THOUGH banks and currency markets face no fear from the change in the White House, they do concede that decisions and incidents are taking place at a pace which is keeping them alert. The travel ban did disturb them, but the court action calmed them down, they say.

“Why fear? There is no negative sign from the US. Any talk of misplaced fear may actually damage our credibility,” warned a senior banker. However, generally speaking, bankers avoided discussing concerns arising out of a possible action against Muslim countries. All they stressed was the fact that banks in Pakistan were not facing any hindrance.

Pakistani banks, they said, were never charged of money-laundering though the country had to face tough vigilance from global agencies. There were issues with just one bank and it is no more on the country’s banking list. The currency dealers also shared the bankers’ sentiment.

Talking about the recent decline in remittances from the US, the bankers said it was an extension of the trend that started a couple of years ago. The remittances declined by 9pc in the first seven months of the current fiscal year. The US happens to be the third-largest source of remittances for Pakistan. Bankers said if anything goes wrong in relations with the US, exports, not remittances, will be the first to take the hit.

“Pakistanis working in US may have their fears, but we don’t expect any major change like it happened in the aftermath of 9/11,” said Atif Ahmed, a banker dealing with remittances and currency exchange. However, he pointed out that any sanction on Pakistan could freeze the country’s foreign dealings since banks keep most of their dollars in their foreign branches, while the State Bank invests most of its reserves in the US. “But we think it will never happen,” he hastened to add.

The currency dealers, on the other hand, found the current scenario positive for the dollar as the currency has gained against the euro and the British pound. Forex Association of Pakistan President Malik Bostan said that since the change in the White House, all major currencies had lost weight against the greenback. The dollar may gain against the rupee in the interbank market, but for State Bank’s intervention which, he said, was an artificial value.

Why the world is on edge

• Policies are anchored in the past more than the future.

• Unpredictability.

• Lack of respect for the rule of law.

• Fanning the religious divide.

• Hurting globalisation.

• Diminishing the value of diplomacy.

• No respect for nature and media.

Published in Dawn, February 19th, 2017