Cash Division and its activities of BASIC Bank Limited

Cash Division and its activities of

BASIC Bank limited

Banking sector of Bangladesh is one of the major sectors, which contributes significantly to the national economy. The sector comprises a number of banks in various categories. Considering ownership the sector can be classified in to four major categories – such as Nationalized Commercial Banks (NCBs), Specialized Banks (SPBs), Private Commercial Banks (PCBs), and Trans-National Banks (TNBs).

BASIC Bank Limited is one of oldest commercial bank operating in Bangladesh. It has over the years created one of the largest networks among all the other banks in Bangladesh. Although a trendsetter in offering a various ranges of products in the market, the products offer by BASIC Bank are quickly imitated by competitors. The profitability of a bank always depends on the efficient management of fund and exploring the genuine avenues in which its resources are invested to produce the maximum income..

BASIC Bank Ltd follows a simple strategy in its cash division. It trains its cash officers in such a way that they become more accurate in calculating and checking cash, along with that they behave politely with clients so that client get a positive image about the bank. As the bank does not do heavy advertising regarding its account, the atmosphere of the cash division make clients talk about the positively which attract more new customers.

The Cash In Charge, direct the subordinates properly. Cash In Charge provides a message clearly to subordinate that, take your time, but do not make mistake to make it quickly. Cash officers get tremendous support from the Cash In Charge. All other divisions try to provide support so that cash division can concentrate more on the cash only. Cash division provides the surplus money to the Loan & Advances division, who conduct the investment part. Foreign Exchange division handles the letter of credit, export import letter or guarantee and so on. General Banking division does the rest of the work of the bank. The depth of the activity of the general banking division is lot more than others.

Though, cash division does repetitive works, it needs to ensure quality and accuracy as well. In time of shortage of money, cash division make the arrangements, usually by taking loan from the central bank. The bank provides various service to the clients with a good range of products.

Historical Background:

The BASIC Bank Limited (Bangladesh Small Industries and Commerce Bank Limited) establishes as a banking company under the companies Act 1913 launched its operation in 1989. It was incorporated under the Act on the 2nd of August, 1988.The Bank started its operation from the 21st of January, 1989 .It is governed by the Banking Companies

Act 1913.The Bank was established as the policy makers of the country felt the urgency for a bank in the private sector for financing Small Scale Industries (SSIs). At the outset, the Bank started as a joint venture enterprise of the BCC Foundation with 70 percent shares and the Government of Bangladesh (GOB) with the remaining 30 percent shares.

The BCCI, the Government of Bangladesh took over 100 percent ownership of BASIC on 4th June 1992.Thus there is state-owned. However, the Bank is not nationalized; it operates like a private bank as before.

Basic Bank is unique in its objectives. It is blend of development and commercial banks. The Memorandum and Articles of Association of the Bank stipulate that that 50 percent of loan able funds shall be invested in small and cottage industries sector.

Steady growth in client base and their high retention rate since Bank’s inceptions testify to the immense confidence they repose on its services. Diversified products both liability and assets sides particularly a wide range of lending products related to development of small industries and micro enterprises, and commercial and training activities attract entrepreneurs from varied economic fields. Along with promotion of products special importance is given to individual clients through providing personalized services. In fact individuals matter in this Bank. This motto has been followed for development of clientele as well as human resources of the Bank.

Coping with the competitive and rapidly changing financial market of the country, BASIC Bank Limited maintains close connection with its clients, the regulatory, the shareholders (Government of Bangladesh), other banks and financial institutions.

Management:

The Managing Director heads the management. The two General Managers and Departmental Heads in the Head office assist him. BASIC is different in respect hierarchical structure from other banks in that it is much more vertically integrated as far as reporting to the Chief executive is concerned. The Branch Managers of the Bank report direct to the Managing Director and, for functional purpose, to the Heads of Departments. Consequently, quick decision making in disposal of assess is ensured.

