Harbin Bank the System of Lending Money - Assignment Example

Harbin Bank – the System of Lending Money Description of firm This summer, I was working at Harbin Bank, which is an outstanding bank in the Northeast of China. Harbin bank rose in the recent years abruptly as a result of joint stocks. Its headquarters are in Harbin and it has also expanded and opened up many branches in Chengdu, Dalian, Tianjin, Shenyang, Chongqing to mention but a few. The bank’s vast growth is evidenced by the total assets amounting to 127.17 billion Yuan by the end of 2010.This comprises of 112.89 billion Yuan of deposits, a lower defective rate of 0.79% and 1.307 billion Yuan of net profit making it rank highest in the province of Heilongjiang. Additionally, the banker’s magazine of china ranks Harbin bank at position 9 among the companies that trade with assets of more than 80 billion Yuan in the whole country. Harbin bank’s mission statement is “to create profits to her shareholders, make customers get more value, make the employees have hope in their future and also create wealth to the society”. This is in line with her philosophy of “inclusive finance and harmoniously getting rich”. Being based in the Northeast of China, Harbin bank is geared to supporting the SME’s and also in creating an international micro credit bank which is renowned. Harbin bank made a wise decision to offer loans to small and medium size enterprises (SME’s) since 2004 and the shifting of the focus to the SME’s has solved the financial problems of the SME’s. Harbin bank’s small loans are classified into four main parts, namely, loans for farmers, loans for small enterprises, loans for personal consumption, and loans for micro-enterprises. According to the banks financial statement, by the end of 2009, the small loan bank balance was 18.933 billion Yuan. This accounted for 60% of the bank’s total credit asset. Description of work As I explained above, Harbin bank enrolled a system of lending money to SME’s since the year 2004. These types of loans as explained above includes loans for farmers, loans for small enterprises, loans for personal consumption and loans for micro-enterprises. When I was working at the Harbin bank which is a local bank during my internship, my job was mostly to assist in the process of lending the money to small and the medium sized companies. The focus of my work specifically was in issuing of loans to the small and the medium sized enterprises. As part of the orientation to the company and to renaissance myself to the processes in the bank, the manager assigned one of the employees who was knowledgeable and very familiar with the processes of lending of the money to help me with most of the work. After some time, with the assistance I got from her, I got the whole idea and came to learn the whole process of issuing of the loans. This improved the rest of my working days with the bank. The initial step in the process of lending was communication between the customer with the bank. Moreover, the company which needs the money need to have a meeting with the bank for the purpose of sharing information between the bank and the company. The information arrives at a common agreement on the laid down conditions between the two parties. During this process we ask questions concerning the condition of the company. For instance, how much they need, their plans for the loan, the number of creditors and the number of the debtors and the collateral they plan to pledge. After analyzing their application and their documents, we give them information on how much the bank is willing and capable of lending them and their required payback amount. If the two parties strike a common ground in the negotiation table then, we ask the company to prepare materials for the bank to process the loan. The documents we always request to be provided are supposed to be original and their copies and they include company ownership documents, licenses of the business, loan application, financial report capital verification report, tax registration certificate among others. The next step is to thoroughly analyze the company’s situation step by step and finally write an investigation report including our proposed amount we wish to lend out and the accompanied reasons to the reached decision, the risks we might encounter and the mechanisms to avoid them. After completing everything, we take the report to the censors and wait for the results. During my period in the bank and the processes of money lending, I came to learn many things and also encountered many challenges. For example, I came to learn that material collection and organization takes a lot of time and patience is required. However, I was able to grasp things faster and adapt. Never the less, when it comes to analysis and report writing, it was really a great challenge to me and up to date am not yet perfect in it. This is because the part needs a lot of experience and professionalism in the area .There exist many companies in different industries and the work entails knowing performance of the company in the industry in comparison with other companies in the industry. Goal setting and analysis Before I wrote the supporting paper, I thought, learned and remembered the relations between the employees of the bank and the managers. I thought of the socialization process between the employees and the managers of companies. First, I laid down several goals which I wanted to achieve .They included: 1) Doing a project myself without requesting for an assistance 2) To relate and employ my academic knowledge in the practice 3) Build my own confidence 4) Appropriately learn how to communicate. Doing a project myself without requesting for an assistance This was my first goal to single handedly complete a project before the end of my internship period. Initially, as part of my introduction to Harbin bank, the manager gave me a job description that it entails negotiating with clients and report writing based on the materials of the company. From the explanation, I thought it was an easy task given that previously I had written many reports at the college level as part of my assignments. I later learned that the bank has laid down guidelines on how their reports should be written and they also offer materials, this was not as I expected because I wanted to handle it myself after someone showed me the whole process. Negotiating with the customers was not such a huddle because I had a partner whom I learned from on how to negotiate through listening, and throughout the subsequent weeks I was able to do well. Similarly, collection of the materials from the customers which needed cooperation of the client was not also an obstacle. However, the part of organization and analysis of the materials proved to be a challenge even up to this date. Another inevitable problem I encountered during my internship was the small size of the companies we did business with. Their size was far much lower than any standard or medium sized business. This was also compounded with their way of recording their transactions. Therefore, much caution was also needed when dealing with them especially the information they offered because they sometimes overrated themselves and therefore it was our duty to figure out their real financial image. This was a big problem to me given that I did not know the bottom-line of required documents and my knowledge from college was standardized. Another challenging and tricky part I often encountered is how to analyze the position of the company in the market given that I learned finance in the college. However, I realized that this part tested my investigative abilities in every field. For instance, it required us to know the industry of our clients, their buyers and suppliers. Moreover, to perform well in this area also depended on the working experience of an individual but my partner assisted me in this area. In summary, I can say that my goal accomplishment failed manly because I underestimated it by thinking that it was easy as it came out from the textbooks before engaging