Retail banking courses and qualifications

The Retail Banking Institute provides independent professional education and certification for individuals and organisations in the exciting field of retail banking, the main source of profits for most of the world's banks.

Our programmes are delivered online as blended learning with live interactive tutorials, or in-house by Retail Banking Institute faculty. Our tutors are seasoned industry professionals with a deep understanding of the day-to-day opportunities and challenges in retail banking, and the direction of the modern industry towards customer-centricity with a digital core.

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Globally Recognised Professional Retail Banking Education for Leaders and Teams

At Retail Banking Institute, we provide globally respected retail banking training programmes that meet the needs of ambitious banking professionals at every stage of their careers. Our Certified International Retail Banker (CIRB) pathway is a three-tiered, blended learning programme designed to deliver practical, strategic, and leadership-level expertise in modern retail banking.

Whether you're a seasoned executive, a mid-level manager, or an emerging leader, the CIRB programme equips you with the tools to run, change, and lead the bank, preparing you to navigate the future of financial services with confidence.

Affiliate Level – Run the Bank

The Affiliate programme builds strong foundations by focusing on customer-centric banking, compliance, and intelligent data management. Participants gain practical skills in customer service, sales techniques, operations, risk, and retail credit – growing their ability to deliver value in a regulated, trust-based environment. This level is ideal for professionals developing core capabilities within retail banking.

Associate Level – Change the Bank

The Associate programme is designed for managers driving innovation and growth. It focuses on advanced customer segmentation, personalised product development, and data-driven decision-making. Participants learn to increase agility and efficiency within the bank, and how to unlock new revenue streams in dynamic markets, enabling faster payments, and building efficient and effective delivery of digital services.

Certified Level – Lead the Bank

Aimed at senior leaders and executives, the Certified programme guides candidates in strategic leadership in the age of fintech disruption and digital transformation. Participants engage with real-world case studies and cutting-edge insights from RBI's Retail Banking Councils, gaining the foresight to lead successful retail banking transformation at scale.

Digital Payments Professional Certificate

Our Digital Payments Professional Certificate is designed to help banks and digital payments businesses build a common language about the fast-growing world of digital payments. Enabled by smartphones, cloud computing, and interoperability, digital payments are a wonderful new development, encouraged by banks, fintechs, regulators and governments. Followers of retail banking will know that some of the best new digital banks started off in the last ten years as digital payments operators. We help digital payments businesses to bring a common language and understanding across their teams. Learn how virtual cards, digital wallets, issuers, acquirers, APIs, instant payments systems, and digital assets all work together to create a faster and more efficient payments system. Find out more here.

Why Professionals Choose the Retail Banking Institute:

We offer industry-led certification built by global banking experts for real-world relevance. Along with our scheduled blended learning programmes, we offer self-paced flexible online learning you can take anytime, from anywhere, with training material supplemented by recorded tutorials.

We are recognised by banks globally, and trusted by financial institutions and professionals around the world.

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Retail banking has been the main focus of Lafferty Group since our establishment in the city of London in 1981, forty-five years ago. It is a fascinating sector with vast potential for future growth. With additional drive provided by fintech partnerships, retail banking helps the world's consumers, small businesses and the better off with their financial needs, from payments and savings to loans and investments. Investors value the sector highly, with stock market valuations of retail bank earnings often exceeding those of other banking sectors. We are proud to support the industry not only with education, knowledge and intelligence but also through our commitment to providing world-class professional retail banking education and internationally recognised Retail Banking training programmes.

Dr Ronan Lynch, Director, RBI

Discover the perfect programme tailored to your individual needs or company goals

Professional Retail Banking Education for the Future of Finance

Imagine the excitement of creating a modern, fully digital retail bank -- a bank managed by real professionals, with more potential than all the fintechs in the world. A bank prepared from day one to deal with climate change. A bank built on an unwavering ethical foundation.

This is the bank that the Certified International Retail Banker qualification is designed for and it's brought to life through our Professional retail banking education and globally recognised retail banking training programmes.

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