I wish all of you a happy and prosperous new year.
The year 2009 was good for the Institute. One of the major events of the year was the hosting of the 62nd International Banking Summer School in New Delhi-Agra between 30th August and 10th September 2009. The theme for the School was ‘Strategies for the era of turbulence and changing contours of banking’. I am glad to inform you that despite the tough economic conditions prevailing when we announced the School as well as when we conducted it, we received decent participation and all this was possible because of the support from banks that the Institute is so fortunate to receive. This also meant that we were able to rope in some very good speakers from India and abroad for all the sessions. The foreign participants were appreciative of the professional efficiency in the conduct of the IBSS. They were impressed with the scope of Indian Banking and its resilience. The presentations have been put up on our site and I hope you have been able to have a look at them.
As many as 120,000 candidates appeared for the flagship exams JAIIB/CAIIB in May/June and Dec/Jan 09/10.The response to the other diploma and certificate exams was also encouraging as more than 20,000 candidates appeared for these exams. DRA examination attracted more than 20,000 candidates. We were also able to offer the DRA and BC/BF exams in 10 languages. We have also announced that the Microfinance exam will also be held in 10 languages from June 2010. We are happy that our efforts in offering programmes in various areas in banking are receiving a good response from members and non-members.
The quarterly journal Bank Quest was brought out on the themes of Sub Prime Crisis (Jan-March 2009), Trade Finance (April-June), Microfinance (Jul-Sept) and Micro Research Papers (October-December). IIBF Vision, the monthly newsletter was brought out regularly. We hope you find these publications useful in enhancing the breadth as well as depth in your understanding of banking. I am sure you are all aware that some of the questions in JAIIB are drawn from IIBF Vision. The archive of IIBF Vision is available in the Institute’s portal.
Among the things that you can look forward to in the New Year is e-learning for JAIIB and CAIIB. E-Learning for JAIIB will be launched in February 2010 and will be open to all candidates who have registered for JAIIB. This is a massive effort by the Institute and will offer to the JAIIB candidates an opportunity to learn well and perform well in the examination. All JAIIB candidates will be given a login ID in the month of February. Tata Interactive Services is our partner in this initiative. I am sure it will be a good learning experience.
The other important offering from the institute will be the revamped CAIIB with a structure of 2 compulsory papers and 9 or 10 optional papers out of which candidates may choose any one of their choice. This, we hope, will help in ensuring specialization among employees of banks and financial institutions while at the same time giving the candidates the broad-brush of banking. Almost all the courseware for the compulsory and elective subjects are getting ready and will be published shortly. Our endeavor is to shift to the new structure by December 2010. The institute will announce the launch of the new structure well in advance.
During the year, we will be launching a certificate course in Asset Liability Management and an advanced level KYC (Know Your Customer) course.
The Sir PT Memorial Lecture was delivered by Dr Vijay Kelkar Chairman Finance Commission on 29th January. He will talk on Disinvestment. The talk will be placed in the portal shortly thereafter.
We will be holding the 10th Bank HR Conference between 15th and 18th February, 2010 in Mauritius. The theme for the conference will be ‘Talent Management and HR practices for Contemporary Banking’. We are working in close collaboration with the State Bank of Mauritius for this conference. Given the importance HR will be gaining in the near future, we are hoping that the Conference will provide a good platform for learning and exchanging notes on the important topic. Possibly this will help the institute in coming out with appropriate leadership courses.
Regarding examinations, as the number of candidates for the exam is increasing we are re-introducing the seat number in the admit card. Candidates will have to occupy a particular seat which has the seat number allotted to them. This will help in the smooth conduct of the exams.
We had to temporarily discontinue the online exams for JAIIB because of technical glitches. We are working on rectifying the issues. We have been able to sort out the issues and we are planning to hold the online exam for JAIIB in the coming May/June exam at two centers, namely Delhi and Chennai. It is our plan that on-line exams be offered at more centers in future.
We have placed on the portal certain requests to all of you for making available your email ID for the JAIIB e-learning. Also to professionally evaluate the ISO standards we have sought your views on the Institute. I hope many of you will respond to the request and give your opinion of the institute.
