The Treasurer March 2003

Treasurers have a lot to cope with at the moment: the usual day-to-day pressures, increasing demands from the Board to manage risk more tightly, squeezing out another basis point here and there, keeping the rating agency onside, reviewing the financial implications of new business strategies and so on. The regulators are also making life more difficult, with new accounting standards, governance rules etc. You must feel like you are being blown from pillar to post.

The editorial team at The Treasurer helps keep readers up to date with the most recent developments and the latest products on offer, but we can only do so much. The main way in which members can genuinely influence what is going on in treasury is to get more involved with activities in the ACT.

This can be done in a variety of ways:

• let us know how you carry out your everyday activities by responding to surveys (such as the recent treasury operations survey and our annual international cash management survey in the summer) – time requirement: 20-30 minutes;
• contribute to the magazine by writing a letter or article, or agreeing to be interviewed for a case study – time: 30 minutes to a few hours;
• write or co-author a book or booklet for our publications list – time: a reasonable commitment over six to 18 months;
• attend one of our events as appropriate (for example, Ratings on 20 March, see p18) – time: an evening, a half day or a day;
• join a committee – time: six to ten meetings a year, plus a little or a lot of time on particular issues, if you can; or
• feed into the technical committee or one of the ACT’s Working Groups – time: as much or as little as you can spare.

This last of these is probably the most crucial. It gives you the chance to discuss with your peers the key issues you face on a day-to-day basis. There are currently five Working Groups in operation: Euro Cash Pooling, Share Options, Pensions, Derivatives Accounting and, most recently, Ratings – the relevant contacts for further details are on page 10. These groups are all active and additional views are welcomed.

The Working Groups provide useful output – comments, thoughts and ideas are fed through to the appropriate regulators, service providers, agencies, or whoever. The ACT has recently commented on Higgs, IAS 39 and the White Paper on Improving Company Law, among others. The final views may not match your needs exactly but your voice will have been heard and registered.

I haven’t given readers an ear bashing for some time, but I hope you will forgive me – I have your interests at heart and if I can’t remove the pillars and posts I can at least encourage you to pad them a little to soften the blows.

MIKE HENIGAN
Managing Editor