Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology. The Institute for Development & Research in Banking Technology (IDRBT) is an engineering training institution exclusively focused on banking technology. Established by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in 1996, the institution works at the intersection of banking and technology. It is located in Hyderabad, India.

Research and development

The main focus of the institute is to conduct applied research and experimental development in the area of banking technology. The research at the institute is directed primarily towards a specific practical objective that will serve the banking and financial sector.

Accordingly, the research and development activities of the institute aim at improving banking technology in India. While addressing the immediate concerns of the banking sector, the research at the institute also focuses on anticipating the future needs and requirements of the banking sector and developing technologies to address them.

Main areas of research
 Financial networks and applications
 Electronic payments and settlement systems
 Security technologies for the financial sector
 Financial information systems and analytics

Research centers

These state-of-the-art research centers drive the research and development work of the institute. The research centers are also being constantly upgraded with the latest systems, devices and tools to keep pace with the ever-changing technology trends. Presently, the Institute has the following six research centers for focused research and development directly relevant to the Indian Banking and Financial Sector.

Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning 

 Analytics Lab
 Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning Lab

Centre for Cyber Security & Data Privacy 

 Cyber Security Lab
 Ethical Hacking Lab
 Digital Privacy Lab

Centre for Emerging Networks and Cloud Computing 

 Networks Lab
 Cloud Computing Lab
 5G & IoT Lab

Centre for Open and Digital Banking 

 Mobile & Social Media Banking Lab
 Banking Use Case Innovation Lab
 Open Source Lab

Centre for Quantum Computing 

 Quantum Safe Cryptography Lab
 Quantum Communications Lab

Centre for Distributed Ledger & Innovation 

 Distributed Ledger Technologies Lab
 Digital Payments Lab

Research conferences 
Every year, the institute organizes an international conference in an area of relevance to the institute. The conferences are intended to promote an exchange of the latest knowledge, experiences, research findings and technical know-how in information technology and its application in the Indian banking and financial sector.

During the last seven years, the institute organized the following three conferences:

 15th IEEE International Conference on Advanced Network and Telecommunications Systems - ANTS 2021 (13 - 16 December 2021) 
 12th Forum for Information Retrieval Evaluation - FIRE 2020 (16 - 20 December 2020) 
 15th International Conference on Information Systems Security - ICISS (16 - 20 December 2019) 
 Fifth IEEE International Conference on Identity, Security and Behavior Analysis - ISBA 2019 (22 - 24 January 2019) 
 Fifth International Conference on Mining Intelligence and Knowledge Exploration - MIKE 2017 (13 - 15 December 2017) 
 Eighteenth International Conference on Distributed Computing and Networking – ICDCN 2017 (4 – 7 January 2017) 
 Fifth International Conference on Fuzzy and Neural Computing 2015 (17 –19 December 2015) 
 Tenth International Conference on Information Systems Security – ICISS 2014 (18 – 20 December 2014)

Academic programs

IDRBT offers a range of academic programs, designed specifically to meet both the existing and emerging human resources of the Indian banking and financial sector. These include:

 IDRBT Ph. D. Programme
 Postgraduate Diploma in Banking Technology (PGDBT)
 M. Tech. Programme with the University of Hyderabad
 Certificate Course in Ethical Hacking

Executive education

Training programs form an inherent part of IDRBT's initiatives in aiding technology absorption in the Indian banking and financial sector and keeping it abreast with the developments taking place in technology. The institute's programs are structured to prepare the top and middle-level management of Banks and other Financial Institutions for the future in technology banking.

These executive development and education programs mainly focus on identifying the gaps in the skill requirements and providing training in those areas. The IDRBT provides holistic executive education through these programs, which cover the entire spectrum of technology applied in the banking and financial sectors. The institute offers over 100 programs that train over 2500 bankers every year.

Banking forums

 Indian Banks’ Chief Information Officers (CIO) Forum 
 Chief Information Security Officers (CISO) Forum 
 Chief Analytics Officers (CAO) Forum 
 FinTech Forum

Contests

 IDRBT Banking Technology Excellence Awards
 IDRBT Banking Application Contest
 IDRBT Annual Doctoral Colloquium

IDRBT Banking Technology Excellence Awards

With the objective of instilling healthy competition and widening the reach of technology adoption and absorption in a faster way among all the banks, the institute constituted the IDRBT Banking Technology Excellence Awards  in 2001. The awards are a recognition bestowed on the banks which have implemented and improved the use of technology at all the fronts of banking activities for enhancing customer service as well as ease of doing banking.

The awards are presented keeping in view a particular aspect of technology implementation which changes year-by-year. There are various categories which focus on cyber security, financial inclusion, IT infrastructure, IT risk management, etc. These technology awards honour the best banks of the Indian banking and financial sector. The awards are presented by the governor of the Reserve Bank of India every year.

IDRBT Banking Application Contest

To bank on the popularity of apps development, and bring in new and useful app innovations in the Indian banking and financial sector, the institute launched the IDRBT Banking Application Contest (IBAC) in 2016. The IDRBT Banking Application Contest (IBAC) aims to serve two key purposes – Indian banking and financial community benefits from the innovative ideas from the best tech talent in the country, and the Gen Next gets an opportunity to showcase their tech talent through this platform.

IDRBT Annual Doctoral Colloquium

IDRBT certifying authority

IDRBT is the certifying authority (CA) for the Indian banking and financial sector, licensed by the Controller of Certifying Authorities, Government of India, under IT Act 2000. The CA issues digital certificates aimed to facilitate speedy and cost-effective digital transactions. These certificates are used by the RBI, banks and other financial institutions to exchange electronic messages between banks ensuring authenticity, integrity, non-repudiation and confidentiality. The CA services are aimed at facilitating. So far, more than 2,00,000 digital certificates have been issued by the CA.

The Indian Financial Technology and Allied Services (IFTAS)

With a view to provide focused attention and enable development of techno-banking in the country, the institute has promoted a new Section 8 company named The Indian Financial Technology and Allied Services (IFTAS). Headquartered in Mumbai, the mandate of the IFTAS is to provide IT-related services to the RBI, banks and other financial institutions.

Services like Indian Financial Network (INFINET), Structured Financial Messaging System (SFMS) and the Indian Banking Community Cloud (IBCC) have been handed over to IFTAS with effect from 1 April 2016.

References

Banking institutes
Research institutes in Hyderabad, India
Think tanks established in 1996
Reserve Bank of India
1996 establishments in Andhra Pradesh