From left, Samiran Chakraborty, head of research at Standard Chartered Bank Mumbai; Jim McCabe, chief executive officer of StanChart Bangladesh; Mahbubur Rahman, president of International Chamber of Commerce Bangladesh (ICCB); Muhammad A (Rumee) Ali, chairman of BRAC Bank, and Ataur Rahman, ICCB secretary general, attend a workshop on treasury management, organised by ICCB, in Dhaka yesterday.

The private sector is not getting enough credit for working capital as banks are going through a liquidity crisis, the president of International Chamber of Commerce Bangladesh said yesterday.

So it is essential for bankers to learn more about the treasury management for proper utilisation of limited funds, said Mahbubur Rahman.

He spoke at a workshop on treasury management, organised by the chamber and supported by Standard Chartered Bank, at a local hotel in Dhaka. Despite the global recession, the developing Asia's growth in 2011 was recorded at 9.5 percent, he said.

Asia, with a solid global market and a large pool of foreign exchange reserves, has proven to be the shining light in a gloomy and uncertain world economy, according to experts.

"Asia's prospects are likely to be affected by the West. However, it is opined that the rising Asia appears to be able to help save the world from the shrinking economy," according to a statement of the chamber.

In line with Asian economies, Bangladesh's performance has so far been quite resilient to global economic meltdown, Rahman said, adding that the country's macroeconomic performance was better than expected and regionally its performance had been one of the best.

He mentioned that treasury management is the management of cash, fund, currency, bank and financial risk.

"So, it is an imperative tool of finance. It handles actual cash management at companies, and one of its main functions is to establish the optimum cash level so that payments can be made and received as necessary for the proper operation of the company."

Besides, another main function of treasury management is to maintain the liquidity of business, Rahman said.

Without proper liquidity, it is risky for business to operate smoothly and it is also the function of treasury management to minimise the currency risk, he said.

For this, treasury managers touch with currency market of world, he said, adding that the managers analyse the reason of crisis in currency market.

"Sometime this crisis will be benefited for them because they have to pay less to other country for getting their service at cheap rates."

The recent manipulation of London Interbank Offered Rate in UK created panic among the consumer of the banks and "its ultimately spreading all over the world", said Muhammed A (Rumee) Ali, BRAC Bank chairman and vice chairman of Bangladesh Association of Banks.

"Recent change in provisioning requirement by our central bank for the commercial bank may compel banks to draw upon their capital to meet their requirements."

He suggested the central bank to make details study on it. Bangladesh Bank should also have to train its officials for providing exact information, Ali said.

Global economic turbulence led to realignment and changes in global financial architecture, said Jim McCabe, chief executive officer of Standard Chartered Bank.

"StanChart has weathered this storm much better than most of our peers worldwide. This gives us a vantage point in guiding financial innovation in a manner which is sustainable by combining our global capability, deep local knowledge and creativity. Our effort today is towards that end."

The workshop with 60 participants was jointed conducted by Samiran Chakraborty, head of research for Standard Chartered Bank, Mumbai; Alamgir Morshed, head of global markets of Standard Chartered Bank, Bangladesh, and Biswajeet Sengupta, head of financial market sales for Bangladesh and Eastern India.

The Daily Star/Bangladesh/ 15th July 2012