We have a range of news items to include in this month’s update and our member e-newsletter and I do hope you enjoy the information we are providing. Many readers will have been at our Annual Dinner in November and enjoyed the combination of both Jean-Claude Trichet and Gyles Brandreth as speakers. We were delighted with the response to the dinner and intend to build on this model for 2006.
As I write this, we are digesting the implications of the Chancellor’s announcement that the requirement on listed companies for an Operating and Financial Review is to be dropped. We are surprised and disappointed by this, and left with the strong feeling that if HM Treasury is seeking to cut back on “gold plating” of EU requirements then the wrong target has been chosen. We will be writing to the Financial Reporting Council strongly urging them (and all companies) to support the principles behind the OFR even if compliance with a standard is no longer mandatory.
Beginning to look back on 2005 it is clear that the year has been one of exceptional activity for the ACT with our professional qualifications. We successfully introduced the new structure for the AMCT syllabus; I continue to be convinced that moving to a modular approach, allowing a sensible range of choices in subjects to be taken, is a necessary and right development of what we offer.
We now have three Certificate Papers, each of which is in itself an eligible module for AMCT. These cover International Cash Management (which has been available since 1997), Financial Mathematics and Modelling (launched in June of this year) and Risk Management for Pensions, which is formally launched this December. I do encourage members of the ACT to look at the Certificate Papers as potentially forming part of an approach to CPD – the detail on all our qualifications is available at www.treasurers.org/qualifying.
Work continues on updating the MCT qualification. We plan to launch the new qualification in early 2007 with the first candidates being examined in April 2008. Keep in touch with the MCT website www.treasurers.org/mct for the latest information on the new MCT.
We are delighted to have enrolled our 10,000th student on the ACT’s qualifications, demonstrating just how important and relevant our qualifications are to those who work in treasury around the world. I think this is a remarkable achievement for such a relatively young and relatively specialised professional association. That the ACT has got so far is due to the efforts of a large number of volunteers over the years, together with our in-house team running all aspects of a complex programme of professional qualifications – and the guidance of our Education Committee. I can also report this month that we have enrolled our first candidates for the MCT qualification on the basis of the alternative entry requirements. One candidate who already holds the Irish Association of Corporate Treasurers’ Graduate Certificate in Corporate Treasury has been enrolled and another has been admitted on the basis of direct employment experience. We hope that other candidates with similar backgrounds will come forward to join the MCT programme.
Finally on education I should note that at the recent meeting of the International Group of Treasury Associations (IGTA) the ACT’s AMCT and MCT qualifications were granted IGTA approval. This makes the ACT one of only four country level associations whose treasury qualifications have received this new approval from IGTA. I have been actively involved in encouraging IGTA to establish this approval mechanism and am confident that it will increase global interest in the ACT’s qualifications and the eventual harmonisation of treasury qualifications around the world.
You will see in this month’s e-newsletter or at www.treasurersconference.com details of how to benefit from special delegate rates for The Treasurers’ Conference in May 2006. I would like here simply to underline how timely it is that one of our keynote speakers is Lord Turner, who is of course the Chairman of the Pensions Commission. We also incidentally have as another keynote speaker Ian Mackintosh, Chairman of the Accounting Standards Board, who will no doubt bring his own perspective on the debate now starting about the future of the Operating and Financial Review.
As we start to approach the countdown to Christmas and the New Year I would like to wish all readers – members and non-members – seasonal greetings and a happy and peaceful 2006
