Training and management development were an important part of BCCI's institutional development and reflected the priorities of its founder and President, Agha Hasan Abedi.
From the Bank's early years, considerable emphasis was placed both on technical training for operational staff and on structured management development for officers expected to take on wider responsibilities.
As BCCI expanded internationally, it established Regional Training and Development Centres to support staff across its growing network. Training covered practical banking skills as well as management, leadership and the understanding of international banking operations.
BCCI also extended some of these facilities beyond its own staff. Through its International Management and Development (IMD) activities, the Bank organised courses and seminars for bankers and officials from developing countries, covering subjects such as foreign exchange, capital markets, correspondent banking and other areas of international finance.
One of the largest programmes was undertaken in China. BCCI established a Management and Training Centre in Shenzhen which provided training for approximately 3,000 officials from the People's Bank of China, state-owned banks and other institutions. BCCI trainers also travelled to other parts of China to deliver programmes where participants could not easily attend the main centre.
Similar initiatives were undertaken elsewhere. Seminar and training programmes were organised for South Korean bankers in London, while BCCI's operations in Panama and Miami supported programmes involving financial institutions from Latin America.
These programmes also had a commercial benefit. They developed relationships with banks and financial institutions that could subsequently lead to correspondent banking and other business. But they reflected a wider philosophy as well: Abedi believed that BCCI's international network could be used not only to conduct banking business, but also to help develop banking skills and institutional capacity in the countries in which it operated.
The training programmes therefore served two purposes - strengthening BCCI's own management and workforce while also sharing banking knowledge with institutions in the developing world.