Banks have to be more flexible to help businesses
No business whether manufacturing, construction, agri-based production or trading can run without banking support. At present this requirement has become the most important priority for a business to survive or at least break even.
The construction industry which has a large number of development projects in hand, stands out as one sector that gets less help from the banking sector. Even though most development projects in this sector are foreign funded, contractors executing these projects have to lean on banks for working capital. By and large whatever projects awarded to these developers have been awarded by the clients after due evaluation of the individual capacities/competencies and merit based on the past performance. However, that does not mitigate their dependence on bank assistance all the way through to the completion of the project/s.
The banking sector should be more compassionate and get together to think out of the box to help the business sector. The gravity of the situation has to be understood not only by the State Banks, but also by Commercial Banks and the Development Banks.
The most important issue for the business sector has become the shortage/lack of foreign exchange to open Letters of Credit for import of essential raw materials for all industries in general. The construction industry has to depend largely on importing most high value materials.
A thriving black market made the situation worse. The end result was that the business sector had to lean on the banks for more and more. The percentage financial cost of a product by way of facilities, insurance, interests, lease payments, guarantees and even bill discounts without which cash flow shortages could not be bridged as at today, added more and more weight on the product costs.
In addition, shortages of materials such as fuel, cement, steel, plywood, blasting materials, even at higher costs compelled, especially construction related businesses to either suspend operations and lay off staff or in extreme cases to close down completely.
In this background the case for the banks to be more flexible has to be stressed. The banking sector has to play a vital role between the client, the businessman/producer and the consumer/purchaser. Therefore, the positive attitude of the bank towards the businessman/producer in this picture is most important.
We do understand that banks have a duty by their staff to pay them and also pay the shareholder/s or the State for that matter a reasonable dividend. But the banks are there basically to service the businessman, of course within guidelines issued by the Central Bank, discharging their duty towards their clients in such a way as to act as mentors to help them to restructure their portfolio/s at least to survive even if they are unable to make profits.
In such instances where contractors operate on Escrow Accounts the share of the Bank written into an invoice sometimes reaches 50% or more pulling down the Working Capital left in the invoice so vital for proceeding with the project without suspensions/delays.
With reasonable negotiations, Banks can surely forego part of their profits to help their clients, the goose that lays the golden egg for them. One should realize that this is a period of global recession and therefore, this is vital to any decision.
During the 2008 recession that hit the tea industry when I was the Chairman of the Sri Lanka Tea Board, I could overcome the crisis with only a verbal assurance of a Temporary Overdraft of 500 Million given to me from the Bank backed by an assurance of the CBSL. To make a long story short, by going to the tea auction placing confidence on the non-existent funds, as TOD from a State Bank I could buy 232 Million rupees worth of tea in one day, thanks to the support I got from the tea industry, the broker community and the office staff.
Lalith Hettiarachchi Colombo 7