Dear Member,

Festival Greetings!

Exam time is approaching. I am sure that all the eligible candidates must have begun their preparations in right earnest. I wish all eligible candidates appearing for the exams all the best. 

Let me also take this opportunity of sharing with you some of the recent developments.

Capacity Building

IBA vide its circular dated 26th April 2017, addressed to banks had identified 11 institutions for providing certification in the areas identified by RBI namely, Treasury Operations, Risk Management, Accounting & Audit function and Credit Management. IIBF, being one of the identified institutions, offers courses covering the areas of Treasury Operations, Risk Management and Credit Management.

In addition to the above courses, RBI, vide its letter dated 31st May 2017, addressed to IBA, has mentioned that the course offered by IIBF in association with FEDAI, on “Foreign Exchange Operations” will also be a mandatory qualification, for those who are working or desirous of working in the area of Foreign Exchange Operations.

I am pleased to inform that out of the five areas identified by RBI, IIBF offers four courses, which meet the certification requirements.

The courses offered by the Institute in the areas of Treasury Operations, Risk Management and Credit Management are blended in nature with an online examination followed by training for such of those candidates who have successfully cleared the online examination.

In order to enable the banks to have their officers certified at the earliest, the Institute has increased the frequency of conducting the examinations on Credit, Treasury and Risks in Financial Services.

An additional examination in Risk in Financial Services was held in 30-07-2017 and examinations in Certified Treasury Dealer and Certified Credit Officer will be held on 29-10-2017.  

In order to facilitate candidates to get certified in the area of credit management, the Institute will be holding the exam on credit management at monthly intervals starting from October 2017 at 74 centres as per the schedule indicated below:

I sincerely urge upon all the eligible candidates to take advantage of these additional examinations so as to enable them to understand the finer aspects of the subjects and also perform better in your workplace.

Shri R.K. Talwar Memorial Lecture

The 8^th R K Talwar Memorial Lecture was organized by the Indian Institute of Banking & Finance (IIBF) on 7^th September, 2017, at Hotel Trident, Mumbai in association with State Bank of India. The speaker on the prestigious occasion was Dr. Viral Acharya, Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India. The topic of the lecture was “The Unfinished Agenda: Restoring Public Sector Bank Health in India.”

HR / Training Meet

The annual meeting of IIBF, NIBM & IDRBT with the HR and Training Heads of banks and financial institutions was held by the Institute on 7^th September 2017.   The meeting was well attended by senior bankers. In this meeting, all the three Institutes have shared information about their activities and plans with the HR/Training Heads of Banks and received suggestions and feedback from them.

Global Banking Education Standards Board (GBEStB)

At the recent World Congress of Banking Institutes, banking institutes representing more than 20 countries launched the Global Banking Education Standards Board (GBEStB).  The GBEStB is a voluntary, industry-led initiative, which aims to develop clear, internationally agreed standards for the education of Professional Bankers. IIBF is one of the Founder members of GBEStB.

90^th Year Celebrations

The Institute has completed 89 years of serving the banking fraternity and has entered its 90^th year. In order to celebrate this occasion and in order to reach out to its members in a more meaningful way, the Institute has been conducting “Bankers Meet” and “Outreach Programs” in Tier II and Tier III cities. 

Bankers’ Meet were organised at:

The Institute, for the first time, will also be organizing an inter-bank quiz competition (BANKING CHANAKYA). The Quiz contest open to all staff members currently employed in any bank, located anywhere in India. IIBF has associated with Greycells, India’s foremost Knowledge services and Events Company for the event. An exclusive website (www. bankingchanakya.com has been created for this purpose. Registrations can be made through this website. There are attractive prizes to be won.  I would urge upon all the bankers to make full use of this opportunity.

New Courses

The Institute has also introduced a course for NBFCs. The first exam on the subject will be held in January 2018.

The Institute is having deliberations with SIDBI for introducing a new certificate course for the Small Finance Banks.

