IDD Continuing Training: 15 Hours in Insurance, 7 in Credit

Getting registered in the French register of intermediaries is only a start. Since the transposition of the European insurance distribution directive, every professional distributing insurance or credit must maintain their skills every year, for a number of hours fixed by the rules. It is a permanent, auditable duty, and one of the most common sources of difficulty at inspection.

Where the duty comes from

Directive (EU) 2016/97 on insurance distribution, known as the IDD, requires insurance distributors to maintain their knowledge and ability through at least fifteen hours of professional training per year.

It was transposed into French law by ordinance no. 2018-361 of 16 May 2018 and decree no. 2018-431 of 1 June 2018, whose continuing-training provisions took effect on 23 February 2019.

The European legislator’s reasoning is explicit: competence verified at entry says nothing about the state of a person’s knowledge five years later. Products change, and so does regulation — data protection, anti-money laundering, the duty to advise, sustainability. An entry requirement without upkeep protects the customer poorly.

Two volumes, two perimeters

Fifteen hours a year for persons carrying on insurance distribution. The duty covers registered intermediaries, but also employees of intermediaries and of insurance undertakings who are directly involved in distribution, as well as those responsible for it.

Seven hours a year for banking and payment services intermediaries, on content relating to credit intermediation.

The two duties are independent. A firm distributing payment protection insurance alongside its mortgages falls under both, and the hours do not offset one another: fifteen hours of insurance content do not discharge the seven hours owed for credit intermediation. Combined categories make this easy to overlook — see our article on IAS and IOBSP levels of professional competence.

How the hours may be completed

The rules are flexible on form and demanding on substance.

The hours may be completed in one or several sessions, consecutive or not, spread across the year. They may be delivered in person, remotely, or as a combination. No single session and no particular format is imposed.

The content, however, must relate to the activity carried on. A general sales course on cold calling does not discharge the duty; a module on the duty to advise, on anti-money laundering or on a change to a policy wording does. Consistency between the content followed and the products distributed is the first thing an inspection looks at.

Evidence: what to keep

The duty is not declared to any counter: it must be demonstrated at inspection. It is for the intermediary — or the employer, for its staff — to keep the records.

In practice, a defensible file contains, for each person concerned: named training certificates, detailed programmes, dates and durations, and an annual summary showing at a glance that the total adds up.

The simplest approach is a table per person per year, updated after each session. Reconstructing two years of continuing training under pressure, during an inspection or a sale of the business, is a miserable exercise.

What the research says about mandatory continuing training

Mandatory continuing training is a long-established device, extensively studied in the health professions. A 2023 scoping review by Rodney Magwenya, Andrew Ross and Logic Ngatiane, “Continuing professional development in the last decade – a scoping review”, surveys the past decade: the authors note that a mandatory character is a powerful driver of actual completion, and that schemes combining several modalities with sustained support produce better results than isolated activities (see the study).

The lesson transfers directly. Seven or fifteen hours consumed in a single December webinar discharge the formal duty; they change little in practice. Spread across the year, chosen to match the products actually distributed and followed by application on the job, they become useful.

How this fits with the annual renewal

Two calendars should not be confused.

Continuing training is a permanent duty, supervised by the ACPR as part of conduct supervision. It is not declared to ORIAS.

Renewal of the registration is an annual administrative step, to be completed before 1 March, during which ORIAS checks that the registration conditions are still met: insurance, financial guarantee where applicable, membership of an approved professional association. The detail is in our article on ORIAS renewal and grounds for strike-off.

The two do meet on one point: the approved professional associations that brokers must join under the law of 8 April 2021 contribute to their members’ continuing training and often offer tailored programmes.

Choosing a provider

The continuing-training duty creates a market, and not all suppliers are equal. Three criteria sort them out.

Content compliance: the programme must be documented, dated and tied to the themes expected for the activity concerned.

Traceability: the provider must issue usable named certificates showing duration and content — not a mere connection log.

Funding: a provider certified under Qualiopi allows public and pooled funding to be mobilised for these courses, which changes the economics for a firm training several staff.

Take action

Plan your hours at the start of the year rather than in December, and keep a named summary from the first session onwards: it is the only way to get through an inspection without an emergency reconstruction. Our full sheet on ORIAS registration places this duty within the wider scheme, and the overview of French professional certifications shows other occupations with comparable obligations.