Organizational Goals:

BASIC Banks Ambitions:

BASIC Bank Limited dedicated their service to the nation through active financial participation in all segments of economy, small industries, trade, commerce and service sector etc.
The Banks main manifest to progress as an institution par excellence to customer satisfaction.
Global Banking has change rapidly and BSIC as worked hard to adapt to these changes.
To pay a vital role in human development and employment generation.
To undertake project promotion to identify profitable areas of investment.
To search for newer avenues for investment and develop new products to suit such needs.
 To establish linkage with other institution which are engaged in financing micro enterprise.
BASIC keeping pace with the changing environment.
To corporate and collaborate with institutions entrusted with the responsibility of promoting and aiding SSI sector.
Deep commitment to the society and growth of national economy.

Resources & Capabilities:

BASIC Bank is a well prepared to and capable of meeting the demand for a broad range of banking services .It has got adequate resources, both human and physical, to provide the customers with the best possible services.

Physical and Technological Resources:

A great deal of investment for developing the physical resource base of the Bank has been made. BASIC has its presence in all the major industrial and commercial hubs of Bangladesh in order to cater to the needs of industry and trade. At present, there are seventy conveniently located branches in all over Bangladesh. There are twenty five branches in the capital city Dhaka, fourteen in Chittagong, three in Narayanganj, two in Norshinngdi, four in Sylhet, six in Rajshahi, two in Rangpur, nine in Khulna, three in Barishal.

Major Features and Benefits of These Branches:

Global banking has changed rapidly and BASIC as worked hard to adapt to these changes.
The banks main manifest during force for the banks progress as an institution par excellence to customer satisfaction.
Fully computerized accounts maintenance.
Well decorated and air conditioned facilities.
To pay a vital role in human development and employment generation.
A fully operational computer network which is currently being implemented .The work of Local Area Network (LAN) and Wide Area Network (WAN) installation having reliable and secured communication between the branches and the Head Office has established. Which helps any Branch Banking and ATM Services.
Money counting & Money checking machine making cash transactions easy, secure and prompt.
The bank look forward with excitement and a commitment to bring greater benefits to customers.
Sixty out of seventy branches are authorized dealers of foreign exchange. This facilities speedy disposal of transaction of export and import trades.
A group of professional bankers to render personalized services.
BASIC dedicated their service to the nation through active financial participation in all segments of economy, small Industries, trade, commerce and service sector etc.
BASIC keeping pace with the changing environment.
Deep commitment to the society and the growth of national economy

Foreign Trade:

The Bank handles foreign trade in which it has a comparatively large share despite its small size. BASIC provides various facilities related to L/C and post import finance like loan against imported merchandise (LIM) and loan against trust receipt (LTR) to the importers and back to back L/C and pre-shipment finance facilities like export credit, packing credit and foreign bills purchase (FBP) to exporters. So far the Bank has established correspondence relationship with as many as 11 foreign banks in order to facilitate foreign trade. Handing of import business grew from Tk. 8930.50 million in 2013. Export business handled by the Bank also increased of Tk.6523.00 million in 2013. The Bank became a proud member of SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Inter-bank Financial Telecommunication) that would pave the way to achieving uninterrupted connectivity in foreign exchange business and fund transfer.

Functional Divisions of BASIC Bank:

The bank has 70 branches, 8 Zones spread throughout the country. At the head office level there are 12 divisions most of which have more than one functional department which are headed by DGM and Training institute by a director with the rank of CGM.

The names of the Divisions are:

Personnel Division (PD).
Establishment & Common Service Division.
Human Resources Development Division.
Secretary’s Division (Aboard Division).
General Credit Recovery Division.
Industrial development finance division.
International division.
Control development & co ordination division.
Audits an inspection division.
Planning and research and statistics division.
Computer system and procedures division. And
Law division.

These are the different division of BASIC bank that are serving their services to the bank as well as to the country with great efforts according to their respective fields.

