ICSA

Results for the June examinations have been released by the ICSA – congratulations on getting information to students before the ten week deadline. Don’t forget that the next examination is not in December 2004 but November (details are on the website).

Feedback from the examinations is generally favourable although Business Law seems to have been very demanding. There are a sprinkling of distinctions and merits in the Foundation subjects – many congratulations to our successful students: you are setting the standard for future examinations.

Moving from the start of ICSA studies to the end, congratulations to those of you qualifying in June. In particular we want to say a special “well done” to Rajeshwar Mancoo in Mauritius who started with Foundation subjects and this year passed his final paper. We are particularly proud as Rajeshwar took all the pre-professional and professional subjects by distance learning. Also showing us that if you never give up you will qualify, is Tracey Hill who conquered her demons in Corporate Financial Management  and made June 2004 the last time she took an ICSA exam. Many congratulations Tracey.

Jane will post a complete list of ICSA graduates on the website within the next few days.

COFA/DOFA

You are still waiting for results on the July examination. Keep your spirits up – dates for Belize, Gibraltar and Cyprus are on their pages and our teams look forward to seeing you all again.

In this special tercentenary year  for Gibraltar we say a special congratulations to our Gibraltar team of Vivien, David, Marilyn and Desiree.

CAPITA REGISTRARS

Ex-student John Roundhill and Campbell’s recently organised two specialised courses on the legal background to company meetings. Bringing together the world of experience and the world of academia produced a very interesting cocktail with information moving in both directions. Amongst the serious matters came the most demanding question: What were the voting rights of a parrot with shares in a listed plc?. Suggestions that he could only cast his mark on a “polly vote” were novel but the matter was complicated in that the bird had inherited them from the dog.

And on that interesting note I await your observations. Best wishes Alan

June 2004 News

ICSA News

Good luck to everyone sitting exams this month. Remember it is unprofessional to panic and you all have experience to pull upon when answering the questions.

Strategic and Operations Management Revision group in London:

COFA AND DOFA

Congratulations to our two world prize winners in Gibraltar, Katherine Dent for COFA Trusts and Nadine Bensusan for OBE.

Aileen Cowen of ICSA will be coming to Gibraltar and a special presentation ceremony is being arranged. We look forward to reading about you in the Chronicle and seeing you on GBC TV. 

Courses are going well in Belize and Cyprus. I look forward to seeing you all again soon.

NEW COURSES

We are continuing to develop our special Bachmann's induction courses and will be delivering a new meetings course for a leading Registrar next month.

FINALLY

Interest in the ICSA qualification continues to grow and the latest enquiries are coming from Costa Rica and Guatemala.

March 2004 News

ICSA

By now you should all have received your results. Congratulations to those of you passing and commiserations to those of you who will have to take the same subject again. Don’t despair, the secret is persistence.

We are still waiting for our consolidated results from the ICSA, but judging from those of you who have contacted us, pass rates overall are good. Individual observations on different papers are:

Introduction to English and European Law: the examiner asked a question on the law of trespass. This was the first time this subject has come up, which is surprising as it is not on the syllabus!

Corporate Law: More of you who are graduates are choosing to take this as open book at home. Do make sure that your employer recognises the validity of this approach.

Corporate Governance: we are beginning to worry about the length of the Section A answers required by the examiner. In her report the suggested four mark answers are nearly as long as the twenty markers.

Corporate Administration: the first examination appears to have gone well for our students.

Our distance learning courses are well underway, with many of you are sending in material for marking, which is good. Remember that ICSA is still a prestigious qualification: a pass in examination is an achievement and it requires dedication and hard work to get it.

COFA/DOFA

We expect publication of results at the beginning of April. Good luck. Our distance learning courses are ready to go and we will be starting in training in Gibraltar, Cyprus and Belize very soon.

Do note that ICSA has introduced the following changes. The Institute will no longer include the textbook as part of the enrolment fee. The ICSA fee has been reduced to £105 for COFA and £135 for DOFA. Students must obtain the books themselves. Contact us for further details. The edition for the July examination is the March 2003 edition.

SPECIALIST AND IN HOUSE TRAINING

We continue to expand this area of training provision and can produce tailor-made courses to be delivered in-house.

Examples of recent or current courses include: Corporate Governance updates, Induction Training for new recruits to the Finance Industry, Law and Meetings, Management Toolkit, Trust administration proficiency training.

If you would like to talk about training needs in your company and hear how we could help, give us a call without obligation or email us.

Finally congratulations to all of you graduating and good luck to those of you still studying.

Alan

January 2004 News

Welcome. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and new year.

COFA AND DOFA NEWS

For those of you studying COFA and DOFA there are only a few more weeks before your exams so we hope you have started your revision! Our revision courses in Gibraltar, Cyprus and Belize are all underway this month.

We wish you good luck in your exams.

ICSA NEWS

For those of you studying ICSA, there are only a few more weeks before the results from the December exams are out.  Many of you must have passed a new year resolution to start early, as our enrolment numbers for this time of year are the highest ever.

We have now looked at the December 2003 examination papers and have the following comments:

The Introduction to English and EU law was fair except for the introduction of Trespass, which is not on the syllabus or in the text book.

The Business Law examiner is continuing to follow the text book, although there is a need for its updating. ICSA are aware of this.

Generally the Professional Level One papers tested you.

In Professional level two, Corporate Administration was examined for the first time and many of you have contacted us saying how general you found the paper. Corporate Governance certainly required a knowledge of the Higgs report, which was expected, but the main provisions of the U.S. Sarbanes-Oxley act came as a surprise. A number of you contacted us about the CS exam but on balance it seemed a fair paper.

We will issue our next news in the middle of February after the publication of the ICSA exam results.

OTHER NEWS

Finally we all offer our congratulations to Cheryl and Neville on their wedding day earlier this month. Cheryl is the face of Campbell’s in Barbados and the Caribbean.

Best wishes

Alan