Bangladesh Institute of Bank Management

Bangladesh Institute of Bank Management (BIBM) a specialised training, research and advanced study centre in banking and finance in Bangladesh was established on 31 December 1974. It was registered under the Societies Registration Act 1860. It imparts training to senior and mid-level officers of banking and financial institutions of the country.

Immediately after the independence in 1971, the new government of Bangladesh started reorganisation of the banking sector and creation of efficient banking professionals. The government recruited a total of 1,000 fresh bank officers through a Bankers' Recruitment Committee. But there was no infrastuctural facility to train them. An 11-member Task Force was assigned the responsibility of tackling the problem. Members of the Task Force were sent to India where they received training from the National Institute of Bank Management (NIBM) at Pune. After their return from India, they recommended setting up a training institute for bankers in Bangladesh. Accordingly, BIBM was established.

The institute started functioning in a rented house under the administration of a board of directors consisting of the managing directors of nationalised commercial banks and specialised banks. The governor of bangladesh bank was made the ex-officio chairman. The director general is the chief executive of the institution.

BIBM conducts various types of short-term training programmes and arranges seminars/workshops and conferences. In 1997, it introduced a two-year Masters in Bank Management (MBM) programme. The institute has been publishing a quarterly journal, Bank Parikrama, since 1976, and a bi-monthly BIBM Bulletin on a regular basis.

Up to December 2009, BIBM provided training to 59,930 personnel of different banks in Bangladesh. The list of training courses run by the institute includes credit management, corporate planning, international trade financing, investment banking, lending risk analysis, project financing, trainers'; training, agricultural financing and rural development, management of human resources, computer operations in banks, computer programming, operations research in banks, and bank research method.

The institute conducts about 40 training courses each year, ranging from 10 to 15 days each. It also conducts a 40-day Advance Course on Bank Management for mid-level executives of banks and financial institutions. This programme has recently been renamed as the Senior Bankers' Staff Course. The institute introduced an Out-reach Training Programme at divisional headquarters in 1999. A 32-member teaching team offers courses at the institute. [Abul Kalam Azad]