Dear Member,
Wishing you A Very Happy New Year 2020.
Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come, whispering, 'It will be happier.'
Now, let me share with you some of the important developments in the Institute
Meet of HR and Training Heads of Banks
The Institute organises an annual meet of the HR and Training Heads of various banks.
This meet enables the Institute to obtain valuable feedback from the bankers for
developing new initiatives for the benefit of the banking fraternity. For the fiscal
2019-2020, this meet will be held on 1st February 2020, Saturday at Hotel Hindusthan
International, Kolkata.
Memorial Lectures
36th Sir Purshotamdas Thakurdas Memorial Lecture
The 36th Sir Purshotamdas Thakurdas Memorial Lecture will be held on
1st February 2020, Saturday at Hotel Hindusthan International, A-235/1,
AJC Bose Rd, Kolkata- 700020 and will be delivered by Hon’ble Justice Sh.
S J Mukhopadhaya, Chairperson, NCLAT on the topic “IBC and its impact on the
economy”.
10th R K Talwar Memorial Lecture
The 10th Shri R. K Talwar Memorial Lecture was organised by the Institute
on 22nd November, 2019 and was delivered by Mr. Sanjeev Sanyal, Principal
Economic Advisor, Government of India and Co-chair of G20’s Framework Working
Group, Ministry of Finance, Government of India. The topic for the Lecture was “Beyond
Risk: Policy making for an Uncertain World”. Many senior bankers and other
dignitaries from various fields attended the Lecture.
New premises for Institute’s offices in New Delhi and Kolkata
The Institute has acquired its own premises in New Delhi and Kolkata. Both these
premises are centrally located. The new premises of IIBF in Kolkata will be inaugurated
by Mr. Rajnish Kumar, Chairman, SBI and President, IIBF on 1st February 2020. The
premises at New Delhi will have hostel facilities. Besides, both the premises will
have VCRT facilities. Both the offices will focus on academic activities relevant
to the banking fraternity.
Workshops/Seminars
A seminar for the Non-Banking Finance Companies based at Western India was organised
on 17th December 2019. The Key Speaker at the seminar was Mr. Sujit Kumar Varma,
Deputy Managing Director, SBI.
Webinar on Forensic Audit
As part of Institute’s Member Education Series and in order to spread a higher
level of awareness amongst bankers about the important developments happening in
the banking and finance domains, the Institute had organised its first Webinar on
a very contemporary topic “Forensic Audit” on 10th October
2019. The webinar was delivered by Mr. Rakesh Kaushik, FCA, Faculty, IIBF.
Call for Micro / Macro Research Proposals
The Institute invites micro and macro research proposals for the year 2019-20. The
topics on which the micro / macro papers are to be submitted are listed in the website.
The last date for submitting the papers /proposals is 31st January 2020.
For details please visit www.iibf.org.in.
Bank Quest
The Institute publishes a quarterly journal called “Bank Quest”.
The themes for the next coming issues of “Bank Quest” are identified
as under:
- “Alternative Channels of Investments” - Sub –themes: Mutual Funds,
Post-Office & Bank Deposits & others: January – March, 2020
- “Strategic Technology Trends in Banks” – Sub – themes: Traditional
lending to Digital flow based lending, Fintech landscape in India, Cyber Security,
Big Data Analytics, Customer Experience: April – June, 2020
- “NBFCs, Systemic Risk and interconnectedness amongst Financial Institutions”:
July-September 2020.
Bank Quest included in UGC CARE List of Journals
IIBF’s Quarterly Journal, Bank Quest has been included in the Group B of UGC
CARE list of Journals. The University Grants Commission (UGC) had established a
“Cell for Journals Analysis” at the Centre for Publication Ethics (CPE),
Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) to create and maintain the UGC-CARE (UGC
- Consortium for Academic and Research Ethics). As per UGC’s notice, research
publications only from journals indexed in UGC CARE list should be used for all
academic purposes.
Scheme for Research Fellowship in “Banking Technology”
Adoption of technology has changed the contours of banking. The Core Banking Solutions
(CBS) opened new vistas. A customer no longer banks with a branch but with a bank.
Banks of today have however moved beyond CBS and have embraced newer and emerging
technologies like Big Data Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, Block chain, etc.
These technologies have ushered in a metamorphosis of change in the Indian banking
landscape and are considered to be a driving force. Nevertheless, these emerging
technologies are not without their challenges. Cyber security assumes critical importance
as in an internet-based banking environment, cyber frauds can happen with global
footprints. Research covering the above emerging technologies may therefore prove
to be highly beneficial for the banks.
In the above milieu, Indian Institute of Banking & Finance (IIBF) has taken
an initiative to announce a “Research Fellowship in Banking Technology”
in collaboration with IDRBT. The research fellowship carries an award of Rs. 5 lakh
and will be fully funded by IIBF.
Research proposals will be invited in the following thrust areas:
- Cyber Security
- Analytics
- Mobile Banking
- Emerging Technologies
- Payment Systems
The scheme is open from 15th October 2019 to 14th January
2020. Further details are placed on the website of the Institute.
Launching of New Certificate / Diploma Courses
In order to keep pace with the ever-changing banking landscape, the Institute introduces
new courses for improving the skill base of the banking fraternity.
