The European Banking & Financial Services Training Association (EBTN) and the European Federation of Financial Analyst Societies (EFFAS) held their Annual General Meeting in Budapest on Friday, 8 June 2018. The choice of location is of course not a coincidence: both organizations have an active and initiating member in Hungary: the Institute for Training and Consulting in Banking (ITCB), which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year.
The main focus of the EFFAS AGM, attended by representatives of eleven European countries, was the expected impacts of the MIFID II regulation, said Jesús López Zaballos, President of EFFAS. At the EBTN General Assembly, participants from twenty-three countries discussed the technological innovations of banking education, such as bank simulations and a new international training initiative, explained Colin Morrison, EBTN Chairman of the Board.
The Institute for Training and Consulting in Banking, the first institution of its kind in the region, was established 30 years ago on the initiative of a few private individuals by several Hungarian banks and the French bank training institute (CFPB - (Centre de Formation de la Profession Bancaire) - said the President of ITCB at the press conference. Judit Tóth added: besides education, consulting activities began already in 1995: nowadays, significant proportion of ITCB’s operation is represented by consultancy assignments, both for the banking and the corporate sector.
Most of the employees in the Hungarian banking sector have already studied or taught, but at least attended as lecturers or participants ITCB’s conferences. The number of financial experts and professionals teaching here now exceeds five hundred - Béla Öcsi stated at the press conference. Bankárképző’s CEO reminded that the distance learning program, FEBI, was launched 25 years ago, and its “alumni club" has already over ten-thousand members. In 1995, the first group in the investment analysis program began its studies. The internationally accredited program and exam system has been included in Bankárképző’s training palette for more than 20 years. Since the year 2000, ITCB was among the first institutions in Hungary offering training for the use and utilization of EU funds and institutional development system; hundreds of professionals at line ministries and managing authorities have acquired special qualification through these training programs. During the last 30 years of ITCB, more than fifty thousand students have been able to gain modern money market knowledge at ITCB’s premises.
