By A Staff Reporter -
MUSCAT — National Bank of Oman (NBO) and The ‘Association of Corporate Treasurers’ (ACT) Middle East recently organised the first Treasury briefing in Muscat, at the InterContinental Hotel Muscat.
The objective was to give treasury and finance professionals in Oman, a flavour of the treasury tools and solutions available in the market, and to partake in discussion about best practices and key challenges faced by them.
Following a brief introduction about ACT Middle East by Peter Matza, Head of Publishing at ACT, Tahir bin Salim al Amri, Director-General — Treasury and Accounts, Ministry of Finance, in his keynote address cited the growing trend of Corporate Treasurers being asked to move beyond their traditional roles to shoulder more strategic responsibilities.
He highlighted the current need for Corporate Treasurers to have a Treasury Risk Policy and to equip themselves academically to meet the growing complexity and multitude of risks in the financial markets by use of contemporary financial products and risk management solutions.
Humayun Kabir, NBO’s General Manager-Wholesale Banking, in his presentation took the audience through the results of a global treasury survey that depicted, post the financial crisis, the shift in Treasurers’ focus on various aspects. Touching upon the market outlook for the year 2011, he related the divergence in global market forecasts by major banks that made hedging relatively imperative for stable profits. He enumerated the various products in the Treasurer’s toolkit and especially their bespoke nature that would help them in managing risk prudently.
This was followed by a panel discussion where Speakers were joined by eminent names including Ravi Narayanan, General Manager — Treasury, Omantel, and Abdul Razzaq al Balushi, Acting CFO and Board Secretary, Oman Shipping. The discussion touched upon a variety of issues faced by corporate treasurers.
They stressed how domestic banks need to step up the level of innovation in services offered to the corporates and how they should be bespoke rather than generic. This would provide Omani banks an edge in the regional market place over the international banks.
The ACT event concluded on a positive note with participants looking forward to emerging strong growth from Oman in the coming year and innovation in treasury services being the key theme for banks to work on.