Critical Observations in intern experience and Recommendation:

Working at Basic Bank Limited was a great experience for me. I was able to learn may things throughout my internship period. I think it will help me in my near future in building up my career and shape it. Internship gives me an opportunity to know the real working environment and get real life experience. Also it allowed us to know, what types of difficulties we are going to face in the future and how to get rid from those difficulties as well. Though I am not experienced in the corporate culture and I passed a few months in that environment, I came up with some recommendations for the branch and the bank as well. Before moving to that part, through my observation I have seen many positive sides for the branch and the bank itself, and I want to mention a few of them in below-

All the employees and managers of the bank are very friendly and they are ready to help me all the time.
The working environment of the bank is very friendly. Throughout my internship period they never underestimate me for anything. What I have needed, they are ready to give it.
They are strictly following the rules, which I really like. They never ignore the rules.
Chain of command is excellent in the branch, as well as with the other branches of the bank.
Bank priorities clients first, thus it pays attentions to them whenever they ask for something. It maintains a good liaison with clients and meet their demand as quickly as possible.

Now a few recommendations I want to add here from my little experience and knowledge-

Basic Bank Limited (Islampur Branch) need to have highly qualified employees. I do not say that current employees are not good but they need more training about banking terms and rules
They should arrange more meetings to increase employee’s efficiency in the branch. It is very good way to let the employees know that the organization is having an eye on the activities and it will help by providing guidelines. This concerns the officials to work more attentively.
Bank needs to focus on reducing time of account opening procedure. As it needs to input various data after verifying them and collecting proper documents and signature where needed from the clients, which is a lengthy process, and clients need to wait there until the money was kept in the account. It seemed to me that, clients may become impatience about being remain seated for opening an account for thirty minutes. Though it takes highest thirty minutes in case of improper documents, otherwise it takes less than thirty minutes. Though I felt that it may have an negative impact in the mind of clients and which may make them talk negatively about the bank which ultimately will reduce the account in future. Thus, I have made an discussion with my colleagues how they can reduce the time. One of the way is to make the server and software more updated and powerful so that it does not take long time to input data, as I have seen a few days the server went down and the software took much longer time than the usual during inputting the data. Another way is to fill up the necessary field in database for opening the account first and send it for approval, after getting the account open, collect the money and give necessary papers to the clients and let them go, the rest of the data will be fill up later, which I think can reduce the time and lessen the impatience of the clients, though I did not see any incidents like that during my internship period.
Increase the number of computers within Islampur branch, it will make convenient for employees to input the data related to account open and reduce the time as well.
The bank does not started online banking activities yet, I highly recommend that it will start this as soon as possible. As many others bank already have started online banking. Online banking make transactions more convenience for the clients. In addition to that, the bank needs to introduce the mobile banking activities as well. As people are using mobile phone more rapidly and some banks have started this. The current daily mobile banking activities has grown up to TK.150 corer. This amount will surely increase in the future as consumer of mobile phone is increasing and provider of mobile banking facilities are increasing as well. This is going to be a big business venture in near future. Thus I want to recommend that the bank will pay attention to introduce both the online banking and mobile banking service as soon as possible to remain competitive and earn higher profit.
It can pay loans to the individual customers like home loan, car loan which is provided by the other banks.
The bank should focus more on existing customers in order to build strong and loyal relationship with them as satisfied customers more aptly or certainly recommends the bank to friends and relatives. Thus the power of relationship will foster positive Word of Mouth Communication and will attract new customers at a lower cost.

Project Analysis of Cash Division & Its Activities

Summary:

Bank is a financial institutes that collect money form the surplus unit and gives it to the deficit unit. Different bank have different departments working together to make the banking activity more smooth and safe. BASIC Bank Ltd called these departments as divisions. The four main divisions of the bank is General Banking, Cash, Loans and Advances and Foreign Exchange. The cash division does the basic banking activity, which is cash receipt and payment. Cash division deals with cash, thus it need to be very careful during the work as any mistake can cause disaster and make the cash officers responsible for the deed and carry the burden as well. The cash division helps loans and advances division to pay loans by letting it take the excess amount money. Cash division of the bank arranges cash when it face deficit from the central bank. Cash division tries to maintain a sufficient amount of balance in the vault so that the branches of the bank do not face any shortage and can be able to meet the clients demand. Thus, it faced lack of cash very rarely in its history of banking. The cash division starts its activity on banking hour 10 a.m. and finishes at 4 p.m. For loyal consumers, it even collect money from them after 4 p.m. Cash division calculate the cash, check them properly during deposition, pack them and kept them in the vault. The vault is also being used by other divisions to keep their valuable documents. Tellers, who conduct the monetary transaction with the client in the counter, have both experience and accuracy in collecting cash and calculating it. They maintain polite behavior with clients as this have an impact on the clients and their word of mouth about the bank which is related to the bank’s reputation. Cash division plays a big role in the banking activities.

