The UPF Barcelona School of Management launches the sixth edition of the Postgraduate Degree in Compliance in Financial Institutions

The program of the UPF-BSM for CaixaBank is run with the collaboration of another leader in the financial sector such as KPMG

The 6th edition of the Postgraduate Degree in Compliance in Financial Institutions is now under way, continuing with its collaboration with KPMG and CaixaBank, and with the responsibility for maintaining the standards that have ensured its place among the top professional training centers in the sector.

It is a tailored program of the UPF-BSM given to employees of CaixaBank and other entities of the group whose activity may be affected by the risks that Compliance tries to avoid. In this regard, the program gives participants a complete vision of all the areas involved in the discipline of regulatory and legal compliance in organizations. Professionals in this field have to be able to conduct a thorough risk analysis in relation to compliance in companies.

The program is run by the UPF Barcelona School of Management, a leader among universities under 50 years old according to the ranking published by Times Higher Education, as explained at the event to launch the program by José Manuel Martínez-Sierra, the Director General of the UPF-BSM. In his speech, he emphasized the importance of the work of Obra Social La Caixa, the charity division of the Spanish financial institution CaixaBank, its training grants and scholarships, of which, he recalled, he was a beneficiary.

The role of Compliance officer has changed considerably over the past decade, evolving from an auditing solicitor focusing solely on the financial sector to become an expert who can work in any sector at international level, with a diverse range of profiles and specialist areas, trained to meet the real needs of companies. In this respect, Carlos López, the Chief Compliance Officer at CaixaBank, emphasized that this postgraduate program ranks among the best in the country and is rated highly by specialist forums. He added that "We are very proud of this postgraduate program. The results are really good”.

During the inaugural event in the presence of all this year’s student, Miquel Comella, the Director of Human Resource Training at CaixaBank, remarked that  “this is the best compliance program that we have launched to date at CaixaBank. I also think that it is important to recognize the School, the UPF Barcelona School of Management. This is not merely a course or any old postgraduate program, but rather a postgraduate program at one of the top 5 business schools in the country”. He went on to state that the task of the compliance officer is to give companies the guidance they need to ensure that they “do the right thing, which is more important than doing the thing right”, paraphrasing the author Peter Drucker.

Lastly, Alain Casanovas, the Academic Director of the program and partner of KPMG, and partner of KMPG, has jointly designed the program with the UPF-BSM and highlighted the importance of the fact that the program is based on compliance principles that meet the s tandards of the ISO, the non-profit organization whose members include 165 of the 194 countries recognized by the United Nations. He ended by emphasizing that “What they will learn on the program is not what I think is important as a compliance professional, nor what a particular company thinks, but rather what the international principles stipulate”.