The ACT’s Deals of the Year Awards ceremony took place in January and had a record number of attendees - a testament to its increased profile. It was particularly pleasing to see several senior treasurers from European corporates based outside the UK – organisations that were well represented amongst the finalists. The ACT is most grateful to the judges who sat on the panel, under Matthew Hurn’s chairmanship, and of course to Lloyds TSB for supporting the lunch. We hope to see further growth in this event next year.
You should imminently be receiving the brochure for TTC, our annual conference in Edinburgh from 2-4 May. We have an excellent programme built around themes including pensions, core operational issues and strategic topics such as capital structure. The three keynote speakers include John Singer, who is a highly experienced and senior practitioner in private equity and has strong and distinctive views on what private equity does and doesn’t do; he is joined by Sir Digby Jones and Vicky Pryce. Sir Digby is always provocative and entertaining, and Vicky, who is the senior economist at the DTI, will be equally challenging and forthright. We are continuing the established tradition of inviting a major supporting figure to speak at the dinner on the first full day of the conference; this year our guest is Martin Bayfield, who of course played rugby for England and the Lions. Don’t miss out on the Early Bird booking rates which end on 16 March.
We have a major Cash Management conference on 21-22 February, which should be highly topical given the pace of development in cash management itself and the broader area of the finance value chain. We will of course be looking at European issues around SEPA as well as how the payments industry in the UK is moving to improve its service offering. As always we have an outstanding group of speakers, including two from the US to provide an update on developments there.
Our Policy and Technical team continue to be heavily involved both in consultations and in proactively seeking to influence the environment in which the treasury profession operates. As an example of the latter we have made a significant contribution through the UK Treasury to the final drafting of the EU Payments Directive and it is particularly gratifying to see work done by the team here directly reflected in changes at the EU level. On consultations the team is busy in a number of areas including the IASB, where a response will be made to the Discussion Paper on Fair Value measurement.
I should remind ACT members that there is still an opportunity to nominate candidates for the four vacancies on Council. Nomination forms need to be returned to us by 10:00am on 21 February. This is a real opportunity for members to participate in and reinforce our governance processes. If you would like more information on the election process please contact Ria Robinson.
Finally I am pleased to say that the ACT team is now well settled in our new offices at 51 Moorgate. If you are in the area do drop by either to put a name to a face or to use our meeting rooms when these are available.
