BIBF’s Board holds its second quarterly meeting

The Bahrain Institute of Banking and Finance (BIBF) has held its second quarterly meeting for the year, under the governance of His Excellency Mr. Rasheed Mohammed Al Maraj, Governor of the Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB) and Chairman of the Board. The BIBF’s Director Ms. Solveig Nicklos and Deputy Director Dr. Ahmed Abdulhameed Al Shaikh attended the meeting, for discussions and updates on various topics.

The BIBF presented the organisation’s qualifications and learning strategy, and highlighted the value and quality of BIBF’s training programmes based on the National Qualification Framework (NQF). The Management team highlighted the increase in the overall enrolment for financial services training programmes, which has seen a growth of 7%, reflecting a rise in the number of Bahraini employees being trained in this sector.

The Board also discussed BIBF’s milestones to date, which includes the launch of the first phase, of the market-led, fully-fledged online training platform in Islamic Finance in cooperation with The Accounting and Auditing Organisation for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI). The e-learning platform will launch fully by the end of the year to serve a wide range of Islamic Finance practitioners on a global scale.

In addition, the BIBF has seen a strong commitment from the banking sector in terms of training uptake, reflecting its strong resilience despite the challenges, as Bahrain continues to strengthen its position as the financial centre of the Middle East.

The BIBF’s Insurance Centre has re-structured many of its programmes with a renewed focus on accreditation partnerships with international bodies, a reflection of the importance that the institute places on the quality of its offerings and the growth of the insurance industry in the coming period.

The Board further discussed BIBF’s International Foundations Programme, benchmarked by the National Recognition Information Centre (UK NARIC) and comparable to the GCE Advanced level and Scottish Advanced Higher standard. The programme enables students to enrol in higher education institutes in the United Kingdom such as University of Bangor and University of London (London School of Economics), which are offered by the BIBF.

The meeting concluded with an update on BIBF’s financials and stressed on the importance of training and human capital development in all market sectors as a strategic objective of creating a solid foundation for the progression of markets in the Kingdom of Bahrain, which will consequently form a framework for strong, sustainable and balanced growth for the future of the national economy.