1. Introduction
The Association of Compliance Officers in Ireland (ACOI), is delighted to announce the winners of the third Niall Gallagher Professional Diploma in Compliance Scholarship.
The Scholarship promotes the importance of further education and recognition of professional certification in the advancement of an individual in their career in Compliance. We hope that this scholarship will assist the winners to realise their educational and career goals. It is named the Niall Gallagher Professional Diploma in Compliance Scholarship in recognition of Niall’s contribution to the field of Ethics and Compliance, and in particular for his involvement in the formation and development of the ACOI. Niall was the founding Chairman of the ACOI and a career banker working for over 40 years in AIB plc until his retirement in 2008. Niall is an Honorary Fellow of the ACOI and is a former Chair of the ACOI Ethics Committee.
The original idea for the ACOI was that it would be a single entity covering all financial services run by practitioners for practitioners. Its principal objectives include the education, training and competency development of Compliance professionals in regulatory Compliance and business ethics and Niall was one of the architects and founders of the ACOI.
2. What is the Scholarship?
The Niall Gallagher Professional Diploma in Compliance Scholarship provides the 1st place winner with registration onto the academic programme Professional Certificate and Diploma in Compliance (PDC), which is considered the benchmark qualification in Compliance and is delivered by our educational partner the Institute of Banking, a recognised college of UCD, together with ACOI membership for two membership years. On the successful completion of this academic programme the graduate will be eligible to apply for the Licentiate of the Association of Compliance Officers in Ireland (LCOI) designation from the ACOI.
3. More about the PDC programme and the LCOI designation
The PDC programme is a level 7 programme (20 ECTS credits comprising of 4 modules). It is a distance learning programme delivered through webinars. There are three exam sittings a year in January, May and September.
The LCOI, is a professional designation awarded by the ACOI and is only available to those who hold the Professional Diploma in Compliance (PDC) and agree to comply with the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) obligations associated with the designation (15 hours per annum). The LCOI designation is one of the recognised qualifications under the Central Bank of Ireland’s Minimum Competency Code. LCOI designates are entitled to use the designatory letters ‘LCOI’ after their name.
What the scholarship includes?
There are three prizes:
1st Place: Registration on the PDC Programme & ACOI membership for 2 membership years.
2nd Place: ACOI membership for 2 membership years.
3rd Place: ACOI membership for 1 membership year.
The top three essays will also be published in Irish Compliance Quarterly (ICQ), the ACOI’s quarterly e-zine.
The December 2018 winners are as follows:
1st Place: Barbara Parnell
2nd Place: Joseph Anwana
3rd Place: Evelyn Mulcahy