INSTITUTE OF BANKING STUDIES (IBS)

In 2013, the first session outside Kerala was conducted at Selam Little Flower Higher Secondary School. Also, by July 2013, we entered Karnataka by conducting classes at Surana College, Bangalore.

In 2014, Hyderabad classes started, and by the end of 2014, we were offering offline classes at 28 locations across South India with 12 centers in Kerala, 8 in TN, 5 in Karnataka, and 3 in AP & Telangana.

Promotion classes for SBI, KGB, SIB, etc., started picking up, and a large number of candidates started attending our various classes. Also, through bank coaching, around 900 students got places in various banks.

In 2015, we received accreditation from IIBF for DRA training. We got tie-ups with banks and financial institutions such as IndusInd Bank, HDFC, erstwhile SBT, SUCO Bank, Manappuram Finance, Muthoot Finance, and offered classes at various locations in South India.

We started a permanent office in Bangalore in 2016 to coordinate our activities outside Kerala. We conducted various pre-promotion training classes for SBI, KGB, UCO Bank, etc. We could produce thousands of successful candidates in JAIIB, CAIIB, and internal promotion classes through our offline classes. Almost 100 faculties were associated with us by 2020.

We, like other organizations, witnessed huge disruption during the initial phase of Covid. However, we could switch to online soon, and it had become a new normal for us. We started exploring the opportunity of reaching out pan-India through online by engaging marketing staff through work from home and started succeeding in getting a huge number of candidates for JAIIB, CAIIB, various certificate courses of IIBF such as forex, credit, risk, treasury, etc. For better understanding, we also started offering JAIIB and CAIIB classes in various languages such as Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, in addition to English classes.

Also, the online classes enabled us to offer DRA training in all Indian prominent languages, including Marathi, Gujarati, Bengali, Assamese.

We started bank coaching centers at Calicut and Trivandrum too and a call center at Cochin. In 2023, we started our new regional offices in Hyderabad, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Baroda, Pune, Lucknow, Jaipur. We have also started on-boarding retired bank executives to spearhead our regional offices.

Around 600 DRA agencies and 15 corporate BCs are tied up with us for their DRA certification needs.

Mr. Ganesh G, Rtd DGM, Canara Bank, is our GM planning and development, and Mr. Ziyad Rahman, Rtd DGM, BOB, serves as our academic director. Mr. Girish C Dalakoti, Rtd GM, is appointed as executive director in 2024, and also 7 Rtd DGMs are associating with us on a full-time basis. Around 125 faculties are associating with us as visiting faculties to handle JAIIB, CAIIB, DB&F, certificate courses of IIBF, and BANK/SSC coaching.

From 2021 onwards, we are consistently able to train more than 12,000 bankers and 15,000 plus DRAs every year.

We have a monthly magazine namely IBS Vigyan which covers the latest developments in the banking industry. Mr. Ramesh Krishnan, former DGM, eSBT, is the chief editor.

In total, we trained more than 4,000 students for IBPS, and 875 candidates joined various banks as clerks and POs. We have trained more than 65,000 bankers and 60,000 DRAs and still counting. Out of which 38,000 DRAs and 45,000 bankers are trained in online mode in the last 4 years only.

We also conducted numerous promotion classes in association with various unions and associations of SBI, SIB, Union Bank, KGB, etc.

With the new corporate office at Thiruvananthapuram, we are hopeful of more effective coordination in opening new centers, on-boarding more Rtd Bank Executives, and also increasing the current 150 staff strength substantially.

Progressive Resolutions Pvt Ltd, Head Office at Trivandrum, is a sister concern of IBS launched in 2022 and currently empanelled with SBI, Union Bank, Federal Bank and Bank of Baroda for supporting their debt recovery process. We have another two offices in Kottayam and Thrissur. We are expecting empanelment from another 10 banks within a couple of months and are hopeful of spreading activities pan-India shortly.

I am grateful for the numerous retired bankers' extensive support as faculty members and content creators in helping us reach the current dignified position. However, I consider two towering personalities, Shri PC Thomas, Former GM of SBI, and Shri Ramesh Krishnan, Former DGM, SBI as my mentors.