Commercial Officer
Bahrain Steel
Total years of experience :4 years, 8 months
1. Bahrain Steel, Kingdom of Bahrain - December 2014 to present
Department - Commercial
The commercial department includes purchase of iron ore, sales of iron pellets and shipment to and from Bahrain for import/export. I currently hold the position of Commercial Officer. My role involves ensuring smooth processing of the back office documentation pertaining to import, export and shipping.
Job Responsibilities
• Import/ Purchase of Iron ore-
• Establishing the Letter of credit (LC) for the shipment from the iron ore supplier. Includes calculating LC pricing as per contract between Bahrain steel and the supplier and liaising with the Finance department to have the LC issued and in order.
• At every stage of shipment, ensuring proper documentation and updation of latest shipment data on the Oracle software.
• Liaising with external agencies for customs clearance of the incoming vessel; for documents such as Bill of Lading and surveyors for quality/quantity related certificates.
• Ensuring that memos are prepared for all final invoice amounts to be paid/received and that the same are sent to the finance department.
• As a month end activity, ensuring that all figures are updated correctly in the Oracle software and confirmed to the finance department.
• Ensuring that proper filing of documentation is maintained.
• Export/ Sale of Iron Pellets-
The iron ore is processed and converted into pellets which are exported.
• Involved in preparing documentation related to advance payments / LCs for pellet sales.
• Keeping track of expected sales and shipments on a regular basis and ensuring the relevant documents are prepared and details such as vessel arrival time, berthing, loading, completion, sailing etc. are updated in the Oracle software
• Liaising with the other departments such as material handling for loading related details and quality control for quality aspects such as Iron (Fe) and moisture content for every shipment.
• Liaising with external agencies for customs clearance of the incoming vessel; for documents such as Bill of Lading and surveyors for quality/quantity related certificates.
• Liaising with the finance department to ensure that the money has been received in the bank for all advance payments before proceeding with the vessel berthing and documentation
• Liaising with the finance department to ensure that the Letter of Credit(LC) is in place, checking that the pricing is as per the contract before vessel berthing and documentation.
• Shipping-
• The back office role for shipping includes daily basis updation of the PLATTS index prices on the Oracle software. The data is sought from the PLATTS metal bulletin that is published on a daily basis.
• Ensuring that at the month end, all the miscellaneous vessel charges such as mooring/unmooring charges, berthing charges etc are updated correctly in the Oracle software to be passed on to the finance department.
• Ensuring that memos are prepared for all demurrage and despatches incurred for every shipment and passed on to the finance department for payment/receipt.
• Checking all freight, port expense and other invoices and updation on the Oracle software.
Was a part of the Trade finance team primarily handling Letters of Credit
• Primary area of work - Letters of Credit- processing and handling export LCs for United Steel Company (SULB).
o This involved thorough checking of LCs/LC applications from the applicant, raising amendment queries and establishing a workable LC.
o Preparing documents as per LC requirements and subsequently negotiating documents with the bank.
o Monitoring and follow up of payment receipts subsequently based on due dates.
o The role involved constant interaction, coordination and liaising with the sales and logistics departments with respect to road and/or vessel shipments.
o Extensive use of SAP software on a daily basis for processing of LCs and in other activities as well.
• Secondary area of work - involved in the critical activity of reconciliation of accounts for United Steel Company(SULB)
o This involved reconciling all the key bank accounts of United steel Company (SULB) with the ledgers maintained by the company.
o Weekly liaising with banks for statement related information.
o Weekly updation of the non reconciled entries and coordinating with departments to pass rectification entries.
o Finalizing and monthly submission of reconciled accounts
o A large part of this activity was done using SAP software.
• Other jobs handled -
o Advance payments - other than LCs, the role also included handling advance payments made by customers. This included booking the payment in the system using SAP software and simultaneously coordinating with the sales and logistics team to dispatch goods against the payment received.
o Booking Payments against LCs - This involved booking payments in the system through the SAP software when money was received against the negotiated LCs.
o Daily Collection Updation / Report - the main purpose of this activity was to ascertain payments received on a weekly and monthly basis.
On a daily basis, data was maintained and updated regarding LCs, LC negotiations with the bank, due dates, payment received against this etc.
Advance payments and payments received against bank guarantee and credit insurance facilities received were also recorded
The report was prepared on a weekly basis and circulated to the higher management.
