The ACT Cash Management Conference was back and packed more talks, discussions and detail in a focused new 1-day format. From regulation and cybersecurity to corporate case studies and liquidity management, the day featured it all, including the one topic that unsurprisingly kept being mentioned: Brexit.
Opening the day was Barclays’ Global Head of Transaction Banking, Karen Braithwaite, who began the event with a look at the evolution of cash management including recent developments.
Sky’s Assistant Treasurer joined rating agencies, Fitch Ratings and S&P Global Ratings, and Chrysoula Zervoukadis of Edison Investment Research, for a discussion moderated by Barclays’ David Shinkins assessing what makes good cash management with valuable takeaways provided to delegates. A key point is to be flexible – a policy should be flexible enough to withstand any changes resulting from Brexit. Brexit was also discussed in the next regulatory discussion featuring Slaughter and May and Oliver Wyman, where one needs to consider the impact of dealing in two regulatory environments, both in the EU and the UK.
After short introductions by Alex MacLean of Barclays and Simon Viney of BAE Systems, David Blight of the City of London Cyber Crime Unit then moderated a discussion on cyber security and payment fraud while providing useful advice as to how the corporates in the audience should protect themselves. Crime is changing and as was stated “in the future even bank robbers will be replaced”.
A selection of breakout sessions before lunch and the afternoon refreshment break gave a longer time to deep dive into six key areas including Request to Pay, cash pooling, cash forecasting and liquidity management.
As an awakening after lunch, we followed with quick-fire, 10-minute presentations from four new and exciting fintechs – APEXX, Cashforce, Currency Cloud and Income Group – with the chair keeping an impressive watch on timing.
We then took a short refreshment break before enjoying two further case studies on trapped cash and setting up a payments factory by Silke Reimers of Unilever and Philip Connell of The Body Shop respectively. Silke and Philip then joined Joanna Bonnett of PageGroup who had spoken in one of the breakout sessions for our corporate treasurer round-up moderated by independent consultant, Simon Jones, but not before Karl Trumper of Barclays gave an entertaining talk about managing your business in uncertain times – and what uncertain times we are living in!
Lots of discussion on how #brexit will impact corporate treasurers at #ACTcashmanagement conference. “It’s a matter of law we will leave the EU in 45 days” @actupdate
The day was an exciting tour around cash management and related issues affecting treasury professionals today.
Thank you to all the speakers, sponsors and delegates that made the event such an exciting and useful day for all!
See you at our next main event?
21-22 May, Manchester, UK
ACT Annual Conference – Embracing disruption: Dare to think differently
The ACT’s award-winning flagship conference is back in Manchester on 21-22 May 2019!
New challenges need new solutions. Tech innovation, business disruption and unprecedented regulatory and geopolitical challenges are changing the profession beyond recognition. For today’s treasurer, it is no longer enough to just deliver on treasury’s core responsibilities. Find out how to think differently, take the leap and embrace disruption with an open mindset for innovation and change at the ACT’s award-winning conference this May.
Find out more here.
