The IMS Group, the international firm advising financial firms on regulatory compliance issues, has formed a joint venture with Eukleia Training to roll out elearning courses for the sector.

IMS and UK-based Eukleia have developed a suite of courses and workshop sessions covering general compliance, financial crime and market conduct. The courses comprise an associated learning management system that enables firms to assign, track, audit and report training undertaken by their staff, creating a vital record which will become increasingly important as regulatory requirements continue to grow.

“For too long there has been a lack of e-learning courses designed to meet the specific requirements of the alternatives sector.By partnering with IMS we aim to correct this and provide high quality elearning products which complement the existing workshop offerings of IMS,” Patrick Thompson, Eukleia Training chief executive, said in a statement.

Compliance-related pressures on wealth managers have risen steadily in recent years, fuelled by the turmoil of the credit crunch. Regulatory issues are now accounting for a heavy chunk of companies’ IT spending, for example. (To view a recent article on the issue, click here; to view an interview with IMS, click here.) Among the regulatory pressures are the UK’s Retail Distribution Review reforms to wealth advice; the US FATCA Act, the European Union’s directive on alternative investments, and the latest version of UCITS regulations on European cross-border funds.