Mecklai Financial is one of the leading foreign exchange risk management consultancies in the world. While our practice began over 25 years ago in India, our perspective has widened with globalization, particularly as several of our client companies have evolved into global players. Today, we already provide services to nearly a dozen non-Indian multinationals, over and above our domestic client base of nearly 1,000 companies.

We have a unique value proposition in that we can provide clients with the market knowledge and understanding of a global bank treasury AND the business process understanding of a global consulting company. Most importantly, since we do not sell any of the financial products we advise on, we are able to provide the hallowed "independent" view that is so valuable in today's complex markets.

Our goal is to extend our positioning in this increasingly critical arena by partnering with clients to enable them to make optimal use of markets, within each individual corporate context. For some companies, this may mean simply providing high-quality analysis; for others, it may mean developing and implementing a risk management framework; for yet others, it could mean outsourcing large swathes of the treasury function, including providing outsourced personnel.

We are part of the Mecklai group, one of the leading brands in financial markets in India, with Mecklai & Mecklai, the flagship interbank forex broker, having been in business for over 80 years. Mecklai Financial was set up in the mid-1970s in response to a perceived need for an increase in transparency of price information on daily forex movements, and has since grown dramatically, both in terms of capabilities and reach.

Having been in the business for so many years, we have been closely involved with the process of deregulation of Indian markets and enjoy excellent relationships at the highest regulatory levels, which add to our overall perspective of the risks and opportunities in financial markets.

Our CEO, Mr. Jamal Mecklai, is widely considered to be one of the leading authorities on market risk management in India. He has been appointed to several key committees by the Government of India, most notably the Sodhani Committee set up by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in 1994-95 to suggest methods of deepening and widening the local foreign exchange market, and the R.V. Gupta Committee of the RBI (1997) to assess whether and how Indian companies should access international markets to hedge commodity price risk.

He is supported by a strong team of highly experienced professionals, including two Senior Vice Presidents, each of whom has over 25 years experience in financial markets, both within India and internationally. We have over 40 consultants/advisers working out of six offices spread over India, with the largest team working out of our modern ISO-27001:2005 certified offices in Mumbai.

We provide the following services:

A. Risk Consulting Services

Risk Audit of Treasury - This service is usually offered to large corporate groups (Mahindra & Mahindra, DP World) and financial institutions (Exim Bank, HUDCO). It provides clients with an independent appraisal of their existing market risk management processes, highlighting inconsistencies and lacuna given the company's current business and market context

Creating Appropriate Risk Management Policies - Over the past three years, we have developed risk management policies for over 50 companies in a wide array of industries. In general, the policies define processes to (a) identify and measure risk; (b) set benchmarks, stop loss and take profit levels; (c) monitor and manage risk to ensure the benchmarks are never breached; (d) provide adequate controls to ensure compliance with both regulatory and management guidelines; and (e) provide effective and timely reporting. Of course, this basic framework has to be tailored to each company's specific business and risk appetite.

Implementation Support - We assist companies to effectively implement risk management policies, by providing customized software solutions and tools as well as hand-holding them through the implementation period

B. Advisory Services

Forex Advisory - We provide clients with live-time support, advising them on when and at what rates they should hedge their risks. This is the main line of our business and we currently advise nearly 800 companies on forex risk management. This business has been growing at 40% a year, and with the increasing volatility of markets as India globalizes, we expect this strong growth to continue.

Insurance Advisory - We assist clients to scope out their insurance requirements, create appropriate tenders/RFPs, select brokers, review documentation, etc.; while we currently act only as advisers, we plan to register with IRDA as general insurance brokers in due course. We have also recently signed an MOU with Bajaj Allianz to introduce them to our clients to see credit insurance products.

Sharia Compliance Advisory - This is a new area of business we are exploring in association with Palladium Consulting Bhd., Malaysia. Islamic banking is a very rapidly growing area of finance and we see excellent potential since very few sharia advisers today can provide both sound compliance analysis and a professional financial background.

C. Corporate Services

Derivative Valuation & Accounting Services - We provide clients with independent valuations of derivatives for their financial reporting; we also assist clients with effectiveness testing of hedges for IFRS compliance

Structured Product Design and Analysis - We assist clients who are raising capital to ensure that their structured hedges are appropriately priced and, importantly, correctly address their risks and needs

Outsourced Treasury - This is a new service that we are offering, where we collate many of our services to provide seamless back and middle office functionality, enhanced with high quality transaction execution

Risk Management Training - We develop and present programs on treasury risk management tailored to individual company requirements; from 3Q08, we will be offering a diploma course in Treasury Risk Management in association with Reuters Academy