On Thursday June 24th at 12:00 PM CST the Online Bank Management Contest (OBMC) 2021 will commence in the state of Kansas. There will be eight competing teams from different banks around the state, co-facilitated by the CEO of SimArch, Ziegfried Vermaak, and Dr. Alan Deines from Fort Hays State University in Kansas. The competition will be covering six financial quarters wherein each team will have to manage their own virtual bank until Friday August 27th when the winning team will be announced.

A Fundamentals of Banking training program, whereby the FirstB@nk 3 Online Banking Simulation Program is used, will be commencing on Monday the 14th of June over two days, divided into four half-day online sessions. The training program is being held for the Resolution Division of De Nederlandsche Bank (the Dutch Central Bank) with Frans van Laar as the main facilitator.

A two-day (four half days) Online ALM/Treasury training program for Rabobank Netherlands will commence on Friday the 28th of May, using the GuardB@nk 3 Asset & Liability Management Simulation Program.

From Thursday the 1st of April till Friday the 16th of April 2021, the FirstB@nk 3 Online Banking Simulation Program will be used for two groups of consultants from KPMG Netherlands. During the training program consultants who form part of the Financial Services Team at KPMG will run a virtual bank for four financial quarters. The purpose of the training program is to familiarize consultants focusing on Banking with Risk Management in Banking as well as the key challenges banks face today.

From Tuesday the 6th of April till Friday the 9th of April 2021, our partner, Lindenhaeghe, together with SimArch, will be conducting an online training program for trainees. During the Global Trainee Program, the concepts dealing with the Fundamentals of Banking are introduced to participants in combination with the use of the simulation program called FirstB@nk 3. Participants will run their own virtual bank for four financial quarters. As participants progress through the financial quarters, more banking products and complexity are added in the simulation program.

From Tuesday the 6th of April till Friday the 9th of April 2021, our partner, Lindenhaeghe, together with SimArch, will be conducting an online training program for young professionals in Rabobank who wish to increase their knowledge of the banking environment and how a bank works in a practical and interactive way. The online training program will be conducted for staff in the Netherlands, using Microsoft Teams. Participants are divided into virtual teams whilst working with the simulation program called FirstB@nk 3.

Two faculty members, Dr. Kent Belasco from Marquette University in Wisconsin and Dr. Alan Deines from Fort Hays State University in Kansas, discuss their experience with the use of SimArch’s online banking simulation programs as part of their curriculum.

During January 2021 the FirstB@nk 3 online banking simulation program of SimArch was used as part of a Graduate Development Programme conducted at Erste Bank in Austria. The online training programme was divided into four half-day (4-hour) sessions using MS Teams. The twenty-seven (27) participants with varied academic backgrounds were divided into six management teams. The participants were from the following departments of functions within the bank: Business Consulting, Corporate Business, Corporate Finance, Accounting, Innovation AT, Planning & Group Capital Management, ALM, Market & Liquidity Risk model validation, Group Large corporates, Local Large corporates, Product management - Lending, Transaction banking, Risk reporting & planning, Online Trade department, Digital banking & data, Digital workplace, Change management division, Group info security and group data, Money market trading, International banking, Risk strategy & reporting, Strategic Risk Management division, Corporates & Markets Business Architecture, Corporate Business Support and Controlling.

Riskworx together with SimArch conducted a Balance Sheet Management training programme for Arise Invest in Cape Town, South Africa, from Wednesday the 25th until Thursday the 26th of November 2020, using the InterB@nk 3 Simulation Program. Participants from the Netherlands as well as Norway partook virtually in the training programme.

From Thursday 29 October until Friday 27 November 2020, Tilburg University in the Netherlands is using the FirstB@nk 3 Simulation Program. Designed and developed by SimArch, FirstB@nk 3 will be used by students taking part in the university’s Global Banking Course.

In September of 1999, Simulation Architects BV (SimArch) was founded by Ziegfried Vermaak in Belgium. SimArch started out as a company using banking simulations as part of training programs for commercial banks. SimArch further migrated into designing and developing several banking simulations that focus on creating virtual banking worlds. SimArch has also designed banking games and is now looking to embed Artificial Intelligence into its powerful and highly engaging simulation programs.

Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin is using the FirstB@nk 3 Banking Simulation Program. Designed and developed by SimArch, FirstB@nk 3 will be used as part of their curriculum during Fall semester 2020 for students with a Major in Banking. Marquette University will also be using the InterB@nk 3 Risk Management Simulation Program as part of their curriculum for students covering Financial Risk Management in Banking during Spring semester 2021.