Treasury Products

Barclays Botswana Treasury Products

Barclays Bank Botswana is a market leader on the local market with regards to customised treasury solutions and strategies provided to clients. This enables the bank to provide its clients with favourable conditions for all types of foreign exchange and money market transactions. Barclays Bank offers the following treasury products:

Foreign Exchange Products

The sole aim of FX is to cushion client against risk of adverse market trends and this process involve the sale/purchase of one currency against the purchase/sale of another for settlement on an agreed date.

Spot FX transactions

Spot FX transactions are available for those clients who benefit from approved spot limits. This means the purchase of one currency against the sale of another at a specified exchange rate, for settlement two business days after the deal date. A business day is defined as one in which the banks are open for business in both settlement countries. Weekends and holidays are excluded. We offer spot rates in the following approved currencies: the Pula, the US dollar, pound sterling, Euro and the South African rand. Other currencies are offered on a need basis. The rates are based on current market rates and agreed with our dealers and may fluctuate as the market prices of one currency changes against another.

Forward Transactions,

Forward transactions are intended for clients who want to fix a favourable current exchange rate for the future. It is used extensively for hedging adverse currency exposures.The rate of exchange is based upon the prevailing spot rate as adjusted to take account of interest rate differentials between the two currencies for the period of the contract.

No separate commissions are payable at the maturity of the forward contracts.The product is available in any amount and currency pairs and for various periods, subject to market liquidity. However, the currencies that are openly traded in this productare the Pula, the US dollar, British pound, Euro and the South African rand. Other currencies are offered on a need basis.

Foreign Exchange Swaps

We offer this product to customers to use as high yield instrument to take advantage of the interest differential between the currencies and earn higher return on their funds.A foreign exchange swap is a simultaneous purchase and sale, or vice versa, of a specific amount of currency against another currency for an agreed time period. This is used especially by those clients who have at their disposal financial means in currency ‘A’ but their cash flow is in currency ‘B’. The benefit of this product is to mainly minimise the costs of foreign conversion while the client is protected against the exchange rate risk. Furthermore, this product provides the client with the flexibility tore-engage in the transactions for an optional period (shorten or prolong the existing swap) according to the client’s requirements. Most importantly, the spot and forwardrates are known at the start, capital is guaranteed and the product assists in maximizing liquidity management. Furthermore, the product is exchange risk neutral.