Distinguished Speaker on Asian Finance on Campus

A particularly interesting lecture was given by the very experienced professional, Mr. Gilles Fratacci on the global economic meltdown that we can experience whilst the global economy is being pulled into the dreaded recession.


His view was a blend of economics, finance and a lot of common sense. He presented his views primarily on the Asian Markets, saying that everything seems to be collapsing, including private investments. Central Banks of the Asian economies are reducing the interest rates, but the real interest rate is going up as the inflation comes down.

He attributed three criteria's to gauge which countries will survive these financial crisis. The questions were: Is the country rich? Is it exposed to the world, i.e. how open is the economy? And lastly, is it exposed to the commodities? If a country is rich, closed and has no exposure to the world commodities market then it will certainly come clean off the muddy waters.


In the wake of the financial crisis, when the academicians and economists find themselves lost as they have never seen such a market scenario before, he concluded by saying that what the world is seeing is a Globalization crisis. One country catches the flu and like a contagious disease it spreads throughout the whole world within no time.


Mr. Fratacci is the Head of Asian Private Banking for Credit Agricole Switzerland. He is also the Board member of the French Chamber of Commerce and President Singapore Section of the French External Trade Counselor. Mr Fratacci has also worked as Senior Country Officer for CALYON -Singapore/Indonesia/Malaysia And Managing Director of BNP PARIBAS GROUP - Australia


Mr. David Hampton, Programme Manager for the range of EDHEC MSc. Finance programmes was present to moderate the discussion and questions from the audience.