AMF professional certification — knowledge verification for market professionals

Two very different audiences. On one side, individuals working for an investment firm, a management company or a financial investment adviser in one of the functions listed in the General Regulation: salesperson, portfolio manager, financial analyst, financial instrument trader, clearer and head of clearing, head of post-trade, compliance officer. On the other, the training providers that want to run the certified examination and must therefore have their examination certified by the AMF.

What this scheme covers

• C.1A body of minimum knowledge defined by the AMF after an opinion from the Financial Skills Certification Board, split into two sets: the regulatory and ethical environment on one hand, technical knowledge and financial literacy on the other.
• C.2Two verification routes with markedly unequal effects: internal verification, organised by the firm and valid only within it, and the AMF-certified examination, whose pass certificate follows the individual from one employer to the next.
• C.3A certification that covers a provider's examination, never individuals: the AMF certifies training providers deemed able to run the examination and publishes their list; it is those providers that issue pass certificates to candidates.
• C.4A multiple-choice examination fed by a common examination database shared between certified providers, whose questions are updated at least once a year to keep pace with regulatory and market developments.
• C.5A separate module devoted to sustainable finance, opened to provider certification by its own instruction: it targets professionals marketing sustainable investment products and goes beyond the sustainable-finance questions already present in the general examination.

The link with Qualiopi

The two stack up rather than replace each other. The certification issued by the AMF covers an examination: it attests that your organisation can run the knowledge-verification test under controlled conditions. It says nothing about your training process, nor about your ability to draw on public or pooled funding. As soon as you sell exam preparation as a training action funded by an OPCO, the personal training account or any other public funder, Qualiopi certification applies, with its 32 indicators. An AMF-certified provider without Qualiopi can run the examination; it cannot have the preparatory training funded.

The process, summarised

1. 1.On the employer's side: identify the people performing a listed function, check whether they already hold a pass certificate for the certified examination, and start the six-month clock for those who do not, arranging appropriate supervision in the meantime.
2. 2.Choose between internal verification and the certified examination with the long run in mind: internal verification only counts inside the firm that organises it, whereas the pass certificate for the certified examination stays with the individual, including on a change of employer or role.
3. 3.On the candidate's side: register with a provider on the list published by the AMF, prepare the two categories of questions separately — the pass threshold is assessed category by category, with no averaging between them — then sit the test.
4. 4.On the training provider's side: file with the AMF the certification application set out in instruction DOC-2010-09, together with the required sample examinations, demonstrate the ability to run the test under controlled conditions, then, once certified, maintain its question bank, comply with the rules of the common examination database and send the AMF the information report due every three years.
5. 5.For the sustainable finance examination, follow its own certification procedure, described in instruction DOC-2021-03: it sets out the characteristics of the examination, the content of the application file and the obligations of certified providers.