The functional responsibilities of an asset management firm are set by MiFID II, but they fail in the same place every time. A control everyone knew was weak, left unfixed until it cost a client or drew a regulator. This seminar works through the five functions that run and protect a MiFID II asset management firm, portfolio management, risk management, compliance, the back office and internal audit, and for each one it sets out what the firm is responsible for, where that responsibility tends to break, and a real enforcement action that shows what the break costs.

The thread running through all five functions is operational risk. Every responsibility can fail, and when it does it fails as operational risk, so the seminar teaches each function through its failure points rather than through statute alone.

What you will learn

By the end of the seminar you will be able to:

• Identify what MiFID II makes each of the five functions responsible for, in plain terms anchored in the actual articles.
• Recognise the operational risk in each function, the specific way the work breaks when a responsibility is not met.
• Learn from real enforcement cases, real firms, real regulators and real findings, drawn from the authorities' own decisions.
• Apply the material in your own firm, testing each responsibility against how your firm actually operates.

The five functions

Portfolio management, the first line closest to the client's money, covering suitability, best execution, the ten percent depreciation reporting duty, conflicts and inducements. Risk management, the independent second line that sets and monitors limits. Compliance, the function that keeps the firm honest. The back office, where trades settle, records are kept and client assets are safeguarded. And internal audit, the third line whose task is to check that the other four actually work.

Each function is taught with real enforcement actions from named regulators. Every figure quoted comes from the issuing authority's own decision or notice, and where a matter remains under appeal or before a court the seminar says so and uses the language of allegation rather than finding.

Who should attend

Compliance officers, risk managers, internal auditors, operations and back office staff, and portfolio managers in MiFID investment firms and asset managers, together with the senior managers accountable for these functions. It suits holders of the CySEC Advanced certification and anyone maintaining continuing professional development under a CySEC or comparable EU obligation.

The material assumes working familiarity with how an asset management firm operates. It does not restate the basics.

Regulatory frameworks covered

MiFID II and its delegated regulation, Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/565, are the spine of the seminar, covering suitability, best execution, costs and charges disclosure, the depreciation reporting duty, the compliance function, safeguarding of client assets and the governance of the three lines of defence. The internal audit function is set against the Institute of Internal Auditors Global Internal Audit Standards. The enforcement cases are drawn from regulators across Europe and beyond, applying these obligations in practice.

CPD hours and format

Five CPD units. The seminar is delivered on demand and comprises just over five hours of narrated video across seven lessons, an opening that sets the agenda and learning outcomes, one lesson for each of the five functions, and a closing recap. The presentation deck serves as the written reading reference, so there is no separate workbook. A ten question assessment with a pass mark of seventy percent completes the course and produces a CPD certificate in your name.

How the functions are taught

Each function follows the same three steps. The responsibility in plain words, anchored in the regulation. The operational risk, what tends to go wrong when that responsibility is not met. And a real case, real firms and real findings, wherever a strong one exists. Where there is no strong case to bring, a realistic assessment question takes its place. The seminar closes by drawing the five functions back together into the single discipline beneath them, the ownership of operational risk.

This seminar covers all five functions in one overview. For two of them in depth, see the MiFID II suitability assessment and MiFID II product governance courses. For related conduct material, see the market abuse concepts and real cases seminar.