Branch Posting (Operations)

– Tariq Road Branch (1054)

Rohail Ashraf Sadiq

Overview of Branch
• Mid-sized, commercial branch.
• As on August 31, 2018:
• Total deposits: Rs 2.258b. Rs 1b in Current account. Rs 250m
(equivalent) foreign currency.
• 10,233 account-holders – consisting of retail, shop-owners, SME
accounts, and few corporate accounts.
• On average 60 net additions to no:of accounts per month.
• Major account-holders: Oil Industries Pakistan (Pvt) Limited, Bays
International, Allibhai Motors, ZH Group.
• Profitable branch: Total Income (from start of year) = Rs. 96m
Total Expense (from start of year)= Rs. 50.14m
Net Profit = Rs. 46.48m
• Profit generated multiple sources:
Advances = Rs. 250m (ADR of branch = 11%) : funded advances, auto-
loans, running-finance, staff loans.
Trade volume = Rs. 1.2b (from start of year) – generates commissions.
Placement of funds/deposits with Treasury – riskless return.
Cash
• Total branch insurance Rs. 100m.
• Total cash department insurance (vault, ATM, cash-in-transit) Rs. 15m.
• Rs. 4m ATM limit for weekdays, Rs. 6m on Saturday.
• Cash enclosure highly secured – no direct entry into cash-enclosure: first
password entry into remittance/clearing room, then another password
entry for entering in cash-enclosure.
• ATM replenished before 9am every opening day – Chief Cashier and OM.
• To keep fewer notes in branch premises, 100 rupee notes (and below) not
inserted in ATMs – 1m total of 1000s, 2m total of 5000s, 1m total of 500s.
• 4 cashiers – all had varied posting limits depending on experience – Chief
Cashier had Rs.200,000/= limit.
• To access strong room – first enter 4 digit key (to off-set alarm); main door
– 2 keys OM, 1 key BM, 1 key Chief Cashier; grill – 1 key OM, 1 key Chief
Cashier.
• No locker-room facility
Clearing
• Inter-city clearing slowly being phased out.
• Except for instruments issued by NBP, SBP, MCB Islamic and The Bank
of Khyber.
• Centralized clearing by banks, including BAHL.
• For normal outward clearing, limits are usually assigned to officer
(depending on grade, experience, etc).
• For online outward clearing, always need authority for clearing.
• Not a same-day clearing member branch; however, if cheque
deposited between 9am-9:30am, dispatch instrument to
Bahadurabad branch for same-day clearing.
Remittance
• All online remittances, regardless of amount, need authorization.
• RTGS charges: vary between Rs. 200 to Rs 500 – depending on time of
transaction – the later the transaction, the higher is the charges. No RTGS
after 3pm.
• Before 12pm – Rs 200 + FED, Between 12pm to 3pm – Rs. 500 + FED.
• RTGS break-up charges: SBP commission (main component) + BAHL
commission (10% of SBP commission) + FED.
• Spoilt customers – most of them submit incomplete deposit slip/fund
transfer form (sometimes even incomplete instruments) to
remittance/clearing officers.
• Officers forced to complete details themselves.
• UVL (ultra-violet lamp) stamped on instruments Rs. 100,000 and over.
However, officers generally stamp instrument without using UVL – big risk.
Account Opening
• Customer-facing desk – highly varied tasks – issuing cheque-
books/ATM cards, updating existing customer records, opening new
accounts, handling queries of customers.
• Lots of paper-work, forms (FATCA, CRS, AOF general, AOF entities,
Zamaanat, Assan account, YSA, Apna current, record up-dation).
• Many customers don’t fill the form themselves – only provide
essential information (like signatures). AOF generally fills-forms.
• Few inadequate KYC/CDD cases – accounts of full-time students
opened, but no mention of beneficial owners.
• Ideally online form should be introduced to save time – customer fills
essential details from home.
• Few outdated/unnecessary forms – like Internet Banking application
form.
Concluding thoughts
• Friendly atmosphere – staff is cooperative and happy to guide.
• Customers generally satisfied with service at the branch level –
however, issues pertaining to SMS.
• Need to improve coordination between branches – especially for
closing accounts and introducer verification from another branch.