Accredited organizations can brand and decide their course curriculum.
NISM has invited applications for education providers to accredit the certification examinations for Investment Advisers. An accredited organization can provide educational training to candidates who wish to acquire Investment Advisory certification.
According to SEBI’s Investment Adviser Regulation, an individual registered as investment advisor shall have a certification from NISM or any other organization or institution provided that such certification is accredited by NISM.
A senior official of NISM told Cafemutual that the accredited organisation can brand and decide the course curriculum. However, the curriculum should be in line with the existing courses of NISM such as NISM-Series X-A, Investment Adviser Level 1 and Level 2 etc. NISM may suggest changes to the course curriculum, administrative capacity, etc.
Keeping in mind the criteria like background of the organization and policies & processes followed for the certification examination, NISM will accredit the certification. Initially, the accreditation will be given for one year which can be later renewed for two more years. However, NISM can terminate accreditation if it receives complaints like poor quality of content, lack of periodic updates or irregularity.
To ensure the quality of accredited certification examinations, NISM will conduct inspections from time to time and may also audit the processes and procedures followed to conduct accredited certification examinations.
Applicants have to pay a non-refundable fee of Rs 1 lakh for accreditation along with their application forms. Accreditation committee will scrutinize the applications and make recommendations to NISM for grant of accreditation. The accredited organisations have to pay accreditation fees of Rs 1 lakh per certification accreditation and Rs 2 lakh for renewal of each accreditation. Also, NISM will charge fees of Rs 300 per candidate for maintenance of record.
The last date of submission of application is November 15, 2013.
