The beginning of the Institute of Bankers of Sri Lanka (IBSL) can be described as follows with their objectives listed.
The IBSL was first established in 1964 in the name of Bankers' Training Institute (Ceylon) by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka and re-incorporated in 1979 by an Act of Parliament, Institute of Bankers of Sri Lanka (Incorporation) Act No. 26 of 1979. The IBSL, as a professional body, discharges four primary mandates according to the act.
1) To provide instruction and training for employees of banking institutions and employees of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka in the study of the theory and practice of banking and of related subjects and for such purpose to provide all facilities including lectures, discussions and library facilities;
2) To conduct examinations and to issue certificates to those who are successful in such examinations;
3) To facilitate and encourage discussions on matters of interest to bankers; and
4) To take such measures as may be desirable to further the interest of banking.
The IBSL also received the approval of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka to include the word "Bankers, Banking and Finance" to incorporate the names of the IBSL.
The Institute of Bankers of Sri Lanka (IBSL) offers two stages of professional exams to banking students.
01) Intermediate in Applied Banking and Finance (IABF)
02) Diploma in Applied Banking and Finance (DABF)
I was able to complete IABF at IBSL in 2017 starting from 2015.
All subjects relevant for IBSL - IABF is shared below in the given image.
The results or examination gradings can be shared below in the given image.
I completed the following subjects with the below results.
(01) Survey of financial system - S
(02) Commercial Banking - S
(03) Business Accounting - S
(04) Introduction to Banking and financial law - C
(05) Principles of economics - S
(06) Financial Clients Management - A
The road to being a part-qualified banking student has been tough but commendable since it was achieved even with marginal success rates.
The inception of this program was when I joined Sampath Bank PLC for a six-month internship in 2015.
I was able to complete the qualification in 2017.
It is a great and a compulsory qualification if you are willing to be a banker in the long run.
During the completion of IABF, I was an accountant in training and many of the theories discussed in the course were invalid to me but for learning purposes I completed them.
I passed "Principles of Economics" in 2015 September.
The theories and relevant modules included in the relevant subject area are,
01. Basic Economic Concepts
01.01. What is the basic economic problem?
Scarcity
01.02. Resources / Factors of Production (FOP)
Land
Labour
Capital
Entrepreneurship
01.03. Economic activities
Using FOP in the production of goods and services.
01.04. Types of economic analysis
01.04.01. Positive and normative
01.04.02. Short-run and long-run
01.04.03. Static and comparative static
01.04.04. Static and dynamic
01.05. Two (02) divisions of the subject of economics
01.05.01. Microeconomics
01.05.02. Macroeconomics
01.06. Production Possibility Curve (PPC)
01.07. Sectors, Markets, and Activities
4 Sectors
(i) Households
(ii) Governments
(iii) Business
(iv) Foreign
3 Markets
(i) Global
(ii) Labour (factor)
(iii) Financial
5 Activities
(i) Production
(ii) Consumption
(iii) Investment
(iv) Imports
(v) Exports
02. Demand, Supply, and the market
03. The effect of price and income and demand quantities
04. Macroeconomic perspective
05. An algebraic solution to the economic level of income
06. The everything you wanted to know in the budget and the budgetary policy.
I was taught these modules at the College of Banking and Finance in Maradana. Now the IBSL is located in a new location in Borella.
This module was taught to me by Mr. D. Wasantha of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) at the institution.
It was for the exam in 2015 September.
"Commercial banking" and "Introduction to Banking and Financial Law" was passed in 2016 March.
I used past papers to complete the modules relevant to the exam and also attended the "College of Banking and Finance" lectures at Maradana under Mr. P. Srikanth for "Commercial banking".
The subjects of the "Commercial Banking" subject include as following.
01. Evolution of Banking - Introduction
- Goldsmith
- Gold Standard
- Banknotes
- Commercial banking in Sri Lanka
02. Banking business lines
02.01. Fund-based activities
02.01.01. Fund-based liability products
Deposits
- Current
- Savings
- Term / Fixed
- Foreign currency accounts
02.01.02. Fund-based asset products
Loan facilities (Short, Medium and Long-term)
- Overdrafts
- Pledge
- Trade finance
- Project loans
- Credit cards
02.02. Fee-based activities
- Investments
- Short term and long term
- Commitments and contingent
- Foreign currency transactions
- Advisory services
03. Authorised dealers and foreign currency operations
- Non-resident and resident
- Foreign currency business accounts
- Foreign currency loans
- Buying and selling foreign currency (Cash/Tom/Spot and Forward)
- Foreign currency remittances
- NOSTRO / VOSTRO accounts
04. Banking Business Model
- Personal
- Transactional
- Retail
- Corporate
- International / Offshore
- Islamic
- Universal
05. Delivery Channels
- Branches / Outlets
- ATM's
- Internet Banking / E-banking
- Mobile banking
- SMS banking
- Tele banking
06. Bank management - stability / Operational Soundness
- Quality of Assets / Non-performing loans / Impairment
- Liquidity
- Profitability
- Solvency of minimum capital requirements
- Capital Adequacy
- Key Performance Indicators (KPI) of a bank
07. Risk Management
- Credit Risk: Policies, limits, Concentration
- Liquidity Risk - ALCO / Liquid assets
- Market Risk
- Operational Risk - Internal Controls
- Strategic Risk - Business Continuity Plans
08. Banking Prudential Regulation and Supervision
09. Recent Banking sector trends and performance in Sri Lanka
10. Global Banking trends, issues and impact from global financial crises
I used past papers to complete the modules relevant to the exam and also attended the "College of Banking and Finance" lectures under Mr. K. G. B. Sirikumara of Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) for "Introduction of Banking and Financial Law".
