The PGP participants of IIM Indore Mumbai Campus had with them Mr. Sayan Das, Director, Royal Bank of Scotland on Thursday, 19th December 2015 to interact on the topic "Banking Industry and Business Units in Banks".
Initiating with the basics of Macroeconomics, Mr. Das related how macroeconomic parameters influence finance industry. He began by sharing his perception that to master the finance industry one needs to understand that Macroeconomics and Finance are two faces of the same coin. Quoting him “When looked at a deeper level, the difference between Finance and Macroeconomics is converging “. He then went on to elucidate three often used concepts in financial markets- Identity relating savings, fiscal deficit and current account deficit; interest rates in the economy; and the inflation rate vs interest rate dilemma.
Further, he talked about different departments in banks and their hierarchy. He also interacted about the three types of banks – Wholesale bank, Retail bank and Private bank and further classified the investment banking and commercial banking in terms of global market. He also explained how trading and sales happen in each banking sector.
Mr. Das asserted that the best tool to build on your proficiency in finance is reading articles written by reliable, influential and knowledgeable sources. He listed several columnists and newspapers, which would aid the students in expanding their knowledge base and discussed several articles related to the current issues in the financial sector. The session concluded with an interactive session between Mr. Das and the participants where the participants raised various queries. Mr. Das gave apt replies to their queries where his acumen of the industry was clearly evident.