Due to Covid-19 where the mass gathering of people is prohibited, AFAS held its first Virtual CEO Forum for the Year 2020.

We had an overwhelming response from POs of our Firm Members when we met each other on-screen via the Zoom Platform.

Angie greeted everyone with a warm welcome and acknowledged our new Firm members, Avrio, Legacy, Unicorn and Linc has joined the AFAS family.

President J Para shared on the impact and challenges the industry is facing during Covid-19 such as the (1) Rules on meeting clients due to social distancing, (2) Remote engagement with clients due to Work From Home (WFH) implementation and (3) Lack of support and tools for WFH.

AFAS President strongly felt that many members had taken the challenges in their stride and had been able to work with the new demands, though all are fully aware of the pressure on revenue. He also highlighted the increasing phishing that has happened to be a threat to the industry and urged all to be more vigilant.

Next, we had Mr Salim to share on the progress on the Policy Submission Gateway (PSG) Project which has been in the preparation stage for the last one year, and he is confident that it will go online by next year.

Mr Vincent Ee gave a more in-depth sharing and understanding on MU76, highlighting some issues in the volume-based incentive offered to Financial Advisers.

This year we had invited IBF to join us at the Forum to introduce IBF’s integrated approach to skills development and jobs for the financial industry. This involved Training for upskilling, Recruitment for hiring and Workforce Transformation for career advisory, reskilling, and engagement. The introduction of the Skills Framework for the Financial Industry is a collaboration between MAS, SkillsFuture Sg, WorkForce Sg and IBF.

IBF reminded that Financial Institutions could seek IBF accreditation for its in-house programmes or send their staff to IBF accredited external programmes.

In closing, our President believes with Covid-19 still lingering on; we are unlikely to return to the old normal and urged everyone to embrace the new normal with confidence.

Lastly, he thanked Angie for making the Forum a success, and he looks forward to more virtual engagement with the Members soon.