Virtual Classroom Solution

The Institute has acquired a software for conducting training through the Virtual Classroom mode. This will enable the Institute to disseminate the training inputs to a larger audience without diluting quality. This will be made operational shortly. To start with, training for the Credit Officer course, which is one of the courses identified by RBI under the capacity building exercise of the banks, will be offered using the Virtual Classroom Solution

Contact classes and learning support

Conduct of contact classes is one of the facilities offered by the Institute for the benefit of the candidates.  Considering the importance of contact classes and in order to improve the coverage of the subjects under JAIIB & CAIIB, the Institute had increased the number of days for conduct of these classes. 

The Institute is also considering introducing contact classes in respect of the courses, particularly credit management, identified by RBI under the capacity building exercise.

Mock Test

The registrations for the forthcoming examinations have already began. Members may take the Mock tests to have a feel of the MCQ pattern of the examination. The Institute has been administering mock test for all the 3 papers of JAIIB/ DB&F and 2 compulsory papers of CAIIB.

Courseware

Based on the recommendations of the Syllabus Revision Committee, we have revised the courseware for the diploma and certificate examinations. The Institute has now taken up the work of updating the courseware for the CAIIB examination.

E Learning

The Institute has updated the e-learning contents developed for its flagship courses namely JAIIB and CAIIB (compulsory subjects).

The Institute has taken up the work of developing e-learning in respect of some of its Diploma and Certificate examinations.

Training

The Institute, besides conducting classroom learning for the blended courses conducts training in niche areas of banking at its Leadership Centre, Mumbai and through its Professional Development Centres at New Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata. Customised training programmes for some individual banks are also being conducted.

In the months of August and September 2017, training programmes have been conducted in the areas of Recovery Management in Banks, Certified Credit Officer, Housing Finance, BCBF/DRA, Trade Finance, Project Finance, Compliance in Banks, Digital Banking, Developing Financial Services - Marketing Strategy, Operational Risk Management and Certified Bank Trainer. Around 368 participants have been trained in these programmes.

Collaborations

Chartered Banker Institute

The Institute has signed a Mutual Recognition Agreement with the Chartered Banker Institute, Scotland. As per the agreement, bank staff who have completed their CAIIB qualification will get 100 credits and will need to study only one module on Professionalism and Ethics to qualify as a Chartered Banker.

MOU with SIDBI

The Institute has entered into a partnership with SIDBI on 11^th July, 2017 to take forward the Certified Credit Counsellor (CCC) program for MSMEs.

Visitors to the Institute

A team of 23 bankers from Nepal lead by Mr. Sanjib Subba, CEO, NBI visited the Institute on 18.9.2017, as a part of their exposure visit to India. The delegates were informed about the various activities of the Institute. 

Debt Recovery Agent

The Institute has accredited 44 institutions for conducting the DRA training. The accreditation is granted based on the guidelines framed by the Institute. During the training, inspections are carried out by the Institute for ensuring that the training conforms to the guidelines.

6th Advanced Management Programme (AMP)

The Institute commenced its 6th "Advanced Management Programme" (AMP) in Banking & Finance for working executives from the Banking / Financial sector on 9th July, 2017. This is an eight-month long weekend programme. IIBF has tied up with Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, to conduct a 30-hour Management Development Programme (MDP) at their campus in Kolkata.

Social Media

The Institute is on Face book and You Tube. The page has since then got over 70,000 likes on various types of posts viz. IIBF / RBI notifications, Quote of the day, Opinion Poll, Greetings, Photos and videos of various events / seminars / conference conducted by the Institute.

Bank Quest

The Institute publishes a quarterly journal Bank Quest. The theme for July – September, 2017 issue is " Issues/Challenges of Indian Banking ". The forthcoming issues will be based on the following themes.

• Micro Research Papers 2017: October – December, 2017
• Cyber Security in Banks: January – March, 2018
• International Banking: April – June, 2018
• Risk Management: July – September, 2018

I request members to contribute articles on above themes for publication in Bank Quest.

Green Initiative

As part of green initiative, the Institute has discontinued sending the hard copies of the IIBF Vision with effect from October-2015 to its members. In case, you have not registered your e-mail id with the Institute, I request you to do so to enable the Institute to send copies of IIBF Vision by e-mail to you in future. You can also download issues of IIBF Vision and Bank Quest from the Institute’s website.

Dr. J. N. Misra

17^th October, 2017