The structure of the relevant subject includes as follows.
01. Introduction
02. Bills of Exchange
03. Electronic banking
04. Lending and securities
05. Financial Intelligence
In 2016 September I completed, "Business Accounting" which has the following sub-topics.
01. Introduction to Accounting
02. Accounting principles
03. Daybooks/journals
04. Accounting Errors and Suspense Accounts / Control Accounts
05. Bank Reconciliation Statements
06. Period end adjustments
07. Depreciation / Disposal of fixed assets/preparation of final accounts
08. Presentation of financial statements - LKAS 01
09. Partnership accounts
10. Introduction to company accounts
11. Preparation of final accounts of companies
12. Accounting for tangible Non-Current Assets - 01
13. Accounting for tangible Non-Current Assets - 02
14. Statements of Cashflows
15. Accounting for leases - LKAS 17
16. Accounting for taxation - LKAS 12
17. Financial Instruments - LKAS 39
18. Impairment of Assets - LKAS 36
19. Statutory requirements applicable to banks
20. Financial Statements of banks
I used past papers to complete the modules relevant to the exam and also attended the "College of Banking and Finance" lectures under Mr. Prasanna Indrajith of Commercial Bank of Ceylon (Assistant General Manager - Finance) for "Business Accounting".
And also a personal tutor was there to help me during my studies. Mr. Chandana Prasad is the tutor who personally helped me in passing this exam related to accounting.
In 2017 March I completed the "Survey of Financial System" subject.
I used past papers to complete the modules relevant to the exam and also referred to some study texts purchased from the "College of Banking and Finance".
Theories and sub-topics of the relevant "Survey of Financial System" module are as follows.
(i) Economy and the role of the financial system.
(ii) Money
(ii.i) Evolution of money
(ii.ii) Functions of money
(ii.iii) Printing of money
(ii.iv) Demand for money and supply
(iii) The payments and settlements in the financial system.
(iii.i) Sri Lanka Interbank Payment System (SLIPS)
(iii.ii) Real Time Gross Settlement System (RTGS)
(iii.iii) Cheque Imaging and Truncation Systems (CITS)
(iii.iv) SWIFT and Western Union [Society for Interbank Financial Telecommunication]
(iv) Financial market, it's financial products and securities
(iv.i) Deposits
(iv.ii) Company shares
(iv.iii) Treasury bonds
(iv.iv) Re-po and reverse re-po
(iv.v) Foreign currency
(iv.vi) Unit trust
(iv.vii) Venture capital entities
(v) Financial Institutions
(v.i) Central Bank of Sri Lanka
(v.ii) Financial Intermediaries
(v.ii.i) Licensed Commercial Banks
(v.ii.ii) Licensed Finance Companies
(v.ii.iii) Licensed Leasing Companies
(v.iii) Financial Service Providers
(v.iii.i) Licensed Investment Banks
(v.iii.ii) Fund Management Companies
(v.iii.iii) Money exchangers
(v.iii.iv) Brockers
(vi) Stability of the financial system
(vi. i) Financial Crises
(vi.i.i) Banks
(vi.i.ii) Market and credit crises
(vi. ii) Asian Financial Crises and other recent global financial crises
(vi.ii.i) Nature of the financial crises
(vi.ii.ii) Reasons for the financial crises
(vi.ii.iii) Impacts and solutions of financial crises
(vi.iii) Important financial institutions of the financial system
(vi.iv) Risk and uncertainty management of the financial system
In 2017 September I passed IABF completing 'Financial Clients Management' (FCM).
I used past papers to complete the modules relevant to the exam and also referred to some study texts purchased from the "College of Banking and Finance".
(i) Types of financial clients
(i.i) Depositors
(i.ii) Financial Creditors
(i.iii) Investors
(i.iv) Clients related to fee based services
(i.v) Risk appetite of clients and liability to banks and financial institutions
(ii) Management of trust of financial clients
(ii.i) Privacy of the client information and the importance of the financial system stability
(ii.ii) Independence and selection of competitive markets
(ii. iii) Building and maintaining client relationships
(ii. iv) Specialized transactional financial Services (Over the counter financial services)
(ii. v) Open public financial services
(iii) Marketing of financial products
(iii.i) Concepts of marketing
(iii.ii) Introduction to marketing - 7p's
(iii.iii) Marketing plan
(iii.iv) Marketing methods
(iii.v) Market surveys
(iv) Use of Human Resource Management to provide productive financial services
(v) Customer protection and relevant procedures, practices, and laws.
These 6 subjects were passed and I qualified this part banking qualification in order to fulfill my personal goal attainment.
It took me 2 years [2015 September to 2017 September] to become a fully qualified IABF certified student.
It was a personal goal and it allowed me to learn several aspects of banking as well as the world of business.
