Aaron Carver, who is a senior analyst at Goldman Sachs, won the prize for his performance in the Certificate in International Cash Management qualification, while Chris Hallett scored the highest marks in the Certificate in Treasury qualification.
Aaron Carver: Thank you. I actually became interested in finance owing to an interesting set of circumstances. While studying for my bachelor’s in mechanical engineering at the University of Warwick, I worked part-time at a manufacturing SME; however, owing to a series of cash-flow and liquidity issues, this SME regrettably ended up entering administration.
While unfortunate, this experience got me interested in the world of liquidity and working capital management. This in turn led to me doing an internship in HSBC’s Global Liquidity and Cash Management Division (now Global Payments Solutions) and joining its graduate scheme to start my career within Transaction Banking. After an amazing couple of years at HSBC, I recently joined Goldman Sachs as a senior analyst in its Liquidity Risk division.
Chris Hallett: Thank you, it most definitely was a pleasant surprise. I’m based in Bristol and work for National Grid Electricity Distribution. I’ve been in my current role of treasury officer for just over four years. We’re quite a small team on the treasury operations side, so my responsibilities are extremely varied. From a traditional viewpoint, a large part of my typical duties lie in the front office. I’m our main dealer, so daily cash management and ensuring we meet all upcoming liquidity requirements are key tasks for me.
AC: For me there are two main components. The first is certainly the international relevance of the qualification – irrespective of where you are located, after completing the qualification I believe you will feel more equipped to deliver best practice in domestic and international cash management. Second is the breadth of topics the qualification covers. It features a wide range, from cutting-edge innovations to legacy cash management architecture, and augments complex theoretical concepts with practical examples from the industry to provide meaningful context on how each cash management tool can be utilised to solve problems for corporates.
CH: The Certificate in Treasury covers an extremely broad range of topics, which I found really useful. It’s given me a greater understanding of tasks I carry out on a daily basis and allowed me to contribute further to my team. It also covers topics I hadn’t previously encountered in my career, providing me with new perspectives and increasing my knowledge of the wider treasury sector. I was also extremely keen to gain a recognised specialist treasury qualification, which would further bolster me going forwards in my career – ACT qualifications definitely fulfil that.
AC: That’s a really interesting question. This year has certainly been remarkable for cash management – after more than a decade of ultra-low interest rates, there has been a rapid turnaround with numerous central bank policy rate hikes to combat inflation. In turn, this has resulted in an increasing focus from corporates to improve cash-flow forecasting, and better mobilise cash to reduce debt or enhance yield. I believe this trend will continue into 2023 with some cash management products – such as term and notice deposits – regaining popularity and there being a continuing focus on optimising liquidity structures.
CH: It’s certainly going to be an interesting year, with high inflation and rising interest rates being key topics. I’d previously never seen above 0.75% base rate in my treasury career, so earning overnight returns of 3%-plus is a new experience for me. However, this increases the importance for treasury of managing interest rate costs and being extremely cost-effective with any short-term funding. We were also acquired by National Grid last year, which has meant our team of four is being integrated into a larger group treasury of 40-plus people – naturally this is bringing change, although personally I always welcome a new challenge.
Find out more about all of this year’s ACT prize winners at learning.treasurers.org/prize-winners/
Aaron Carver and Chris Hallett were speaking with Philip Smith, editor of The Treasurer
