Master your destiny with the MCT

If you’re aiming to reach the top of the treasury tree, you should think about studying for the ACT’s advanced qualification. Peter Matza explains why

The ACT believes that the most essential questions to ask in business are:

1. How do we decide on what business to invest in?
2. How do we finance that business?
3. How do we manage the risk – predominantly the financial risk – that comes from being in business?

Corporate treasury and treasurers have always played a key role in determining financial policy and strategy for businesses. What is clear, however, is that, as with any professional role, senior practitioners need a mixture of experience, professional qualification and personal capability to develop their careers.

Too often, senior-level professional qualifications do not correlate with the decisions that senior executives are involved in and the people they interact with while they are making and implementing their decisions.

Treasurers’ roles – and job titles – vary widely across industries and geographies. The ACT’s qualifications are designed to equip treasury professionals with the standard technical, business and behavioural skills they need to work collaboratively across organisations and to significantly influence the strategy and overall success of their businesses.

At the most senior level, the MCT Advanced Diploma in Treasury Risk and Corporate Finance (to give its full title) is designed to provide a detailed understanding of corporate treasury management and to give the treasurer a holistic view of the commercial and financial challenges that a business typically faces.

Programme elements

The key elements of the MCT programme are designed to allow senior treasurers to show:

• The ability to apply theories and practical tools to real-life, complex issues and to assess the choices open to them when making decisions.
• An understanding of how to formulate, select and justify solutions that show an appreciation of the inter-relationships between treasury, finance and commercial operations.
• How they can operate with confidence with senior managers, operational managers, investment bankers, other lenders and advisers.

Treasury’s role within corporate strategy is right at the heart of the MCT programme. The programme examines financial management and financial strategy construction, and how these factors combine to influence treasury structure. The course also considers external factors, such as the investor view of risk and return, and the impact of other stakeholders on corporate actions.

Contemporary treasury management requires practitioners to apply their skills in order to both understand and solve the multi-faceted problems that arise in modern treasury. The MCT course supports this in two ways.

1. It uses case studies of real-world organisations so that treasurers can develop professional judgement, confidence, analytical and practical skills. They can then transfer learned knowledge from theory to practice.
2. It asks treasurers to apply their knowledge to an individual research project. Treasurers can then undertake an in-depth assessment of a treasury, risk, corporate finance and/or funding topic related to their personal interests, business needs or career aspirations.

Of course, there has to be an end game to all this hard work. In reality, each individual will evaluate that differently. But we believe a successful MCT-qualified treasurer will be able to:

• Compete internationally with a strategic financial skill set and knowledge base that is portable worldwide and supported by the ACT global network of expertise.
• Demonstrate that practical focus improves performance from day one. Theory can be applied in the workplace as soon as it is learned.
• Stand out as a credible, qualified professional with designatory letters from the only Chartered professional treasury body. Being Chartered is a recognised mark of authority and an indicator of the highest standards.

The final word goes to one of our recent successful MCT students, who says: “The greatest benefit is the confidence the qualification gives you in yourself. You know that you’re well equipped to deal with many things the business world (or your FD) can throw at you.”

About the author

Peter Matza is ACT engagement director