Interview with Mr. Barkatullah Lone — Chairman, GB International Economic Forum
[box type=”shadow” align=”” class=”” width=””]Profile: Mr. Barkatullah Lone is Chairman of GB International Economic Forum and a renowned young Economist of Pakistan. He was ranked in the top ten Economists of Pakistan in the year 2017. He is a Chartered Management Accountant and Chartered Certified Accountant from UK, Chartered Global Management Accountant from the USA, Gold Medalist Management Accountant and Public Finance Accountant from Pakistan plus he holds master’s degree in Economics and Law from Karachi University. He is presently pursuing specialization in Finance and Audit from the Institute of Chartered Accountants, England & Wales. He has been associated with the corporate sector in Finance and Audit profession at various positions (CFO/GM Finance/Chief Internal Auditor) for the last many years. He has rendered his professional Finance/Audit/Accounting services in Pakistan as well as abroad. Simultaneous with his job career, he has been appearing at various Local and International TV channels as Economic & Financial Analyst for the last Eight years. His Articles on Economy and Finance are also published in various reputed magazines. Presently, Barkatullah Lone is associated with a reputed large Conglomerate Company (Expertise Contracting Company Limited) in the Eastern Province of KSA. He has joined this company with a vision to professionalize the business functions and to streamline the Processes by embedding the business activities into integrated Information Systems. He has ample experience of converting the traditional owner-based culture into a corporate culture in his ex-companies which he is envisioning to inculcate a corporate culture in the existing company as well.
Expertise Contracting Company has been one of the best Corporate Entity of Saudi Arabia in terms of Corporate Social Responsibility. Expertise Contracting Co Limited has managed the difficult COVID-19 crises very well. During this tough period, payment to vendors and salaries of employees were never delayed despite the company having delayed collection from its clients. Banking Sector of Saudi Arabia has full trust in Expertise and stands behind it at the time of need and finances working capital and Capex Investment for Business Expansion. Expertise has always focused at the safety and the training of its employees for which it spends huge amount but never compromise on International Safety Standards. Employees working at Expertise feel themselves as part and parcel of company (as a family unit) due to which staff turnover is very nominal. But fresh professional blood is taken in every year to bring innovation and improvement in all functions.[/box]
PAKISTAN & GULF ECONOMIST had an exclusive conversation with Mr. Barkatullah Lone about “Telecom and Banking: Intertwined Sectors”. The excerpts are as follows:
Significant changes have affected the banking sector worldwide due to the major impact of developments and trends in information and communication technology, business intelligence, and risk management strategies. The basic issue to be addressed no longer concerns changes in the banking sector but the ways to better operate in the new business setting in order to redefine relationships with customers, seize the opportunities provided by the innovation processes, and yield adequate returns. A bank willing to progress has to continuously adapt to the evolving economic, financial, and productive context. This work argues about the influence of the advancement and complexity of emerging technologies on the structural and behavioral elements meant as financial criticalities and requirements restricting the strategic development options of banks.
Telecom sector has revolutionized the communication system by developing fast and efficient communication equipment and Internet facilities which has helped the individuals and corporates to operate banking transactions by clicking a button on their smart phones. Telecom sector has been supportive industry to the banking sector in digitalization of its operations as the banking sector could never obtain this much efficiency in its operations through digitalization if there had been no advancement in communication technology. Digitalization is an ongoing phenomenon that rapidly changes. We live in an era that is ruled by science, and the technological options and strategies that have a clear impact on the environment, on social relations, on economic matters, and so on. If we see digitalization in terms of banking sector, we are currently moving towards an electronic payments system. This has the potential to increase overall efficiency in the economy and raises new concerns regarding risk factor as the hackers can get into the individual or corporate bank account details and transfer the funds to fake accounts. Corporates and individuals have lost their wealth due to this high-risk factor in the recent past but on the other hand electronic payment system has made the life of corporates and individuals quite easy. Funds can easily be transferred by a click of button. both the safety and the efficiency of the payments systems have become a fundamental concern for policy makers. Digitalization in Banking sector has eliminated paperwork as online banking has drastically changed banking operations. This fast technological development in banking sector has caused massive redundancies in the employment as the technology has taken over job of human. Advancement in digitalization in banking sector has strongly influenced international capital flows. These developments have prompted a debate on the role that national and international institutions should play in the new framework of a globalized economy. The current international institutional framework has proved inadequate to deal with the new environment created by the globalization of capital flows. This technological development has helped the corporate entities to operate its banking transfers sitting anywhere in the world. A trend of opening back offices for treasury functions in the low-cost base countries is getting popular. What companies do is that they open its treasury department in the back offices in other low-cost country and execute banking/treasury operations in order to save employment cost. This has been only possible due to massive development in digitalization of banking operations in the last one decade.
We need to admit that Pakistan banking sector has converted into a smart and professional sector from the traditional one in the last one decade. Our banking sector has made full use of technology and has made the life of its customers easy. Nonetheless, if we compare our banking sector with Europe or America, it still lags. There are many reasons but the obvious reason is the huge difference in the education and understanding of our customer base and theirs. At the first stage, our customer is not prone to keep its small savings in the bank so use of banks as the saving venue is still not to that level even today in Pakistan. On the other hand, customer base in the USA and Europe is entirely different. Although, the USA is spending economy by nature, but the customers open their bank accounts even if there is no savings. In Europe, the customer has saving attitude and knows the importance of banking services. The other reason why Pakistan is far behind from the developed world is that every new technology reaches to Pakistan after ten years in use in the developed world therefore digitalization in banking sector is no exception. The way banking operations are carried out in the developed world today is much faster and smarter than in Pakistan. There is a huge difference in the banking services in 2021 vis-a-vis a decade ago. Digitalization has made the life of bank account holders be it individual or corporate so easy. There used to be cheque printing system which needed to be signed by the account holder then ATM Card system came into use but now banking transactions are executed online through a click of a button only. Corporate entities used to have multiple collection and payment appearing in their monthly bank reconciliation statements just because the cheques issued and recorded in company Financial Books were not presented by the Supplier therefore the bank showed no payment whereas the company record used to show as paid. In case of cheque collection from the customer, similar non-reconciling items usually appeared in Bank Reconciliation. But now corporates pay to its vendors online and receive the collection from the clients online therefore bank statements duly reconciled with the company financial records at real time. This has been helpful for effective and timely financial management for the Financial Managers of the Companies.
Similarly, our expatriate community used to have a lengthy procedure for remitting their earnings to Pakistan in the past but now funds are transferred even by using smartphone with a click of a button.