Description of the Project:

The project is done on the cash division and it’s activities of BASIC Bank Ltd. Cash division of a bank deals with only cash. It deposit cash from the consumers and pay cash as well. It provides cash to other divisions whenever they ask for it. Excess cash earned by this division is used to pay loan and advances. This division also finds out source of cash whenever it faces shortage of cash.

Objective of the Project:

The broad objective of this project is to be familiar with the banking environment and its culture and activities as well. Another broad objective is to earn practical knowledge along with the theoretical knowledge. I have gained some practical knowledge through my internship program.

Some other specific objective of the project are given below.

To know about the cash division of BASIC Bank Ltd.
Know about the specific activities done by this division.
Know more accurately how this division collect cash in time of shortage and where it invest in time of having excess cash.
To have an adequate knowledge about the cash collection and payment system.
Know accurately about the cash calculation, cash packing and handling process and cash checking as well.

CASH SECTION:

The function of this unit is to receive and payment of cash. This division only deals with cash. The vault limit for this branch (Islampur) is TK.20,000,000. Each teller is allowed to en cash cheque up to TK.100,000 with their own signature. If additional cash is required then the second man of the branch makes arrangement on request. Moreover, each teller can deposit up to TK.100,000. Here officers need to maintain a mechanism during deposit or pay the money. They can do the transaction up to TK.100,000 with their own if the transaction takes place within the accounts of the Islampur branch only. If the transaction happens from one account of Islampur branch and one from other branch from the same bank, then cash officers need permission from the Assistant Manager to pass any amount transactions. There are one chief officer, one senior officer, and two Banking officers in this department.

Operation of this section starts in the banking hour which is 10 a.m. and ends at 4 p.m. During that period one can do transactions. However, sometimes in case of emergency and for the convenience of the client, bank give the opportunity to make transactions even after 4 p.m. However, these happens only for the important client of the bank. Its like giving privileges to the loyal customers. Cash division starts day by taking out the money from the vault. The amount it take out from the vault to do transactions, depends on the previous days ending balance. In banking term, there lies two cash balance, named opening cash balance and ending cash balance. Ending cash balance is the surplus amount money that remains in the bank after finishing all the monetary activities. This money put back in the vault after calculating and keeping the record in the cash balance book. Then the vault shut down in presence of the branch in charge and cash in charge.

There two keys are available for opening the vault which remains with branch in charge and cash in charge. Both of them keep presence in time of closing and opening the vault.

This closing balance is the opening balance for the bank in the next day. Again the opening balance recorded in the cash balance book before the distribution of the money. The whole amount of money is distributed within the cash officers so that they can pay the demanded amount. Cash in charge completes this activity and keep record that which officer gets which amount. This helps cash in charge to calculate the ending cash balance.

During the whole day cash officers pay and deposit money. As I mentioned earlier that, the average transaction that the branch make is above TK1,000,000 after paying and depositing money, that means this amount remains with the bank after completing all the activities and kept back into the vault.

