A busy summer for treasurers

It may be the holiday season but the ACT team has been very active again this month. There seems to be no end to the issues that we need to comment upon or influence including bank regulation and the radical changes proposed to OTC trading.

It seems that the regulators still (in my view) expect to struggle to regulate the largest banks effectively and are therefore focussing on other areas to compensate. We have to strive to avoid collateral damage to banks' non-financial corporate customers as well as look for positive changes.

Our events calendar is filling up for 2009/2010 with some great conferences, seminars and symposia planned and of course, in this environment, no shortage of topics to engage in. Our first meetings with Non-Executive Directors (NEDs) are planned for October – these are another step to the extension of our reach. We believe we can add real value to corporate decision making and minimise corporate risk through engaging NEDs. Not surprisingly we have seen some changes in the banks that are working with us but all in all we are pleased to say that demand from members is as strong as ever and support from banks generally (and others) is encouraging in these tough times.

Another area of increasing work load relates to the solutions that are being developed in response to the generational changes that have resulted from the credit crisis. Several initiatives are starting up including extensive work to develop a guide, for publication next month, which looks at the issues we should consider as (we hope) the markets move from recession to growth.

On a recent overseas trip to promote ACT and its education programme, I was met with enthusiasm and support. The challenge for an organisation with limited resources is, as always, how to harness this enthusiasm and get the word out to as wide an audience as possible. A tutor at a leading business-focused university asked about the difference between ACT's certificated courses and our membership qualifications.

 A student that passes ACT's AMCT qualification will have proved their ability to operate in the most complex treasury departments. Those that sit perhaps one of the core treasury papers, for instance CertICM or CertITM will have sound groundings in these specialist, technical areas. At this level, we teach the right answers in technically complex scenarios. When a student moves on to MCT, they leave behind the certainty of the right answers for the ambiguity that applies when the technical knowledge they have gained is taken to the strategic level – here there will be wrong answers as before but there may be several right answers! 

The tutor saw great opportunity to link ACT's qualifications with those of the university. For too long some universities may have focused on right or wrong answers where in fact several answers may have been acceptable. This crisis teaches us that our finance training must deal with ambiguity. Our qualifications help us do just that. If you have passed AMCT and want to develop your own skills further contact us to discuss options to study for your MCT.

By Stuart Siddall