The IEF was incorporated at the end of the nineties. It was an initiative of the then Minister of Economy of the Generalitat, Ramon Trias Fargas, at the same time as the creation in Barcelona of the Financial Futures Market (MEFF), of the first projects to promote the Barcelona Stock Exchange and the creation of the Barcelona Association of the European Financial Centre. All of these projects were framed within the objective of giving Barcelona a financial infrastructure whose aim was to counteract the tendency of the sector to concentrate in a few locations in the international field .

Since its incorporation, with the support, in the first place, of the different economic ministers of the Generalitat, and above all of the current minister, Antoni Castells, and also of the entities and professionals of the sector who have trusted in us, the Institute has grown maintaining its clear vocation to specialise in the financial field and provide a quality offer to become the training referent of the sector.

To give just a few figures, in the year 2005, the IEF gave almost 8,000 face-to-face classes for 5,000 students (159,900 hours/student) and in distance training about 354,000 hours/student for almost 3,000 professionals.