CASH RECEIPT:

At first the depositor fill up the Deposit in the slip. For Savings and DPS account, same type of deposit slip is used by the bank, on the other hand for conventional and hypothesis current account, another type of slip is used. For filling up the slip, client needs to provide account number, date, amount to be deposited and signature of the depositor.
After filling the required deposit in slip, depositor deposits the money.
Officers at the cash counter receives the money, count it, enter the amount of money in the register kept at the counter, seal the deposit in slip and sign on it with date and keep the bank’s part of the slip. Other part is given to the depositor. Officers of cash division takes a close and careful look to the money for the damaged note or illegal note. They take up to 60% damaged notes, otherwise give it back to the depositor. In case of illegal notes, bank gives it back to the client. Officers use machine like ultraviolet note checker to identify illegal notes.
All deposit slip of saving; Current and STD A/C are maintained in accounts section.
Cash officers also update the database using the software system. They credit the deposit amount in the clients account number. Officers also record the deposit in the register book.

CASH PAYMENT:

Cash payment of different instruments is made in the cash section. Procedure of cash payment against cheque is discussed below elaborately. Cash payment of cheque includes few steps.

First of the entire client comes to the counter with the check and give it to theofficer in charge there. The officer checks whether there are two signatures on the back of the check and checks his balance in the computer. Along with that checks the signature whether it matches with the account holders signature recorded in the database. If the cheque is carried by another person rather than the account holder, called cheque bearer, officers ask to give a sign in the back of the cheque along with bearer phone number, the signature is asked to verify the bearers signature and phone number for if any inconvenience occurred, then to call the bearer.
After matching these, officer debit the client’s account by the specific amount by posting it through the software system. The system provides a posted number which is recorded by the officer on the cheque.
Then officer paid the amount to the client by keeping the cheque while writing the denomination on the back of the cheque.
Cash paid seal is given on the check and make entry in the payment register. There are few things that shall be scrutinized and checked before making payments.
Name of the drawer.
Account number.
Specimen signature.
The validity of the check and make it sure that it is not post dated or undated.
The amount in words and figures are same.
There is no overwrite or cross.

CASH BALANCE CALCULATION:

The officer in charge of cash section does the calculation and then Sub-manager or authorized officer will check the balance and sign in the cash balance book. The balance is maintained in the balance book. Opening balance of current day is the closing balance of the previous day. Total receive of the current day is added with the opening balance and total payment is deducted for calculating the closing balance or cash balance. To complete this process, each cash officer matches the amount showed by the computer software with the physical money they have with them. If there is a mismatch, then officers try to find out the reason behind the mismatch. As I mentioned earlier, officers kept slips, cheques and other documents with them. They did it to match the daily activities they have done throughout the day against their daily activities that is recorded by the software system. A print has taken out by the system at the end of the day, then each officer usually match it with the documents they have collected throughout the day.

It helps them to find out the imbalance amount if that happens. It is called matching the daily activities. Each officers after completing it, gives the money to the cash in charge, cash in charge, then counts the physical amount of money against the total balance that is showing by the system after collecting the money from the other officers system. If there is no mismatch, then cash in charge record the data in the register book. Then in the presence of the bank in charge, kept the money in the vault. Here, each details is recorded in the register book, like how many TK.100 are physically collected by the cash counter which is going inside the vault.

Matching Activities:

As I mentioned earlier paragraph, after calculating the cash balance amount each cash officers match their activities they have done throughout the day. They input their activities during the time of occurrence of that activity in the software system and in the register book, along with that they kept the instrument documents. During matching, they take a print out of the activities from the computer and matches with the documents that whether they have put right amount in debit or credit. If they have done this debiting or crediting properly, then no mismatches occur, on the other hand, if they make mistakes, then the mismatch occurs and they can easily find out where they have made the mistake.

It helps them in time of mismatching. These print outs are kept recorded on a day to day basis and in time of audit, auditors check these papers. These activities papers are submitted to the assistant manager of the branch who check them and sign them if they are okay before recording them.

CASH PACKING AND HANDLING:

Cash packing and handling needs a lot of care as any mistake may lead to disaster. Packing after banking hour when the counter is closed, cash are packed according to denomination. Notes are counted several times and packed in bundle, stetted and stumped with initial. Here, each bundle contains 100 notes of either TK.100, Tk.500 or TK.1,000.

