The Bahamas Institute of Bankers has undergone dramatic transformation, including a name change, in order to reflect the evolution-taking place in the banking industry, President Terry Hilts announced on February 25.
The professional training and development organisation will now be known as the Bahamas Institute of Financial Services (BIFS).
Addressing a gathering of the Institute’s 43 member companies, Mr. Hilts said “We hope that this name change will be a sign of our intention to open our doors to attract employees of all other related sectors of the financial services industry.”
The former Bahamas Institute of Bankers began operations in 1975 with the Associate of The Bahamas Institute of Bankers (ABIB) programme. The Institute has conferred 496 such diplomas in the past 27 years. Responding to recent changes and heightened demands in the local financial services industry, BIFS began the daily administration of a new anti-money laundering and compliance diploma programme in association with The Bahamas Association of Compliance Officers (BACO and the International Compliance Association (London). The course is now in its first session.
“We wanted to represent our growth and the expansion of financial services in The Bahamas,” said Chairperson of the Education Committee, William Delancey. “When we say we are the ‘Bankers’ Institute’, we limit ourselves. But we have found that, even outside The Bahamas, institutions like ourselves have been looking at making this change; it has been happening throughout the world. We see our role in society as one of the institutions that help to better prepare the workforce for the future of the country.”
Kim Bodie, Executive Director of BIFS said that in the coming months the Institute will focus on showing its bank members and other financial services providers that they are able to provide necessary training as the country moves forward for globalisation.
“We have been meeting their needs up to this point, and we want to assure them that we plan to expand ourselves to offer specific training courses for their particular fields.”
The BIFS website is under construction and will be operational in a few weeks, with a view to facilitating online training in the near future, Bodie added.
