SM&CR Individual Conduct Rules
Makes the six COCON individual conduct rules concrete for certification and conduct rules staff, with breach-or-not scenario practice and a clear walkthrough of FCA reporting obligations.
Who this is for
Certification and conduct rules staff at FCA solo-regulated and dual-regulated firms
Learners will be able to
- Recall all six individual conduct rules and how each applies to your role
- Judge whether a realistic workplace situation breaches a conduct rule, and which one
- Explain how Individual Conduct Rule 6 connects personal behaviour to the Consumer Duty
- Describe how and when your firm must report conduct rule breaches to the FCA
- Identify the personal consequences of a breach, from disciplinary action to regulatory references
Template prompt
“Create a compliance module on the SM&CR individual conduct rules for certification and conduct rules staff at an FCA-regulated firm. Cover the six individual conduct rules — act with integrity; act with due skill, care and diligence; be open and cooperative with the FCA, PRA and other regulators; pay due regard to the interests of customers and treat them fairly; observe proper standards of market conduct; act to deliver good outcomes for retail customers — plus what counts as a breach, how breaches must be reported to the FCA, and the personal consequences of non-compliance. Include scenario questions asking which rule applies to realistic workplace situations and whether the behaviour is a breach.”
This prompt is fully editable. Customise it to match your audience, regulations, and learning objectives before generating.
What the 7 sections cover
- 1
Why the SM&CR exists
Context on the post-financial-crisis accountability agenda and the regime's three pillars: the Senior Managers Regime, the Certification Regime and the Conduct Rules.
- 2
The six rules at a glance
Visual map of the individual conduct rules with a plain-English translation and a one-line desk-level example for each.
- 3
Rules 1 to 3 in practice
Integrity, due skill care and diligence, and openness with regulators, illustrated with realistic examples of each rule being kept and broken.
- 4
Rules 4 to 6 and the customer
Treating customers fairly, proper standards of market conduct, and how rule 6 imports the Consumer Duty's good-outcomes standard into personal accountability.
- 5
Breach or not a breach?
Scored scenario check: six borderline situations where learners decide whether a conduct rule was broken and, if so, which one.
- 6
Breach flashcards
Flashcards testing the trickiest distinctions: honest mistake versus lack of due skill, commercial judgement versus integrity failure, delay versus obstruction of a regulator.
- 7
Reporting and consequences
Final scored assessment covering the firm's duty to notify the FCA of breaches, regulatory references when staff move firms, and what a breach finding means for the individual.
Structure is representative — the generator adapts sections to your edited prompt and passes every package through interactivity and visual-density quality gates.
Topics covered
Make it yours
- Name the business area (retail banking, wealth, insurance, asset management) so breach scenarios reflect the conduct risks your staff actually face
- Upload your conduct rules policy or disciplinary procedure so the reporting section mirrors your firm's actual escalation and HR process
- For senior manager audiences, ask the prompt to add the four senior manager conduct rules (SC1 to SC4) and duty-of-responsibility content
Frequently asked questions
Who do the SM&CR individual conduct rules apply to?
Almost everyone at an FCA-regulated firm — senior managers, certification staff and all other employees except purely ancillary roles such as receptionists, security, catering and cleaning staff. Senior managers are additionally subject to four senior manager conduct rules (SC1 to SC4) on top of the six individual rules.
How many individual conduct rules are there now?
Six. The original five rules in the FCA's COCON sourcebook were joined by Individual Conduct Rule 6 — you must act to deliver good outcomes for retail customers — on 31 July 2023, alongside the Consumer Duty. Rule 6 applies in place of rule 4 where the Consumer Duty applies to the firm's business with a customer.
How are conduct rule breaches reported to the FCA?
Firms must notify the FCA when they take disciplinary action because of a conduct rule breach. For senior managers this must be reported within seven business days; for other conduct rules staff, breaches are reported annually via the REP008 return. Breaches also feed into the regulatory references a firm must give when the individual moves to another regulated firm.
When must staff be trained on the conduct rules?
Firms are required to make staff aware of the conduct rules and train them so they understand how the rules apply to their specific role — generic awareness is not enough. In practice that means role-specific training at induction before the rules bite, refreshed when the person's role changes or when the rules themselves change, as they did when rule 6 was added in 2023.
Ready to make it yours?
Customise the prompt, generate a draft, then review the content and SCORM package before delivery.
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