The Indian Institute of Banking & Finance (IIBF) will begin accepting applications for its recently launched certified banking compliance professional course from August first week.
This is a joint certification course with the Company Secretaries' institute targeted at the latter’s members as well as CAIIB members.
The aim is to make available well qualified candidates to work in the compliance department in banks.
"The whole idea of this course is to create a cadre of compliance professionals", R Bhaskaran, Chief Executive Officer of IIBF told Business Line.
For company secretaries, this certification course will be an "add-on" in terms of giving them an option to specialise in banking and take up role of compliance officers in banks.
"We have a natural affinity to compliance and good governance. Compliance as a culture is not there. So intervention of professional body is what the doctor ordered", said S.N.Ananthasubramanian, President, Institute of Company Secretaries of India.
Banks in India have so far put mostly generalists as their compliance officers. But now with Basel III capital rules in play, most banks are looking to take compliance on a serious note and even looked at setting up full-fledged departments for this function.
Meanwhile, from September, the Company Secretaries Institute will move to a new syllabus for its professional CS course that would include banking laws and practice.