Ten bundles of similar valued money make a rim. Each bundle is stamped with the bank seal and initial of the officers who collect them, count them and make them. Then it stapled. Binding ten bundles with rope make a rim. After completing these task, the money is kept in the vault. Usually this task is done everyday after closing the banking transactions. This task is also done in the time of sending money to the main branch which occurs when total cash balance exceeds the branch limit. This work is done very cautiously as any mistake can cause a disaster and let officers responsible for the loose of money.

Bank Vault:

All cashes, valuable instruments and mortgaged property’s documents are kept in the vault of the bank. The cash balance limit is TK.20,000,000 in this branch (Islampur). Other documents are carried value as well. Thus total value of the vault considered TK.100,000,000 or above. There is a limit for the cash, so the exceed money is transferred to the main branch. However, the valued documents are kept in the vault of the respective branch where the account is opened, as these documents are needed in the time of paying loan and are checked on a regular interval to ensure that these documents are properly up to dated. The branch limit is also fluctuates based upon the demand of the local people and business. Where there is more demand for monetary transaction in an area, there this limit rises, on the other hand where the demand is low, this limit decreases. Based upon these factors, the main branch determine the limit. In case of the main branch, there does not have any fixed limit for the cash reserve. As it supplies cash to other branches, it always needs to maintain a balance that can meet the sudden demand of a branch. However, it does not reserve all cash, as idle cash does not produce any benefit rather looses the value of money. Thus main branch tries to maintain a balance of TK.500,000,000. This balance is not fix as well. Based upon the demand of other branches it fluctuates. When the demand goes high, the limit as well and the vice versa.

With the exceeds money that the main branch collects, it invested those money in various sector. Usually BASIC Bank Ltd uses the excess money to invest in the small industries within Bangladesh. It tries to make an impact in the progress of the small industries. It invests in a rate of range between 12% to 15%. This rates also fluctuates based upon the government rules and regulations. The main investment criteria for the bank is to provide loan. It provides loans to agricultural sector like poultry, farming of fish and similar kinds and mostly in the small industries like small entrepreneur, boutique houses and so on. It gives large amount of loans to the small industries and the rest to the agricultural and other sector. Other sectors are like other banks, corporate institutions and so on.

Investment on various Sectors

However, the bank face the problem of deficit of cash as to meet the client’s demand less, as it maintains a sufficient amount in its main branch, though during the period of deficit, it takes money from the central bank rather than from other banks as to other banks, the rate of taking loan is pretty high. As being a government bank, it has the advantage of taking loan from the Bangladesh bank. It pays an interest amount of 13% to 16%.

TELLER CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP:

Here comes another important factor for the cash officers. As they meet with clients regularly and handle them, they need to ensure that they are meeting the demand of the client quickly and appropriately by behaving properly. In a bank a person who delivers and receives cash from the cash counter is known as teller, a customer meets most of the time in a bank with a teller on the counter. So teller should hold certain quality.

Should be friendly.
Provide prompt service.
Be accurate in his task.
Be carefully.
To have endless patience.
Be smart.
In short a teller should be efficient otherwise he has to pay.

Analysis:

During my internship I have noticed the activities of the cash division from a close range and gained some knowledge about it. From my knowledge I can analyze that the activities done by this division is not easy, rather very sensitive. Any mistakes cause clients anger, loose of money, imbalance of cash and so forth. Among these, cash officers are considered as highly responsible for loose of money and imbalance of cash. If this happens, then they need to compensate that by providing money from their own.

Moreover, in case of the anger of clients, the initial response of the client is to misbehave with the officers and in long run the effect is more bad. Clients talk negatively about the bank and then the bank looses its reputation which makes it failure to attract new customers. Thus cash officers need to maintain accuracy along with good behavior. The bank also provides a basic training for them so that they can conduct clients properly. In addition, bank has a focus on the usage of extra money. As I mentioned earlier, idle money looses value of money, thus bank provides loan to various sectors especially small industries, agricultural and other sectors.

Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) & Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SRR):

Another important act that the cash division does is to keep a certain amount of money in the vault of central bank of Bangladesh, named Bangladesh Bank. It also needs to buy or invest on certain amount of Bangladesh Bank securities. The amount of which each bank operating in Bangladesh, have to keep in the vault of Bangladesh Bank as a security is known as Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR). The reason behind that, when a bank face financial crisis, the bank can take loan from the central bank based upon this, during that period the CRR will be considered as a security. The current rate of CRR is 6% on bi-weekly average basis on the average total demand and time liabilities. The bi-weekly points here after each two weeks, bank needs to make confirm that it has kept 6% CRR on the central bank’s vault based upon their average total demand and time liabilities. The amount of cash that bank needs to invest on government securities is called the statutory liquidity ratio (SRR). Current rate of SRR is 13% daily on conventional banks based upon their average demand and time liabilities. That means bank needs to make update of SRR amount on a daily basis if there average demand and time liabilities changes daily.

However, SRR is calculated on the excess amount of cash which exceeds limits. For calculating both CRR and SRR, demand and time liabilities are needed. The components of demand and time liabilities included all on-balance sheet liabilities excluding the items listed below

a) Paid up capital and reserves;
b) Loans taken from BB;
c) Credit Balance in Profit and Loss account;
d) Inter-bank items;
e) Repo, Special Repo and any kind of Liquidity Support taken from BB.

Usually, the calculation of CRR and SRR is done by the general banking division after each week. They submit a weekly balance sheet report to the central bank showing their demand and time liabilities. Based upon that report, central bank make the calculation whether the correspondence bank have maintained the CRR and SRR accurately or not. If not, central bank confirms the bank and ask to make the update. Then Cash division pays the cash to the central bank from it’s excess of money. That is the mechanism of CRR and SRR. However, the rate of CRR and SRR is solely determined by the Bangladesh Bank, it can either increase or decrease in time of need to make monetary situation of the country balanced and proper.

The bank being a government bank take loan from the central bank rather than going to other banks. However, it faced this type of problem rarely as it maintains a sufficient amount in its main branch so that it can meet the demand of clients. The day to day activities done by the cash division is given below on a flow chart.

Results & Discussion:

In the analysis part I have shown that the branch was not able to maintain its average transaction amount which is TK.1 corer. In the results and discussion part I will describe that how this has an impact on the branch and its activities. Not only this branch, all other branches over the country faced the same problem and thus, the main branch and head office took some initiatives to manage the problem. Though the effect was not long term, as people are also reacting to the political instability situation like strike slowly, it took small period of time for the bank to negotiate with these problems. As I mentioned earlier that the main branch of the BASIC Bank Ltd maintains a sufficient amount of money in its own vault, thus it did not have to face the deficit of cash to meet the consumers demand, rather it was able to invest in various sectors and provided loans during this periods. Though it limited its portions of giving loans. During the political instable period, it only paid loans to its loyal consumers who have a long term relationships with the bank. Any new small entrepreneur who wanted to take loan during that period, the bank told them to make more transaction through their accounts of the bank, and after a while, it will provide the loan. I have also seen that during my internship period that loan and advances division of Islampur branch is rejecting loan request from the new clients however, it was providing loan to its old clients, though the rate was low. As we all know that, providing loan is one of the way for a bank to earn profit, though it was not able to provide it due to the situation of not getting the cash from the deposits. One effect of the political instability was that the new account opening was reduced. At the beginning of the political instability, the people were more worried and they were afraid to do their day to day business, thus their income level was reduced and thus the thinking of saving.

During that period, people were interested to earn their livelihood properly, rather to save. As a result, the deposit of cash decreased, which I have shown the Chart 7. Average transaction also covers the amount of deposit that happens throughout the day. In fact, the less amount of new deposits, caused the result of reduction of daily average transaction.

Old and loyal clients were making their transactions but no new clients were coming on that period. The bank has managed it by providing loan to less number of people and in less amount. Thus, it did not face the problem of deficit of cash. It rejected the new loan requests from new clients during that period. In addition to that, the head office of the bank took another initiatives during that period to face the problem. This step was not just to face the short term problem, rather it focused on the long run. The process was simple.

