At the beginning of May Alan Dick and James Douglas will join the ACT’s Council, following their success in the elections just held. I am delighted that we will benefit from the experience they both bring. In addition to their external roles (Alan as Director of Group Financial Services at Scottish & Newcastle, and James as a Partner at Deloitte & Touche) they have both been substantially involved with the ACT already. Alan looks after our regional groups, having himself organised the Scottish group for a number of years, and James chairs our Member Services Committee. We lose from Council Chris Jones and Melanie Duke, both of whom have contributed immensely to the ACT on Council and on committees; we will miss their input.
The ACT held its first talkingtreasury event in Prague on 23 March. We had a truly pan-European attendance and a number of distinguished panellists. The intention has always been that talkingtreasury should have a thought leadership focus, concentrating on panel-led discussion of a limited range of key issues facing treasury practitioners. We will be documenting and making available the main points that emerged from the discussion in Prague and where appropriate rolling these forward into the next talkingtreasury, which we hope to hold in collaboration with the Dutch treasury association (DACT) in Amsterdam towards the later part of 2006.
Our Certificate in Risk Management for Pensions (CertRMP) has been the subject of a launch campaign and we have now taken the first enrolments in this new qualification. Its relevance to issues confronting our members is reflected in the range of activities we have already announced around pensions for 2006. I hope that you will consider how you or colleagues could benefit from taking CertRMP, either as a standalone qualification or as an eligible module in the AMCT qualification. Another of our certificate qualifications, the Certificate in International Cash Management (Cert ICM), continues to do well around the world. In July we will hold a teaching week in Hong Kong for which we have a record number of people booked to attend. I have previously commented on the ‘painting the Forth Bridge’ character of the ACT’s professional qualifications: we are committed to a more or less continuous programme of review and updating. In the case of Cert ICM we have commissioned a substantial review of the learning materials in order to ensure that they remain fully up to date and relevant to the learning needs of those who enrol in the qualification.
The ACT has been actively involved in the debate over the OFR and Business Review, and we have specifically argued for safe harbour of provisions in the context of this aspect of corporate reporting. It is therefore very welcome news that the government is now prepared to listen to the case that we have been arguing and our Technical Director, John Grout, has been directly involved in ensuring that there is real recognition of the concerns we have expressed.
Finally, I must just congratulate all who were successful in the ACT’s examinations and I was delighted that they could celebrate their success at our recent Conferment Ceremony. Although challenging, our qualifications provide an excellent understanding of the key areas in treasury, corporate finance and risk management; I have no doubt that our recently passed candidates will now be building their professional experience with the support of their studies with the ACT.
