We are particularly active at present with our professional qualifications. There is a continued expansion underway of their international focus through the development of Cert ICM and the education team is also preparing for some key announcements in March about the AMCT qualification.
The tuition programmes for Cert ICM are taking place in late January/early February. The Dublin programme is underway as you receive this e-newsletter – held in the state-of-the-art Institute of Bankers’ conference facilities. The Scandinavia and UK schools follow the Dublin school and we have been fortunate in securing some excellent speakers to provide practical and real-life experience to the course. These include Amir Karimi, Head of Cash Operations at Citigroup, Giuseppe Matassi, Former Treasurer - Europe, Middle East & Africa for Johnson Controls International and Richard Bottomley, Head of CIB sales at HSBC; our thanks go to all the speakers for their support and time.
We are in the process of preparing for the Cert ICM enrolment deadline. As many of you know, the next course runs from April to October and culminates in an exam in October. We are pleased to be running the tuition schools in Australia, Belgium, Hong Kong, Shanghai, North America and the UK. Most of these programmes are a direct result of relationships that have been built over the past few years and the success of previous tuition schools, with the North American programme heralding a much anticipated return to this region. I would encourage readers to look at the qualification
I hope readers have had an opportunity to view the full programme for The Treasurers’ Conference. Delegate take up has exceeded expectation and we are delighted so many members are supporting the conference – looking through the delegate list I am confident it will indeed give an excellent opportunity to catch up with fellow practitioner treasurers. Feedback from members regarding the content of the programme has been very positive, and we anticipate many lively and informative presentations and debates.
Members should receive their copies of The Treasurer’s Handbook and the members’ Directory towards the end of the month. For the Handbook, we have worked hard to expand the country guides, review all of the articles from last years’ Handbook and provide support for the challenges facing treasurers in 2005 (introduction of IFRS, new market framework regulations under the FSAP and the Bank of England’s new operating methods for the London money market to name a few!); my thanks go to John Grout, Martin O’Donovan and Melanie Williams for their work. We also thank JPMorgan Fleming Asset Management for their sponsorship of the Handbook and Goldman Sachs Asset Management for their sponsorship of the Directory. We hope you find the publications useful – if you have any comments please do contact technical@treasurers.co.uk
On the technical side I particularly want to mention that IOSCO (The International Organisation of Securities Commissions) has published its Code of Conduct Fundamentals for Credit Rating Agencies – and that it covers the same ground as the Code devised jointly by the ACT and the treasury associations in France and the US. This is good news and we will keep you updated of the outcomes following publication.
Finally, I should note that the winners of the Deals of the Year Awards were announced on 21 January. Our congratulations go to all the winners, but in particular to the Overall Winner for 2004 – Cadbury Schweppes
