BICM was set up on 24 July 2008 to teach the practical side of the capital market. The idea came from the Chittagong Stock Exchange, and a World Bank-managed study recommended a securities institute to bridge theory and market practice.
Alongside a master's in applied finance and capital markets, a post-graduate diploma and professional certification programmes, it runs short certificate courses open to anyone: equity valuation, trading and technical analysis, financial statement analysis, derivatives, fixed income, portfolio management, sustainable finance and data analytics for finance. The in-person courses run twelve evening sessions — 36 hours in all.
Its Investors' Education Program introduces ordinary investors to how the market works.