Risky business

With his low, raspy voice and smaller stature, combined with tall presence and a banker’s suit, my first impression of Mohammad Shafi, Director – Corporate Banking, HSBC, is that he looks somewhat like a sub-continental version of Michael Douglas’s character Gordan Gekko in the film Wall Street. And I start to wonder if he is as money hungry and aggressive as Gekko.

After a few minutes of conversation, however, Shafi comes across as a man who has risen to the top of his profession not through cutthroat competitiveness, but through proper manners and controlled decisions. It is his job, after all, to manage a team of relationship managers who work with HSBC’s multinational corporate clients, which include Emirates, DHL, Aramex, GAC and A.P. Moeller Maersk.

“My job is to grow the business, to increase profits for the bank, but at the same time I’ve got to make sure the bank’s money is safe,” says Shafi. “That’s the fine balance that I have to maintain.”

Any time a bank lends money, guarantees money or writes a letter of credit; it takes on an element of risk, says Shafi. “That’s what banking is all about. It is a challenge, but there are systems in place, there are methods that we employ which we have honed over a period of time.

This method gives us the expertise, and we get it right most of the time.”

But surely, amongst all this experience, there is room for error? Shafi gives the example of mid-transit currency fluctuations, in which the importer is expected to pay a higher price for the goods upon receipt than when he initially ordered them. “If this happens on a large scale, the trader can actually go bankrupt,” he says.

Sometimes Shafi says he has to rely on his instincts. “We have very well-laid out procedures. It is much more science than art,” he explains. “But there is an element of using your gut. That comes in when you ask, ‘Is this deal right?’ The numbers stack up, but you still feel uncomfortable about some of the projections or premises that are used in a business model. Those decisions have to come from experience.”

Many bankers around the world are likely feeling sick to their stomachs thanks to the recent global financial crisis. “When you see banks like Lehman Brothers going bust, you begin to wonder what’s going on in the banking world,” says Shafi. “The uncertainty is a little troubling.”

Amidst all this uncertainty, Shafi still says he is not particularly risk averse. “You’d be surprised, but most bankers are not risk takers,” he says.

Still, one gets the feeling he likes to drive fast. “If this is on the record, I drive as per the speed limit,” he says with a smirk.

Mohammad Shafi chats with Kathryn Semcow at the HSBC office in DIFC