Some of the new certificate courses which are on the anvil are:
- Emerging Technologies
- Strategic Management & Innovations in Banking
- Resolution of Stressed Assets of Banks with special emphasis on the Insolvency &
Bankruptcy Code
Capacity Building Courses in banks
In today’s competitive banking environment, it is imperative that bankers
keep themselves abreast of the latest developments in the banking and finance domains.
The Reserve Bank of India had therefore mandated acquiring qualifications in the
areas of Credit Management, Risk Management, Treasury Management, Accounting and
Foreign Exchange Operations. In this connection, I am happy to state that IIBF offers
courses covering all the above areas identified by RBI.
Examination for Business Correspondents
RBI has identified IIBF as the sole certifying agency for certifying the Business
Correspondents of both the Scheduled Commercial Banks and Payments Banks. The syllabus
for the examination has been revised in consultation with RBI. The Institute has
also tied up with CSC e-Governance for certifying the BCs.
Virtual Classroom Solution
The Institute has acquired a software for conducting training through the Virtual
Classroom mode. This will enable the Institute to disseminate training inputs to
a larger audience, without diluting quality. Virtual training for Certificate in
Risk in Financial Services, Certified Treasury Professional and Accounting &
Audit have also been introduced. For more details, please visit our website
www.iibf.org.in.
Mock Test facility for Examinations
The Institute is offering mock test facility for three of its specialized courses,
viz. Certified Treasury Professional, Certified Credit Professional and Risk in
Financial Services, in addition to its flagship courses viz. JAIIB & CAIIB.
Self-paced E-learning courses
With rapid progress in technology and advancement in learning systems, E-learning
has been embraced by the masses, a formalised teaching system with the help of electronic
resources. E-learning has been developed by the Institute for some of its subjects
and is made available to the candidates registering for the examinations, as an
additional pedagogical tool. To further diversify its portfolio of offerings, the
Institute has developed a new mode of certification called the Self-paced e-learning
cum certification courses. Two courses namely “Ethics in Banking” and
“Digital Banking” have been introduced.
IT Initiatives
All the activities undertaken by the Institute are in on-line mode. While continuing
to take further initiatives in this regard, the Institute has implemented issuing
Digitally Signed Certificates for all the examinations to replace the paper based
manual certificates. This is a part of one of the green initiatives of the
Institute.
Training
The Institute, apart from conducting training under the capacity building courses,
also conducts training programmes in other niche areas.
Bank Executive Programme
IIBF hosted The11th Bank Executive Programme (BEP) for the Senior Management Officials
of Commercial Banks from 4.11.2019 to 8.11.2019 at the Leadership Centre of the
Institute in Mumbai. BEP is being organized jointly by NIBM, IDRBT and IIBF by rotation.
So far, 10 BEPs have been conducted in three Campuses of the above apex Institutes.
Faculty of all the three Institutions and industry experts and practicing Senior
Bankers facilitated the sessions on different areas like Credit, HR, IT and Risk
Management. Total 19 participants from different banks attended this programmes.
The programme was highly appreciated by the participants.
AMP Alumni Annual conference
The first annual meet of IIBF AMP Alumni Association (AMPAA) was held at the Leadership
Centre of the Institute in Mumbai on 9th November 2019. The meet was
attended by a large number of the Alumni Members and IIBF Faculty.
Programme on Banking Compliance
The programme was held at the Leadership Centre from19th November 2019 to 21st
November 2019. 26 participants including officials from foreign banks attended the
programme facilitated by senior practicing experts.
Training Programme for SFBs
A three-day training programme was held at Guwhati for the Area Managers of North
East Small Finance Bank from 16th to 18th September 2019.
MDP at IIM Calcutta for the AMP Participants
Participants of Advanced Management Programme (AMP VIII Batch 2019- 2020) attended
a week long MDP Course at IIM Calcutta during 25th to 29th
September 2019. Senior professors of IIM Calcutta facilitated the sessions. MDP
is an integral part of the AMP offered by IIBF.
Cut-off date of guidelines/important developments for examinations
The Institute has a practice of asking some questions in each exam about the recent
developments/guidelines issued by the regulator(s) in order to test if the candidates
keep themselves abreast of the current developments. However, there could be changes
in the developments / guidelines from the date the question papers are prepared
and the dates of the actual examinations. In order to address these issues effectively,
it has been decided that:
- In respect of the exams to be conducted by the Institute for the period from February
2020 to July 2020, instructions/guidelines issued by the regulator(s) and important
developments in banking and finance up to 31st December, 2019 will only
be considered for the purpose of inclusion in the question papers.
- In respect of the exams to be conducted by the Institute for the period from August
2020 to January 2021, instructions/guidelines issued by the regulator(s) and important
developments in banking and finance up to 30th June, 2020 will only be
considered for the purpose of inclusion in the question papers.
Green Initiative
As part of green initiative, the Institute has discontinued sending hard copies
of its monthly publication “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.
We, at the Institute are thankful to all of you for your continued support. I am
also sure your unstinted cooperation will continue in the years to come.
I welcome suggestions and guidance from the members on various academic and training
activities of the Institute.
Dr. J. N. Misra
1st January 2020.
