Discussion
Q: My question is to Mr Sriram. You mentioned that 80% of the global trading that occurs is electronic in nature. As part of the research at IIMB, we found that the space in India is limited to between 30% and 40%. How aggressive is that space going to be in the coming years? Sriram Ramnarayan: In India, it is a different scenario in terms of the percentages. But we see that in India, it is growing up slowly, thanks to our regulators and in some manner, the machines. The most important requirement, other than getting the programme, the system or the risks and controls right, is availability of technological infrastructure to such a degree that you are able to rule out any glitches in order to execute your trade once you are sure about your machine tradable capability. I think electronic trading is coming and is unavoidable; but whether it is coming in a big way, and the speed of the change, is something that one needs to see; it is dif- ficult to predict. Imtaiyazur Rahman: To supplement what Sriram said, SEBI has now allowed direct market access. So, now most of the participants are going directly to the market instead of going through the broker. I think this is the beginning but going from 50% to 80% will not take much time; going from 40% to 50% may take some time. Once it crosses 50%, reaching 80% will not take much time. Q: I want ask you a question on the human resource policy of public sector undertaking (PSU) banks. I recently conducted a 3-day programme on financial derivatives in the Staff Training College of a major PSU bank. Half the participants were in the age group of 58–60 years and they admitted that there was little incentive for them to learn complicated subjects at that stage. At another such programme, there was a very bright young participant who was very good in treasury risk management and absorbed everything we conveyed. But a year later he was transferred to a rural branch of the bank and he had to sell agricultural loans to farmers when he has absolutely no talent for it. Why do banks have these kinds of policies?
