MY secretary requested that I set an appointment with the representatives of one of the Arab Banking Institutions todiscuss the possibility of handing over to them the excess banknotes in the foreign currencies at the bank and transferring it to the bank's accounts at the bank's correspondents abroad. It seems that those representatives are marketing their services in this field to all banks including ours. I agreed to set the appointment, and then my mind became distracted with the old days when I was a junior employee and weused to compete to be nominated for accompanying thebanknotes' dispatches to be delivered to the Saudi and Gulfbanks. The senior employees used to accompany the dispatches forwarded to the European banks. To clarify the meaning of the dispatches and the banknotes' excess and why this excess is sent abroad, and why it is not kept in the bank's vaults instead of exporting it abroad ...etc; my next words will clarify all that. Everybody knows that money is the commodity that banks work with. There is no transaction without money being its core whether liquidised or frozen in an account or deposit, or roaming between an account here and an account there, or flying from an account here to an account abroad. Thus, the revenue from that commodity/ money is increasing all through the working hours considering that the monetary deposited each day is a lot more than the outgoing monetary in most cases. Therefore, there is an accumulation resulting from the difference between the incoming monetary and the outgoing monetary. This happens naturally in the local currency as well as in all kinds of foreign currencies; Arabic, American, European and others whoever deposits a cash amount in the foreign currency as a term deposit for a month,for example, receives revenue for this deposit. If we assume that this monetary deposit stayed resting at the bank's vault without motion, while the depositor's deposit costs the bank thevalue of the revenue paid out to him each month, unless there was another loan for the same amount. But the bank should not lend all the amount of the deposits, however it must leave a margin between the deposits' amount and the credit facilities' amount of what is called credit rate. In addition, the borrower might prefer to withdraw the amount borrowed as a cheque or transfer, and so the banknote stays resting as it is without the minimum of investment. Anyway, there is always an accumulation in the banknotes' excess from the foreign currencies in the bank's vaults. This accumulation is considered a loss to the bank if it wasnot transferred immediately to a position, and it should be deposited in the bank's accounts abroad to cover the transfers outgoing abroad by discounting from the bank's accounts that are fed with the banknotes' excess. As for the banknotes' excess in the local currency, it is deposited in the Central Bank. I remember the day I travelled to Saudi Arabia accompaniedby bags of millions of Saudi Riyals, which were gathered from the clients' deposits, and which had to be exported immediately to Saudi Arabia to be transferred to US Dollars and deposited in the bank's accounts abroad to benefit from in covering the transfers outgoing abroad andpaying up the value of documentary credits or investing them in deposits abroad. I also remember the convoy of cars that preceded and followed my car as it carried me with these millions in bags sealed by the customs representative a the bank. Then, after completing the customs procedures, I was put on the plane before all the passengers accompanying the bags which were placed beside me in the plane as a seat was reserved for each bag in the first class. I remember that I and the bags filled all the first raw, a seat for me and threeseats for the three bags resting on their seats motionless and peaceful contrary to what I was suffering from; a beating heart, mental disorder and continues prayer that this hard mission is fully completed safely and that I receive the receipt from the recipient bank of these bags which means the full completion of this difficult mission. Once the plane arrived, the bank representatives came onto it and welcomed me in every way as was their custom and we rode a big luxurious car that accommodated all of us with the bags. At the bank, they counted the banknotes then gave me a receipt voucher signed by them and stamped with the bank's stamp. So, I was freed from a huge burden of delivering the bank's excess banknote, which will be transferred after a day or two into a balance for the bank in its accounts abroad. The bank can use it to face his commitments in foreign currencies. Working in banks is not easy as long as the commodity that banks deal with is…money.
