News From : DagangHalal.com (14 Jun 2010)
KUALA LUMPUR, June 14 (Bernama) — Malaysian- based Asian Institute of Finance (AIF), in an effort to spread its wings to three regions, is currently in talks with several parties to develop professional and skilled talent in the financial services industry.
Its Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer, Daniel Viets, said the new markets were Switzeland, France, China, United States and Canada.
“AIF promotes Malaysia’s financial services human capital development programmes more holistically, both domestically and regionally.
“In the pursuit of that effort, we have identified strategic alliances and hope to see our efforts bear fruit by early next year,” he told Bernama in an interview Monday.
Currently, AIF has alliances in all Southeast nations and in the United Kingdom through affiliated institutions.
AIF, established in November 2008, is a joint initiative by Bank Negara and the Securities Commission to support human capital development in the financial sector.
AIF aspires to become an institution of global excellence in support of the advancement of the financial services industry in Malaysia through strengthened arrangements with four training institutions.
The institutions are Institut Bank-Bank Malaysia (IBBM), Islamic Banking and Finance Institute Malaysia (IBFIM), Malaysian Insurance Institute (MII) and Securities Industry Development Corporation (SIDC).
Over 43,000 candidates are currently participating in about 2,000 programmes conducted by AIF.
Viets said spreading its foothold to new markets is part of AIF’s expansion plan, going forward, as it realised there was continuous need to upgrade talent within the financial services industry.
The industry consists of conventional banking, Islamic banking, insurance, Takaful and capital market sectors.
“An important focus for AIF is to elevate the capacity of the key training institutions to meet not only the current development needs of the industry but also to respond proactively to the rapidly changing financial landscape which will place greater demands on the skills of financial professionals,” he explained.
He added the financial services industry contributed 11.5 per cent to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product last year which clearly indicated the growing demand locally.
Viets said Malaysia was short of well-trained and developed talent due to its rapid growth.
“The local market capacity is for 280,000 candidates to be trained in Malaysia’s financial services industry.
“Moreover, with Malaysia moving forward to become the hub in Islamic banking, it requires more professional and skilled talents,” he explained.
Besides developing talents, Viets said it was also important to retain the talent within Malaysia.
AIF focuses on the development of competency framework for financial service professionals, programme quality assurance and enhancing infrastructure for learning.
Going forward in uplifting AIF’s capacity towards global excellence in delivering professionals and advanced-level human capital development, Viets said AIF would focus on capital building, accreditation and certification, rationalisation and branding.
— BERNAMA