It selected from its internal employees as marketing officers from each branch and provided them guidelines to communicate with more people by working outside the office and bring more new accounts. Previously, only the marketing division of the head office have some officers who were appointed for doing the marketing and promotional job for the bank. During promotion for new account service, officers from other divisions were appointed to do the promotional activities. However, during that period of political instability, the head office of the bank selected some officers internally form each branch and asked them to work as a marketing officers under their branch. They were told to do only the marketing activities which was initially to go different surrounding places of the branch to communicate with people about banks services and accounts. They were removed from their previous job responsibilities so that they can do the marketing properly. They were given some specific target to meet. During my internship period, I have noticed that change. In the middle of the month of January, when I started my internship in Islampur branch, there were no marketing officers available in that branch.

However, during the last phase of the month, when the head office noticed the declining of average daily transaction, it took that initiative. As a result of that, one of my colleague from General Banking division and one from Cash division from that branch selected as marketing officers by the head office and they were removed from their previous job responsibilities and ordered to collect 70 new accounts per month individually. They were also guided by the head office how to do that which I mentioned earlier. These are the steps that the bank took to manage the problem that was created by the political instability.

From my working experience in the BASIC Bank limited, I have learnt that, cash division is the division which does the basic banking activities on a day to day basis. If we see the reason of origin of bank, then we will see that the bank has been introduced to be a institute that will work as a middle source between the budget deficit and budget surplus unit. It will collect money from the surplus unit and provide money as a loan to the deficit unit. Bank collects money through its cash division. BASIC Bank Ltd also does this basic thing. The activities done by the cash division reflects the overall position of a bank.

Consumers usually make transaction with this division and they get an idea with overall banking activities from there. Thus, cash division can be considered as the preface of the book. The environment of the cash division of the BASIC Bank Ltd is very neat and clean. The officers within the division are well organized and trained. They have experience as well. They know how to handle an angry client. Their behavior is also polite. Cash division officers have good knowledge about mathematics and counting, have good educational background as well. Bank when recruiting cash officers, try to recruit those who have above mentioned qualities. The other departments are also dependant on this division. How? Whenever, the general banking division needs to pay a bill, like utility bills, it needs to make the arrangements and take approval. After that it tells cash division to pay the bill, the bill was ultimately paid by the cash division. In addition, when a client comes to the loans and advances division for asking loan, after checking all the documents and verifying them, tit asks the cash division to pay the money. If there is not sufficient balance available, then the cash division make the arrangement of the cash. From my observation, I can say that, the cash division of BASIC Bank Ltd is doing its job accurately and providing support to the other division. Whenever we think about a bank, the first thing that came to our mind is cash, and we all know that cash division deals with that.

Conclusion:

BASIC started its journey on 21 st January, 1989 with the commitment of economic and social development of Bangladesh. After passing almost 26 years, BASIC still have a distinguished place among the finest banks in Bangladesh. The bank has 70 branches, about 3,000 dedicated employees and more than 75,000 valued clients. The bank is always committed to deliver utmost satisfaction to the customers. The bank is dedicated to provide unique service to its customers, come up with timely and innovative products and services while emphasizing on the latest technology.

The management of BASIC is taking strategic steps to enable the bank to emerge as a strong and progressive institution. With a bulk of qualified and experienced human resource, the bank can exploit any opportunity in the banking sector. It is continuing to make efforts to refine its products and operations to make them more compatible. New deposit schemes have been introduced and action plans have been taken to maintain revenue growth in future. Though the bank has faced some critical financial problems in near past, the management team with the help of government is working on it to take back bank in its previous position along with getting back the reputation. It is also reshaping its corporate structure to be more efficient and effective.

The image created by the bank is very good and the total condition is almost within their control. BASIC has the capacity to utilize all its resources. If it can utilize its all resources, it can earn more profit and can acquire the highest position among the banks inside Bangladesh. I am quite satisfied with their overall performance so far and wish a good success and bright future of the Bangladesh Small Industries and Commerce Bank (BASIC) Limited.