on it while in reality it was otherwise. Therefore, I need to avoid setting impossible goals by deeply analyzing it first, this will make me get prepared next time I get to work again. To relate and employ my academic knowledge in practice My second goal was to employ my academic knowledge in practice. This was very significant for me because I have never come to learn the importance and practicality of the theory work we learned in class apart from obtaining good grades. So this is why I set out to find out for myself in this first project and to try to relate theory with reality. However, I faced the obstacle of language barrier. Most of the knowledge I learned was in English, this was contrary to the most of the documents which had Chinese academic vocabulary. For example on the financial statements on many companies which were clients of the bank, the terms written were unfamiliar and I had to search online or request my partner for assistance. During my work I was specifically interested to relate and to find out the relationship between what I learned and its relevance to work. Using my class work knowledge, I was able to do some calculations such as the financial ratios calculations and analysis of the weakness and strength of companies while my partner correcting me where I went wrong. I really got encouraged when I was able to apply what I had learned. In summary, I was able to achieve the set goal successfully. Build my own confidence My next goal during the internship was to build my confidence which was low. I was always shy to say my opinion to people thinking that it might be wrong and people might also find it stupid. This fear of making mistakes and shyness has made me to withhold my opinions most of the times. However, with attending of many meetings and getting encouragements from my partner, I was able to build my confidence as time went by. Prior to attending of internship, my confidence level was down and I rarely participated in class discussions. However, after setting of the goal, I was able to build my confidence and participated in meetings. Finally, my goal was accomplished. This new confidence I developed also helped me back in class after the internship and I was able to participate and make class presentations well. Appropriately learn how to communicate. This was one of my important purposes given that I was directly involved with the customers and I need to know how to communicate especially during negotiations. I planned to learn how to communicate with the customers, the employers, colleagues and learn how to make presentations of business confidently. To my luck, the department I went to helped me to improve my communication skills through the opportunity to negotiate with the customers. Initially I had a communication problem. However with my partner beside me, I learned how she was shaking hands with customers and colleagues and how she was communicating with everyone. This way I was able to master some communication skills in the first week. I also realized that she kept good relationship with everyone in the company .On my part; I had the problem of talking unkindly to customers and even correcting my seniors during meetings when they made mistakes. However, my partner assisted me to improve. Although the goal was accomplished, I need to work on it to make it superb. Evaluation of the Internship To begin the evaluation of the entire period of the internship, I am pleased because of both practical and academic values I obtained in Harbin bank. During the entire stay and working experience, I was able to learn a lot and I look forward to apply the new experiences and knowledge I learned during the internship in my future work. (i) Practical values To begin with the practical values I was able to learn, I got the requisite communication skills used in the professional banking environment. What I came to learn was that communication is the best tool for business because it serves the purpose of making things done. Moreover, the kind of business communication is not similar to the cordial kind of communication we normally use with family members or even friends but it should be official. In addition to communication, I came to learn to be confident in my daily endeavors. Confident participations in our daily undertaking help the organizations we work for and also help us to improve. Furthermore, another practical value I came to learn is the application of the knowledge I learned in class to the field. I came to learn that the theoretical knowledge we learn in class combined with the work experience results to good performance and good results in the work place. Evaluation of the internship period would be incomplete if I fail to mention the vast knowledge I learned from the managers and the co-workers I was interacting with during my entire working duration. Most of the people who worked in the Harbin bank are experts and because most of the time I worked under them as an assistant, I came to learn how things are done .Moreover, during our free time or during interaction with the managers or the owners of the company I came to learn a lot because the owners were well known successful entrepreneurs. They were willing to assist and even impart information on how they started their companies, built them to their current levels and the growth rate of their enterprises. They were very willing to share how they operate their businesses and how they handle the depressions and recessions which their companies sometimes face to. In summary, I came to a conclusion that persistence, insistence and consistence results to success. (ii) Academic values Experiences I got from the work with the Harbin bank also helped me in enhancing my theoretical knowledge into practice. To begin, the knowledge of reading and interpreting of the financial documents such as the financial statements, analysis of the companies’ risks and performances and making of the numerous bank calculations was enhanced. Furthermore, I also enhanced my usage of excel sheet and word application which are essential to the day to day running of the company. Apart from the new things that I got to learn, I also learned to simplify my calculations using the banks computer systems with their sophisticated software’s which I could not have known had I not gone to the bank. (iii) Improvement Given a chance to go back to Harbin bank as an employee, I need very little improvements to fit in to the system. This is because I learned new things which I did not have any knowledge about before. However, I would ensure that I enhance my knowledge in Chinese language so as to be well knowledgeable in interpretation of the Chinese vocabularies when it comes to interpreting the financial documents. Moreover, I would set realistic goals which I believe am able to achieve. Finally, I would practice more in report writing to make me competent in writing of the report faster and in the correct manner. Conclusion In conclusion, I believe I gained a lot during my work and stay at the Harbin Bank. I therefore can confidently state that it was a success. It will not be complete to write my summary without acknowledging my contribution to the success of the duties I was assigned in the bank during my internship as much as I also gained a lot in return. The company did a lot to assist me and they also played a key role in defining my introduction and laying of the foundation to the application of my theoretical knowledge to practice. If given a chance again, I would confidently and happily chose Harbin Bank again. As part of my career growth and in pursuit of experience and knowledge, I would like to explore other areas of stocks or may be IPO. This is my desire in the next internship or my next work posting. Furthermore, I would like to set higher goals for myself, double my efforts in pursuit of knowledge and more information in my next working place to ensure that my dream of achieving self realization is accomplished. References Harbin Bank . http://www.hrbcb.com.cn/eng/index.jsp. Retrieved on 18 April 2013. Read More