SINGAPORE - Almost all private bankers here have met a requirement to undergo continuous training.

A total of 99.7 per cent of private banking professionals who offer clients financial advice have met the minimum requirement of at least 15 hours of training, according to the Institute of Banking and Finance (IBF) Singapore.

IBF, which is the administrator of the continuing training programme, added that 73 per cent of the bankers had exceeded 15 hours of training, with the remaining meeting the minimum requirement.

Of those who exceeded the training hours, 78 per cent had between 15 and 20 hours of training, while 22 per cent underwent more than 20 hours of training.

IBF said the focus of the training last year was on product knowledge and compliance with existing rules and regulations.

This year, the training will be on client suitability, risk concepts and awareness, wealth and estate planning, understanding of changing tax transparency laws, cyber security and implications of the Personal Data Protection Act.

Under the code of conduct governing the industry, private bankers have to undergo 15 hours of continuing professional development (CPD) every year.

They have to do that after passing a common competency assessment called the client advisory competency standards prior to providing financial advice.

The CPD requirement was implemented in March 1, 2013.

Said Mr Peter Flavel, the chief executive of J.P. Morgan Private Wealth Management in Asia and the head of the advisory group for the CPD: "This underlines our efforts to continuously develop a deep pool of private banking specialists to better serve high net-worth clients."