Banking, Finance & Insurance

Eligibility criteria for CFA:
Graduates in any discipline from a recognized university are eligible to seek admission to the CFA Programme, which is made on the basis of an admission test. The students appearing in the final year examination of graduation are also eligible. However, MBAs, Post Graduate Diploma Holders in Management, CAs, CWAs, CSs, CAIIBs, first class graduates/post-graduates and senior executives with ten years of service in the public sector or the private sector may seek exemption from the admission test.
The admission test aims at testing the aptitude of the candidates for professional studies in financial analysis. Hence the test places emphasis on the test of quantitative reasoning.
The candidates who are successful in the admission test and those who are exempted from passing the admission test are enrolled for the programme.
What is CFA Program about?
This program helps you specialize in a broad range of investment specialties that can be applied in any market worldwide. CFA Program is wide-ranging curriculum that will expose you to investment principles for you to meet the professional requirements of any work place. The level of competence and integrity of a Finance professional today is measurable by a definitive standard like CFA Program.

ICICI Manipal Academy for Banking and Insurance (IMA) is a joint venture of ICICI Bank and the Manipal Group. The Academy has been set up to train selected personnel of ICICI Bank in order to ensure that they are Industry Ready at the time of completion of the programme.
The thrust of the training is to impart functional knowledge of general management and specialized knowledge of banking related subjects. Programme participants are put through a very rigorous training with emphasis on application of knowledge and overall development of personality. The training at the academy is supplemented with practical training in various branches of the bank.
The MBA (Banking & Finance) Programme offered, has been designed keeping in mind the requirements of ICICI Bank to train their officers to be effective business managers.
The total programme duration is for a period of 30 months (2 years) with the maximum period for completion being 48 months.
For more, refer-
http://www.ima.manipal.edu/mba-programme.html

You will need to give various entrance exams first like CAT, CET, MAT, XAT, IBSAT, IIFT, ATMA, GMAT, etc. Applications for the same would be starting from this year for batch of 2018 probably some entrance exams application dates are also announced. Please visit the respective examination bodies and check for their enrolment procedure. Also find out as you which institute you are looking to get into and see which entrance exam scores they accept for further selection, CAT score is accepted by many of the institutions but many institutes accept multiple scores like either CAT, CET, CMAT, MAT, GMAT, etc. but if you are looking forward to get into IIM's then you would need to focus on CAT and GMAT.

CFA vs MBA:
A lot of people have the question if they should pursue the CFA Program or the MBA Program? Which certification you should take depends solely on your professional goals. CFA Program Charter and MBA both the certificates are expensive, require time and a lot of effort on the students part. It is very important to note the distinction between these two certifications.
MBA:
MBA is a Master's degree in Business Administration, where students are introduced to various areas of business such as accounting, marketing, human resources, operations management. There are also Business schools which offer PhD and master courses specializing in specific domains like consulting, finance, marketing, etc.
The career path after MBA, depends on a lot of factors, including your area of interest, previous work experience and business acumen of specific domain. A lot of employers recruit MBAs for team manager's profile where the employee is expected to manage and take quick decisions in their domains. The basic types of MBA courses are typically full time (2 years), part time for evening and weekend batches. There are also Executive MBAs which are specifically meant for more work experience people.
Nowadays, professionals engineers, CAs, Doctors, politicians go for MBA. Most of the business schools also prefer candidates with at least 4 -5 years of work experience. Almost all of the top B schools recognize GMAT exam s score to test student's aptitude. However, just giving the exam does not guarantee you an admission, there are a lot of other criteria also that B schools look for, like your past academic record, work experience, other academic qualifications and certifications etc. B-schools in India take CAT, SAT and XAT exams as there entrance examination.
CFA:
CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) is the certification provided by CFA Institute. The exam is categorized in 3 levels, based on the level of difficulty of the exam. Level I Exam is held twice a year whereas Level II and Level III are held only in June.
The CFA exam essentially tests your fundamental knowledge in Finance domain. Anyone having graduate degree is eligible to appear for the exam. People having degrees in domains other than finance are also eligible. These days engineers, doctors, MBAs who want their career in risk management, investment banking, opt for this exam. A lot of Business schools and firms also give preference to candidates who already have certifications.