This newsletter flags a number of events that are in the pipeline; I hope you will find time to attend some of these and will also be interested in our European ‘Talking Treasury’ conference, which will be taking place in Prague in March 2006. Our new format for the AMCT qualification is attracting a lot of interest, but most especially we are seeing a positive response to the two standalone certificates that we have announced. Whilst all this is going on in our events and education area the technical team continue to be busy and we are actively recruiting to fill the two new technical positions that we have created.
The series of three breakfast meetings on emerging markets starts in September and continues into October. The coverage these offer is extensive and they will include a specific focus on Brazil, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, China and India. This provides overall an exceptional opportunity to be briefed on key treasury issues associated with doing business in these markets and I would encourage you to sign up for some or all of the breakfasts. Go to www.treasurers.org/events.
On our website you will also find details of our next Pensions and IAS 39 events - in both cases I hope you will agree that our approach is geared to ensuring that as the debate continues on these major issues for the finance and treasury community our content appropriately reflects the way discussion is moving forward.
As mentioned in my introduction, we have also launched ‘Talking Treasury’, which is a one day forum exclusively for international corporate treasurers to cover the most topical issues. ‘Talking Treasury’ will be in Prague in March 2006 and will be chaired by David Blackwood, Chairman of the Society for International Treasurers. For further details click here.
We introduced the Certificate in Financial Mathematics and Modelling as both an eligible module for AMCT and as a standalone certificate. We have been very pleased with the initial response to this and are close to filling the first enrolment quota. If this qualification is right for you or one of your colleagues do take a look at the detail and consider signing up soon.
In December we will launch the new certificate in pensions – again as both an AMCT module and a standalone qualification. The distance learning material is all prepared and the technical and professional review process has produced a strongly positive response to the content. I see it as a qualification that can be described as ‘pensions for financial managers’ – I hasten to add that this is not about the personal issues we face but entirely about the complex of risk, funding, legal and other issues that anyone involved in a financial role should be equipped to understand about a company’s pension commitments. The Lombard column in the Financial Times on 30 August commented approvingly on our initiative to create this qualification.
Our technical committee and the in-house team of John Grout and Martin O’Donovan thought it would be a good idea to draft a ‘manifesto’ to define the scope of what we do in the technical area and some of the principles underlying the public stance that we will take on issues. We genuinely welcome views on this. To read the draft click here - do let Martin O’Donovan know what you think.
Our recruitment of two additional technical staff (one for education and one for the mainstream technical team) is underway – we are looking for individuals who will welcome the opportunity to contribute widely across all of the work of the ACT. This is highlighted elsewhere in the newsletter but you can go directly to the details at www.treasurers.org/careers/jobs.cfm
As we go into September the level of email traffic tells me that those of you who managed to escape for a break are resurfacing. As you can see we have been busy while you were away! I very much hope that you like what we have been working on – let me know what you think.
