process for escalating a complaint to Alternative Dispute Resolution?
If the judgement is not satisfactory to the complaint, they have an opportunity to address to an independent redress mechanism.
Consumer clients should take their complaint to the Ombudsman Services: Property.
Business clients should take their complaint to the RICS dispute resolution service.
In relation to Consumer Credit, matters to be directed to the Financial Ombudsman Service.
Tell me about a conflict of interest check you have carried out.
Before engagement with a client, I check any conflict of interest checks.
For example, I was instructed to carry out a valuation for secured lending. However, after searching our database, I realised the firm had previously done works for the property and the current owner.
I declined the instruction, as this would be a confidential information conflict, and made a note on our system of my decision.
If you identified a potential or actual conflict of interest, how could you handle this?
As per my example in my submission, a confidential conflict of interest was identified.
However, if I believe it would not be unethical to proceed, I could proceed with an Informed Consent.
I ensure that I continuously review the conflict of interest.
How did you carry out the conflict of interest for secured lending purposes?
Why did you decline the instruction?
What type of conflict of interest was this?
Explain how you considered the matter ethically.
Before engagement, I checked whether there was a conflict of interest. I searched our database and found that The firm had previously carried out work. I discussed with the individual that carried out the work, decided to decline due to confidential information conflict and recorded my findings.
2nd conflict of interest example.
Explain how you carried out your check.
Why was this a confidential information conflict?
Why did you decline the instruction?
I was approached by a potential client that wanted a market appraisal on their farm. However, I was dealing with the property the individual was interested to purchase.
There was a risk I was holding confidential information for the seller, that I had a duty to disclose to the buyer.
Due to a party conflict, which might influence the selling price. There was also a potential confidential information conflict, I decided it was ethical to decline instruction.
Confidential information may include private details of the sale. Which might be needed to be disclosed to the buyer e.g. comparable information.
