Need for Career Counselling

Credit Analysis of those clients which were smaller than Corporates but showed potential of becoming one. At least, I could do one thing that I dreamt about a lot: Credit Analysis and Corporate Financing.

Wrong! It was a one man show, considered by Central Bank to be among the best due to minimum of bad debts and loan defaults. Why would anybody default on a loan when their equivalent dirty money is held in an offshore bank (owned by the same owner)? As long as there was money in an offshore account or in the same bank (under different name), he can borrow upto equivalent amount in the same currency. The credit analysis can go to gutter. This was clearly whitening of money with the nod of Central Bank.

Things would have been different in Corporate Credit Department as Corporates would borrow money on their financial and industry standing, you might say. Err Right and Wrong. True Corporates did not need to have a bank account. Yet they needed to satisfy the owner of the bank over the phone or in one-to-one conversations. The borrowing would be approved and corporate credit officers would then do the necessary paperwork such as a credit analysis, preparation of credit proposal and for an already approved line. Though unconventional and non-learning experience for the banker (he had no part except for the paperwork), Corporates were very happy with the service they were getting. Just talk to the Owner, if he was OK, the package was approved within a week.

Disgruntled, I switched over to a large Commercial Bank (one of the Big Five banks of Pakistan) which also is privately owned and managed. Initially, it was one year in Operations followed by a transfer to Corporate Banking. Now I was a Corporate Banker, a step closer to realizing my dream of becoming an Investment Banker.

By the time I reached here, the market dynamics had changed. With the remittances coming in at a rapid pace and foreign currency reserves at an all time high of US$10 Billion, the banks were flush with liquidity and running over one another to lend money. We also had to jump in this rat race. Though sometimes we were willing to lend money just on the Corporates name, we did not have a pre-approved package system here. We had to prepare credit proposals which had to be approved by a Credit Committee that held its meeting twice a month. Hence, one had to wait 15 days, at least; and one month, on an average to get a new credit package approved. A special approval could be obtained from the President in a day or two but that was only in exceptional cases.

As much as I was running from Sales, I landed right in the middle of it. An ambitious target made me rethink my attitude and I put all my inhibitions aside. My responsibility could simply be summed up as “Sell, Sell, and Sell Loans”. My job was to identify a blue chip company, and offer them money. If they agree, forward a credit proposal to credit committee justifying why I think the customer should get the loan. And then wait and wait. And wait. When you start receiving expletives from the customer, you realize that if the approval does not come in one or two days, you can kiss the account Goodbye for a long, long time as a competing smaller bank has already offered them a similar package which is pre-approved.

Sometimes, the approval comes with so many preconditions; the prospective customer remains just that: A Prospective Customer. Other times you get the approval and the customer drawdowns the loan, but by this time you have heard so many expletives that the term Corporate Banker has lost its charm.

Though I have number of feathers in my Corporate Banker cap being very good at what I do, yet I am doing all the things that I disliked once and thought I did not have an aptitude for: cold calls, and calls, and calls, and then follow-ups, covering up for the delays in approval while receiving expletives, trying to finalize the deal which may or may not materialize.

I should have had career counselling. Should have gone to Engineering.