A seminar titled “Current Economic Turmoil – Risks and Opportunities” was held by MCB Bank Limited for its selective prestigious clientele on Mondayat its head office in Lahore. The seminar was an initiative by the Bank to educate customers on the performance of the global economy, existing global risks and their implications for Pakistan. The event also covered measures for suitable course of action to not only hedge these risks but also take advantage of economic opportunities through the use of various product offerings from MCB Bank. The global economy is in a state of turmoil at the moment, and global macro-economic events in the near term will trigger further uncertainties and risks in the global markets, which could affect Pakistan.
The seminar was largely attended by the senior management personnel of large and medium Pakistani corporates and businesses.
The discussion was initiated by the CEO and President of MCB Bank Limited, Imran Maqbool, during which he elaborated that MCB Bank continues to strive to serve its customers through un-matched services, ground-breaking product innovations and an overall culture of keeping clients abreast with the changes in the global and local economic landscape. He further added that amongst its peers, MCB Bank maintains its status as one of the leading banks in Pakistan with its people-oriented approach. Maqbool narrated that in addition to the Bank’s strong local presence spanning over more than 1200 branches, it continues to expand abroad with a total of 11 foreign operational branches. He also thanked the audience and the Bank’s customers for placing their trust in MCB Bank and hoped that their strategic partnership with the Bank continues to flourish in the same vein that has placed MCB Bank as one of the pioneers of the banking industry in Pakistan.
Following Imran Maqbool’s comments, Group Head Treasury Mohammad Ramzan, CFA, explained that the global economy was at a critical juncture in time with several macro-economic changes that are expected to unfold in the near future. Pakistani businesses need to be wary of these developments around the globe as Pakistan is no longer immune to these in today’s economic environment. Ramzan also informed the participants about the MCB Purchasing Managers Index (PMI), which is a bi-monthly survey that tracks the health of the manufacturing sector in Pakistan and serves as a major leading indicator of the economy as opposed to other lagging indicators such as GDP growth, unemployment and inflation. Research analyst at MCB Bank Treasury, Nausherwan Saleem then showed through various global macro-economic indicators that the global economy is currently in transition, with global output at risk from monetary policy normalization in the United States, uncertainties in Europe, persistent vulnerabilities in emerging markets and the economic slowdown in China. At the same time, Pakistan is not shielded from these impacts as seen by the recent Pakistani stock market volatility, an under-pressure Pakistani rupee due to devaluation of the Chinese Yuan and an uncertain inflationary environment, and how this has put pressure on several countries including Pakistan to loosen monetary policy.
Towards the end of the seminar, Amer Nazir Khan, Head of Treasury Sales and FX at MCB Bank, informed customers about various asset classes that are on offer by the Bank. These included interest rate swaps (IRS), FX Options, cross-currency swaps (CCS) and various other structured products of MCB Bank Limited. The seminar concluded after a detailed question and answer session in which the guests actively participated to clarify the working of financial derivatives before the guests convened for refreshments.