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The Chartered Institute of Export & International Trade

Empowering global trade

On 10 July 2024, we became the Chartered Institute of Export & International Trade, heralding a new era in our 89-year history, for our members and for global trade.

The Royal Charter, conferred on us by His Majesty King Charles III, is the highest accolade that can be granted to a professional body. It is an acknowledgement of the distinguished role of the Chartered Institute and its members in empowering global trade. 

To mark this new status, we are delighted to share our fresh and modern new identity as the Chartered Institute, and we can’t wait to share more updates with you about how we’re going to continue evolving our services to further empower your international trade.

And if you are not yet a member, make sure to join our community and be a part of this exciting new era for trade.

Finally, if you’d like to learn more about what becoming Chartered means for you and global trade,  you can watch a special broadcast explaining its significance at 2pm BST today on our homepage, featuring our director general Marco Forgione alongside a panel of our most esteemed industry experts.

 

Discover member benefits

Empowering you in global trade 

Watch our director general Marco Forgione MCIEx explain what Chartered status means for members and how we'll empower your business to thrive in international trade. 

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Watch the video below to learn how Chartered Institute member Lyndsay Hogg MIEx, the founder and managing director of King’s Award winner Hogg Logistics, has benefitted from membership. Lyndsay also shares her thoughts about our new Chartered status.

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Your questions answered: What the move to Chartered means for you

If you have any questions or concerns about our transition to becoming the Chartered Institute, we’ll answer – just send through your queries to clientservices@export.org.uk. 

The Charter

Royal Charters have been granted to organisations by the Sovereign, on the advice of the Privy Council, since the 13th century. Incorporation by Charter infers a new legal personality on a body and reflects its high status. It is a prestigious accolade that marks the trust placed in an organisation by the Sovereign. You can read more about the history of Royal Charters here.

A Royal Charter is the highest recognition that a professional institution can be granted and a mark of the trust given in that body to deliver economic and social value. Being the Chartered Institute increases our credibility both in the UK and abroad, supporting us in our mission to empower global trade.

Charter

Yes – the Charter itself was displayed at a recent Extraordinary General Meeting of members that was held in advance of us becoming the Chartered Institute. It will be kept at our central office in Peterborough. To the left, you can see a picture of the Charter, alongside our director general Marco Forgione MCIEx and chair Terry Scuoler CBE MCIEx.

According to the Privy Council, Charters are “granted rarely these days”. Before gaining the Charter, the Chartered Institute submitted a petition to the Privy Council and was then assessed according to a number of criteria, including: 

  • Whether its members comprised of a “unique profession” without overlap with other bodies
  • It was financially sound with a demonstrable “track record of achievement over a number of years”
  • Whether there was a “public interest” for future amendments to the body’s Charter to require approval from the Privy Council

The Chartered Institute’s new identity

We became the Chartered Institute in July 2024.  In the run-up to becoming Chartered, the team spent months working tirelessly on a new and fresh brand identity, alongside the development and enhancement of various new and existing services. We are looking forward to sharing more information about how we will empower your business and global trade in the weeks and months to come.

If you currently include our old logo or our old name (‘the Institute of Export & International Trade’ or ‘IOE&IT’) on your website, or in any other digital or physical media, we ask that you change these references to our new logo and name. To access our logo and for guidance on how to refer to the Chartered Institute, please review our new ‘brand guidelines' here. 

We are cognisant that our brand and name has been used across a wide range of digital and physical media over the course of our 89-year history. We will work with you to support you to use our new brand and name.

If you have specific questions about using our new name and brand identity, please email clientservices@export.org.uk. 

If you use or display badges that show your membership with us, we ask that you use the updated versions of these badges with the Chartered Institute’s branding. 
If you currently use digital badges to display any training course or qualification that you completed with the Institute before 10 July 2024, before it became the Chartered Institute  , you will not need to amend these  as they will remain valid and formally recognised.
However, if you have completed any of our training courses or qualifications since we became the Chartered Institute, you will have been given certificates and badges with the new branding of the Chartered Institute and should use these to mark your achievements.
If you are unsure about any of the above, we’re here to help you. Get in touch and we’ll get you there.

The Chartered Institute continues to be a charity and is registered with the Charity Commission for England and Wales with the registration number 1206688.

Membership

You don’t need to do anything as your membership of IOE&IT was automatically transferred to the Chartered Institute in July 2024. We notified all members of the change ahead of becoming Chartered and deemed that you agreed to this transfer unless you informed us otherwise.

The Chartered Institute maintains an up-to-date Register of Members which identifies all members and their membership categories. The Register of Members is held in the Chartered Institute’s database, which is the same database as was previously used by IOE&IT, meaning no data transfer was required to take place. 

Yes, with the registration reference number ZB684502.

Member’s records were transferred to the Chartered Institute exactly as they were at the point of transfer, meaning your renewal position should not have been affected. 

The new status further empowers the Chartered Institute’s members as it increases your status among your peers, increases your marketability, fosters greater public trust in your work and elevates the standing of your career as a trade professional.

While the Chartered Institute has been granted a Royal Charter as a professional body, it does not yet have the ability to confer this status onto its members. In essence, you can say that you are a member of the Chartered Institute, but you cannot yet say that you are a ‘Chartered member ’.

We will update members should this change in the future.

Yes – a new suffixes have been set out within the Charter itself, including the following changes:

  • FIEx for fellows of the Institute is now FCIEx for fellows of the Chartered Institute
  • MIEx for full members of the Institute is now MCIEx for full members of the Chartered Institute
  • Full members who have been accredited by us with a qualification of level 5 or above can use MCIEx (grad)
  • Associate members go from using AMIEx to AMCIEx

The cost of your membership subscription will stay the same this year. 

Following the move to Chartered, your direct debits are now collected by the Chartered Institute, rather than IOE&IT. Your direct debits will now be annual and we will advise you each year, before the transaction, of the amount to be charged. You should have received a notification from us and our payments provider (GoCardless) about this. 

The Member Undertaking was updated to reflect the transition towards becoming the Chartered Institute. T This can be viewed here (see I5, B4 and S4).

Education and training

Qualifications will not become Chartered qualifications, though the Chartered Institute will nonetheless look to further enhance the credibility and reputation of its students and alumni in this exciting new era. 

Any badges or certificates gained for courses you completed before the Institute became the Chartered Institute remain valid with the pre-existing Institute branding and accreditation.

You will be able to go onto your course as planned.

Prices for the Chartered Institute’s training courses and qualifications remained unchanged at the point of transfer.

Other

Yes, the Chartered Institute is operational across all of the previous Institute’s activities both in the UK and overseas. The Chartered Institute’s mission to empower trade is a global one. Wherever you’re based in the world, we’ll get you there. 

If you have any questions or concerns about us becoming the Chartered Institute, we’ll answer – just send through your queries to clientservices@export.org.uk.