This report was very vital to monitor cash flows and also helped to keep a check on outstanding payments that needed follow ups.
o Exchange rate updation - This was a bi-weekly activity. Twice a week, exchange rates were updated and maintained in the SAP software. These updated rates were used automatically by the system when cross currency payments were booked in the system thus making it an important function.
• Loan refinance facility - was given an opportunity to be involved briefly in a loan refinancing / drawdown facility for the company. This was a valuable learning experience.
o Involved in the initial stages of preparing the drafts of the loan agreement (passively).
o Involved in discussions with the legal counsels, guarantors to the loan regarding various aspects of the facility agreement (passively).
o Got an insight into various aspects such as parties involved, points to be covered in the agreement, repayment terms, fees, opening of a bank account for the loan, initial deposit amount etc.
Key Contributions -
• Streamlined LC related data with respect to bank wise negotiations, discounting and confirmation rates maintenance. This helped in proper tracking and follow up of payments outstanding bankwise; for LCs which were to be discounted/confirmed, maintaining the discounting and confirmation rates was vital and helped for anytime reference.
• Reconciliation was earlier done manually. Was involved in the initial launch stages of the automated reconciliation along with the SAP team.
Loan Admin operations (LAO)
Preparing and maintaining reports related to all corporate clients’ loans -
• Reports pertaining to country wise exposure of loans given to corporates.
Objective - to keep a check on country related risks.
• Daily and monthly position on loans disbursed and outstanding
Objective - to determine the asset portfolio of the bank
• Keeping a track of funded and non funded facilities given to corporates.
Objective - Helps keep track of the underlying risk to the bank.
• Monthly monitoring of region wise loan exposure broadly classified as regional( middle east and Africa ) and India.
Also includes monthly checking of risk rating movements for every client.
Checking for derivative exposures given to clients.
Classifying loans as ECBs, Foreign currency loans, working capital loans, syndicate loans etc.
• Quarterly reporting to Central Bank of Bahrain with respect to the underlying security taken against loans disbursed, value of the security and the type of security.
• Monthly updation of all new sanctions and renewals of loans.
- Same to be submitted to Central bank of Bahrain as a compliance requirement
Asset Purchase/Selldown
In cases where ICICI, Bahrain is involved in a secondary market asset purchase or sale,
• Collecting all the details of the transaction - buyer, seller, rate of purchase, interest repayment schedule, pricing etc.
• Preparing and arranging for essential documents such as Transfer certificate and Loan market association (LMA) which include details of the purchase/sale.
• Subsequent incorporation of the new asset (loan) in the daily and monthly reports.
Corporate operations - KYC process for new clients -
For all new corporate accounts,
• Involved in entire process of collecting all KYC related documents prior to opening of the account.
• Scrutiny and checking of all the documents prior to opening of accounts.
Worked in Trade Finance operations. - Import remittances
Handling all import/outward remittance transactions on a daily basis -
A1 (advance payments/direct payments)
A2 (miscellaneous remittances)
Scrutiny of documents and processing of remittances
Handling bill transactions
Collection bills, bills under letters of credits - import and inland - scrutiny, lodgement and payments on due dates.
Also includes Buyer’s credit - tracking all BC due dates and making payments
The role also involved checking of bills under the LC alongside the LC issued and subsequently identifying discrepancies.
Briefly involved in the LC issuing process that included checking if all required documents are in place to issue the LC followed by lodging the same into the system.
Preparing and maintaining various reports pertaining to bills - collection and LC bills - overdue and due dates for payments. Objective being to keep track and avoid risk exposure to the bank by way of NPAs.
Key Contributions-
I was entrusted with the responsibility of ideating and developing an MOPP \[Manual of Policies and procedures\] for compilation of R-Returns at Kotak Mahindra Bank, Trade Finance.The manual was prepared in great detail to explain the entire process of compiling and submitting R-returns which is a statutory requirement by RBI (Reserve Bank of India)
The MOPP was successfully completed and published on the bank’s intranet.
Created an MOPP for compiling BEF (bill of entry) statement also required by all ADs to be submitted to RBI on a periodic basis.
The domestic trade process involved manual creation of advices to be provided to the customers which was a time consuming activity. Post taking over of the domestic trade desk, I brought this to the notice of my seniors and subsequently a system was put in place for automatic generation of advices.
Awarded for topping the Finance stream during MBA
Awarded for ranking among the top 10 during the 3 year degree course
Principal's Honours list - ranked 3rd in the school Awarded for topping Accountancy