Partnering around the world

The last couple of weeks have stood out for me in terms of our strong partnerships around the world.  From the GTR event in Dubai where we ‘host’ a corporate treasury afternoon, to a breakfast supported by ADIB looking at Islamic banking, to member events in Hong Kong and Singapore hosted by PwC and Deloitte respectively.  And it didn’t end there.

It was great to see some other old friends again – the ACT Singapore joining our member event, meeting with the IACCT in Hong Kong to talk about our future continuing collaboration, and running a seminar on strategic influencing for women alumni of the HKUST business school, hosted by my good friend Veronique Lafon-Vinais.

What are my takeaways from the last 2 weeks?

• partnerships are not only effective, but they’re fun
• our members are ever-keen to attend events – 70 registrations for our Singapore event which was actually organised at quite short notice
• we hope to do more for our members in Asia in the future, and we have the support of a number of organisations now so that we can do that
• our Middle East activities go from strength to strength, and the warmth and hospitality shown to me there and elsewhere around the world is phenomenal
• the ACT’s mission is the right one, and 40 years on (and 10 years in both Middle East and Asia) we need to ensure that we hold to our USP – we are not only the oldest and only treasury association providing education from fundamentals to masters level, but our close relationship with the leading treasurers, as well as regulators and other stakeholders, ensures that we have a finger on the treasury pulse at all times.  And that means we can better serve our members as well as those ‘accidental treasurers’ who really need support in a world which is at best very confusing at the moment!

The topics discussed over the last few weeks ranged from capital funding structures to cyber-security to optimising liquidity, and the perspectives were wide and varied.  I will be consolidating all that stimulating discussion in the next weeks as I attend the EACT Summit and our conference in Nairobi.  The fundamentals are the same, but the evolution of treasury varies dramatically from geography to geography and from organisation to organisation.  And I haven’t even touched on digitalisation yet...

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