Topic: Introduction to the World of Financial Services

Date: March 23, 2011

Speaker Profile :

Mr. Shashank Pal has twenty years of varied experience in financial services industry across the country. He worked for the first nine years in merchant banking, corporate finance & issue management etc. and then in the mutual fund industry both in distribution & in AMC business.

Details:

“Economics is just common sense made difficult”, too often, economists make things more difficult than they need to be. Finance is the derivative of economics said Mr. Shashank Pal while speaking about Financial Services Business to the students of KSOM. He talked about Keynesian Theory and the current economic scenario as well.

Mutual fund industry in India originated with the introduction of the concept of mutual fund by UTI in the year 1963. Though the growth was slow, but it accelerated from the year 1987 when non-UTI players entered the industry. He discussed about the different forms of savings earlier and then the various investment avenues available at present. According to Mr. Pal, none of the investment is hundred percent safe; the only thing is the measure of relativity of safety among these. Your investment in a mutual fund can grow or shrink depending on the market conditions. He discussed why various investment avenues like Chit Funds etc. failed in India. He said “Greed is the essence that moves all of us. It motivates people to do anything.” He discussed the Stock Market Scandal cases of Harshad Mehta & Ketan Parekh and how the message was passed that “Stock Market was a money making machine.” The truth is Indian Stock Market is still grossly undervalued.

His funda of investment and savings is:

  EARN > SAVE > INVEST > BOOK PROFITS > ENJOY LIFE

Because the essence of life is to enjoy it; booking profit should be the essence of any investment process. The various types of investors can be categorized as:

• Holy cow – Those who treat investments as sacred and don’t relook at them
• Woolen Traders – Those who invest throughout the year but sell within a short span of time
• Grain Merchants – Those who invest within a short span of time and sell over a longer period
• Pig farmers – Those who frequently buy and sell

Ultimately Mr. Pal asked the students to never run shy of learning and to have confidence and self-believe. Confidence is necessary to excel in life and they should always be ready to take on responsibilities if they see themselves as future managers.