Financial instts lose profits on lack of adequate expertise
ICC-B workshop told
Star Business Report
Lack of adequate knowledge and expertise in handling treasury activities is forcing many financial institutions (FIs) in Bangladesh to count losses, International Chamber of Commerce-Bangladesh (ICC-B) President Mahabubur Rahman said yesterday.He said gradual expansion of global economy and financial system has created immense opportunities, which are also accompanied by risks for traders in volatile market places. "The endeavour to manage these financial and economic risks has sparked the search for new ways to understand the changes taking place and deal with mutable commodity prices and interest rates," Rahman said. He said businesses have to be well acquainted in order to be able to interpret them for developing strategies for money, capital and equity markets. He said the FIs are suffering due to lack of expertise in treasury management, which hurts institutions badly. This observation of the ICC president came at an inauguration session of a two-day workshop on 'Foreign Exchange Transaction and Treasury Management' organised by the Bangladesh chapter of ICC, held at conference hall of Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI). At the inaugural session of the workshop the speakers said FIs have failed to achieve due profit share as they failed to maintain uniform exchange management and treasury function in their institutions. The speakers said both overseas and domestic business transactions are exposed to exchange rate movements either directly or indirectly. As the exposure to exchange rate movements is inevitable part of everyday activity, the risk stemming from such exposure can be controlled through effective management system. They also suggested organising frequent training programmes for the dealers and developing sophisticated treasury software to help monitor market risk and dealing limits. Echoing the president, ICC-Bangladesh Vice-president Latifur Rahman said due to lack of proper foreign exchange management system FIs are losing their profits. To improve treasury operations, it is needed to overcome knowledge gap in managing treasury functions, he added. Malay Kumar Ghatak, head (corporate sales and structuring) of Citibank NA, India, Kutubuddin Ahmed, president of MCCI, CK Hyder, secretary general of MCCI, ASM Quasem, chairman, Newage Group and Industries and executive members of ICCB, were also present in the functions. A total of 70 executives from different banks, financial institutions, insurance companies and corporate houses are participating in the workshop.
| 
