Banks have work to do in order to meet compliance challenges in the new Basel II agreement effective from 2006 according to the head of global operations of Habib Bank, Jamil Iqbal.

Speaking at a banking course in Pakistan on UCP 500 and eUCP, he says that banks need to focus in particular on management and operational risks involved in international trade transactions.

Global change

"Uniform Customs and Practices are changing globally and this is a major risk area where we as a bankers have to learn and get training to cope up with the emerging challenges in international trade", Iqbal told delegates at the conference organised by the Institute of Bankers' Pakistan (IBP) in collaboration with International Chamber of Commerce.

Habib Bank has centralised several trading transactions particularly, according to Iqbal, the opening of letters of credit (L/Cs).

Centre of excellence

"We have created a centre of excellence for handling import transactions from all over Pakistan. This centre has been created with the objective to better customer services, control environment and improved risk management," he said.

Habib's central hub also aims to handle export transactions from October this year.

This article represents the views of the author and not necessarily those of the ICC or any of the other partners in DC-PRO.