AIUB Business Club’s Workshop: Foreign Exchange Operations in the Banking Sector

Being a student, one’s reach often is left limited within the academic bounds of textbooks and lecture notes. And in this competitive world, that simply isn’t enough to survive. It demands the ability to incorporate knowledge from practical experience in order to develop oneself, personally and professionally. Hence, the growing emphasis on the significant impact of case studies, seminars, corporate visits, on-field research, and workshops. Aligned with the reality of the job market, the AIUB Business Club [ABC] organized a workshop for their members on the 22nd of February 2014, to discuss the foreign exchange operations in the banking sector, in an attempt to provide a more hands-on approach to knowledge sharing and prepare them to take on a global perspective in their future career paths. Abdullah Momin, the founder and former vice president of ABC, currently working in Al-Arafah Bank, conducted a constructive workshop, guiding them through the practices and policies of the bank’s foreign exchange department.

The workshop covered basic concepts of general banking, using video presentations to demonstrate the process. Technical terms and jargons commonly used in foreign exchange were explained, including elaborate illustrations to describe the internal communications and B2B transactions of import-export, step by step. Even the fact that everything was going digital and was now demanding the banks to automate many of their manual operations, ranging from archiving and documentation to online and mobile banking was also discussed.

The workshop was followed by a quiz competition, in which the members were evaluated on their performances and the top 3 participants were selected. Md. Ali Azzan Esha and Das Tuli were the 1st and 2nd runners up, while Naima Anwar was the winner, The top 3 were awarded with certificates and crests for their performance, while all the members attending the workshop were provided with certificates of participation. Mr. Momin also acknowledged the current ABC executives for their contribution and effort towards the club and expressed his gratitude to the organizers, in hope that the club and its members will continue to persevere in their pursuit of taking ABC to new heights by ‘putting leadership into practice’.