Richard Raeburn's blog

We continue to be as active as possible in supporting our members with comment on the evolving issues within the financial markets. A number of us have been extensively quoted in the media (the Financial Times in particular) and have broadcast on Bloomberg, ITN News and the Today programme on BBC Radio 4.

In line with our stated policy we will normally comment first from the perspective of non-financial sector corporates.

Given the extent of uncertainty and change in the financial market we are focused on providing timely and helpful advice to our members. The most recent example of this has been over the past weekend, when we worked to respond to press reports that banks are considering invoking market disruption clauses in loan agreements. We had excellent support from Slaughter and May.

With the strong international commitment in our qualifications, as well as our events and publishing, we are particularly conscious of the rapid growth of the treasury profession in certain key markets and geographies. Two of those on which we are focusing are Asia and the Middle East, where we already have a number of members. In the case of the former we have an established position, through our strong links with the Hong Kong ACT (which started life as an ACT regional group) and through all our qualifications but especially the Certificate in International Cash Management (CertICM).

Our opposition to the ASB’s proposal to use a risk-free rate to discount pension scheme liabilities has been the subject of an ACT press release earlier this week; it will be interesting to see how much external attention is paid to the arguments that we and other organisations are making.

The current economic and financial conditions have put the spotlight onto those dealing with the funding and cash, and we find the media – particularly the Financial Times – seeking our views and probing on how the ACT’s members are responding.

I have always argued that treasurers’ mettle is tested during volatile times but I do not think that many of us would have wished for today’s highly uncertain conditions in order to create opportunities for the exercise of good professional treasury management. Markets continue to develop in unexpected ways and clearly the experience differs greatly depending on geography.

Dealing with change in a volatile world was the title for our annual conference that has just finished in Edinburgh. Back in the middle of 2007 when we started planning for the event I doubt any of us anticipated just how topical our content would be – and how appropriate would be the contribution of our keynote speakers.

It will be obvious that we at the ACT just like all organisations have a strong interest in the health of the financial sector and the wider economy. Although I have described before how market ‘stress’ should bring out the best in the professional corporate treasurer, nonetheless the overall prosperity of our members’ employers – and therefore the chance to grow and develop careers – is of paramount concern.

In the ACT we have a wide range of stakeholders and we try to ensure their interests always have a major influence on our actions and our priorities. Our stakeholders are diverse, ranging from new candidates for our qualifications through to members who remain with us well into portfolio careers or full retirement; but there are many other stakeholder groups, a key one of which includes the large number of members who are mid-career and have expectations of the ACT that go beyond what may have begun with a relatively narrow view of the treasury profession.

I was delighted to see Rexam announced as the overall winner of the Deals of the Year awards of 2007. Such success demonstrates the ability of the profession to add shareholder value; this puts the treasurer at the centre of the organisation’s financial strategy and this is exactly where we want the ACT’s members to be. We also recognised the importance of treasury skills in a new award for Treasury Team of the Year which was won by Vodafone.