Daily Times

Money, it has been said, makes the the world go round.

It seems strange today but historical evidene shows that the concept is not very old. The ancients had no money. All trade in most parts of the world until quite late was literally an exchange of goods and services. Coins and tokens evolved very slowly. Paper money was finally introduced in the 16th century AD. There has been no looking back.

Then the banks emerged and quickly became central to all things money. They accept money for safekeeping, they lend money for capital needs, they help investments, they grow in amazing ways and they fail and bring everybody down. Here’s a requiem for a very remarkable bank.

The Bank of Credit and Commerce International was known to many as a Pakistani bank. The impression might have been the result of the large number of Pakistanis it employed.

Formally, the BCCI was registered in the Middle East. It had its headoffice in Luxembourg, a city known initially for steel manufacture but later also for being Europe’s most powerful investment center. The bank was the brainchild of Agha Hassan Abedi, Agha Sahib to most people.

Agha Hassan Abedi insisted on being the best. He wanted to make the bank a powerhouse. The expansion of its operations was rapid and relentless. Having established its presence in most parts of the world in the early 1980s, the BCCI ventured into the United States of America where it eventually crashed following allegations of illegal money transfer

Agha Sahib was a product of the British rule in united India. Educated Muslims were a tiny minority in India. Among them Agha Sahib distinguished himself with his intellect and his determination to do well. In the pecking order those days educated Muslims had a lower status than educated. The partition and the exodus that followed it brought him to Pakistan. It was not easy going at first but Agha Sahib showed great perseverance.

It is said that even as a child Agha Hassan Abedi was very fond of great wealth. Having been exposed to great amounts of money since early in his career, he had developed the idea that a free supply of money was essential to decent living.

At work, he not only developed great skills but also a certain charisma. In personal interactions he was warm and soft spoken. He also exuded great charm. In fact some people would later say he charmed his way though a lot of hurdles. He soon developed the reputation of a man who could get things done. Whether it was a school admission or a personal need, Agha Sahib was your go-to man.

Later, the charm gave way to an obsession with being the best. This required building large teams and retaining people. When the BCCI was founded he had a board to work with. However, he also had an inner cabinet consisting of top BCCI executives. Some of these would later be the undoing of his empire.

Agha Hassan Abedi’s great ambition did not allow him to keep the operations down to a level where he could entirely manage it on his own. The BCCI had to keep growing. By early 1980s it had established its presence in most of the Middle East and Europe. It now ventured into the United States of America where it eventually crashed following allegations of illegal money transfers.

During the investigations that followed the crash it came out that the senior BCCI management had been so focused on rapid growth that it never paid enough to documentation. It never completed documentation with the Bank of England and continued to operate without a full licence. The haste was so great that the ‘I’ in its name missing in the logo was not noticed until it was already too late.