Banking for Beginners

  In last 3 months or so, International sanctions  have been in the news in light of Russia-Ukraine conflict. The moves initiated by United States have been followed up by its allies mainly in Europe. It’s imperative to examine nature of these sanctions and further, do such sanctions carry any validity under International Law.   Sanctions  are primarily, political decisions which graduate into diplomatic and economic steps, initiated by countries unilaterally or multi-laterally (through United Nations) against other countries or organizations or specific persons, under the notion of disciplining them. Real aim is to protect security interests of the sanctioning country while the purported aim could be maintenance of world peace. Sanctions are interventions for punishing an adversary, short of waging war with them, virtually bridging the gap between mere protest /denunciation and use of force.   But the political character of these sanctions cannot be negated. ...

Recently India has entered into Free Trade Agreements (FTA) with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Australia which has brought the spotlight on FTAs. After British PM Johnson’s visit,  there is a buzz of a FTA with UK. Let’s discuss - What are FTAs and what are advantages or disadvantages for the concerned countries and their economies. What are FTAs ? By definition a FTA connotes a treaty between multiple countries (set of two or more) whereby they agree, on a reciprocal basis, to open up access to their respective markets for trade and other economic activities, without restrictive entry barriers or export and import tariffs. To quote Encyclopedia Britannica “ free trade , also called   laissez-faire , a policy by which a government does not discriminate against  imports  or interfere with exports  by applying tariffs (to imports) or subsidies (to exports). A free-trade policy does not necessarily imply, however, that a country abandons all control and taxat...

  US Dollar (USD) is the most accepted currency across the globe although it may not be the strongest in nominal terms. USD ranks as 10 th strongest behind Kuwaiti Dinar (1 st spot), British pound (5 th spot) and the Euro (8 th spot). Despite its relatively low strength, USD is still considered and accepted as the World’s foremost reserve currency.   When US Federal Reserve first issued USD as the nation’s currency in 1914, British Pound was already dominating the globe, in line with Britain’s reigning status as the largest colonial power. However, during World War I (1914-18), the allies ( France ,   Britain ,   Russia ,   Italy ,   Japan ) had to depend on US for supplies (US joined the war in 1917) with payment being made in gold. This made US as the biggest holder of gold reserves and strengthened its currency (since it was backed by Gold reserves) as compared to British Pound which had weakened post war. This in turn led to various countries pegg...

SWIFT and RUSSIA   In recent days, the term SWIFT has been heard a number of times, in context with sanctions imposed on Russia by western countries, in retaliation for Russian invasion of Ukraine. Here an attempt is being made to explain SWIFT to the uninitiated, its importance and usage. We shall also briefly touch upon Russia’s position.   SWIFT stands for Society for the Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication . When I joined the banking industry in early eighties, financial messages viz. opening of letters of credit were effected through tele printer (telex) machines The system was slow and over a period of time it was unable to handle increasing number of transactions. Therefore a need was felt for establishment of a an advanced secure messaging system that would facilitate cross-border financial transactions. SWIFT was born in 1973 with its headquarters at Brussels, Belgium. The organization started with 500 member institutions in 22 countries and ...