Australia and New Zealand Institute of Insurance and Finance (ANZIIF) CEO Joan Fitzpatrick says the sale in August last year of financial services body Finsia’s education arm to US group Kaplan poses serious questions on who will drive the future of industry standards in the region.

Writing in the ANZIIF Journal, Ms Fitzpatrick warns against membership bodies divesting themselves of their education arms to “purely profit-driven organisations”.

“In a market that still includes many ‘tick-and-flick’ education products, how long will it be before the mean standard is lowered if there is no one to ensure the industry’s long-term development interests are met?”

She says that in the case of the Finsia sale, “the banking, securities and financial planning sectors of the industry must decide if they wish their professional standards to be dictated by the profit margins of a multi-billion dollar American company”.

But Kaplan CEO Warren Jacobson told insuranceNEWS.com.au market-driven education is becoming the global norm.

Calling Ms Fitzpatrick’s criticism “self-serving” and “very one-dimensional”, he says the model of industry associations being in-principle providers of industry education “is anomalous with global trends”.

“Industry associations the world over have seen the virtue in partnering with commercial educational providers with the scale, systems and intellectual property to maximise educational outcomes,” Mr Jacobson said.

He says ANZIIF should consider following Finsia’s example by looking at external education providers. “It’s incumbent on ANZIIF to open its mind about the best way to meet its members’ interests and see how alternative models would meet that end.”

Finsia CEO Martin Fahy says the sale of its education assets has given Finsia “a sound financial footing to strengthen its focus on professional development, enabling us to devote greater resources to supporting member career development, raising industry standards and policy research and advocacy”.