Export transactions in the carpet industry; American Express Bank Ltd.

Abstract

The American Express Bank Ltd. (AMEX) offers a wide range of correspondent banking services across 39 countries via a global network of specialists, resources and technology. The various operational services that a correspondent gets include, * Check clearing (travelers cheques, bank checks) * International money transfers * Collections, remittances, reimbursements * Electronic banking * Export bills. The Export Bills Program is a specific service offered by American Express Bank Ltd. to its correspondent banks. Under this service, AMEX does speedy, safe and efficient collection of their Export bills denominated in U.S. Dollars bound for payment around the world. The correspondent banks purchase export bills denominated in various currencies from the exporters. Couriers move these bills from the correspondent banks" offices to the paying banks through AMEX’s processing units in the U.S. and abroad. AMEX handles ail follow-up for each transaction, and act only as a handling agent for the bills. This project envisages to determine how to introduce the Export Bills Programme for the carpet exports industry. We wish to determine the existing level of services that banks offer to carpet exporters. The project also focusses on the identification of the problems and requirements of carpet exporters in relation to their transactions with banks. The study is made necessary by two reasons. Firstly. It is hypothesized that in the carpet industry, there is an urgent need for superior collection and handling services of export bills. Also that there is a long delay in reimbursements of export proceeds to exporters. This results due to inefficient handling of export bills and lack of specialized information networks and communication channels with correspondent banks. The contention is that since most of these transactions are not handled by specialized banking intermediaries. there is an opportunity for business.