The last year has been an exceptional one, with challenges - both personal and professional - for us all. I hope you and your family and friends are keeping well through the pandemic, and we look forward to the better times to come, including bringing new learnings with us from this extraordinary period.
Now, more than ever, our treasury community is a source of strength, through personal connections as well as professional development. We at the ACT are here to support you as you work so hard to ensure future economic stability. We value your critical role in the real economy as we build back towards a stronger future, a role that impacts on the lives of people everywhere. And from our side, we continue to represent you at the highest levels of government to ensure the voice of the real economy is heard.
The role of the ACT now, and over more than 40 years, is to be the leading advocate of the treasury profession and we continue to work on your behalf as we all look to the future together. I truly appreciate the support and engagement of you, our members, as by working together we can continue to overcome adversity and promote treasury excellence around the world.
Our team, working remotely, is as focused as ever on achieving the best service for you, our members. Our policy and technical experts are working hard on your behalf. They have a dual role: they help to keep you informed by sharing insights on ‘hot topics’ - which currently include the impact of COVID-19 and Brexit as well as LIBOR transition - and they represent you and the ‘real economy’ in discussions with policy makers and regulators, focusing on the practical consequences of emerging issues and decisions. They welcome policy input from members through, for example, participation in the ACT policy and technical advisory panel, or in ACT roundtables with the Bank of England. This year we expect renewed focus on climate change and the digital economy.
We are fortunate that our learning and awarding body areas offer online programmes and assessments and we have now pivoted our public training courses to a virtual environment as well. We know that the professional advantage of ACT qualifications sets our members apart, and so we have focused on this area over the past year, with a new structure for our cash management syllabi and the introduction of digital accreditation to enable successful candidates to share their achievements more easily.
Our events are an important way of sharing knowledge and inviting our community to network and interact. We have embraced virtual events during the pandemic and discovered that our virtual platform enables more people to get involved in ways that we didn’t expect. The Annual Dinner, or NOT the Annual Dinner as we renamed it in 2020, took place online and it was a great pleasure to see so many of you enjoying a social evening with friends and colleagues. When NOT the Annual Dinner was announced as a winner at the Digital Event Awards 2021, we couldn’t have been more pleased. Our Annual Conference was better attended than ever as the barriers of travel disappeared. We were delighted overall to welcome 8,000 treasury professionals to conferences, member events, webinars and awards during the last year. Please look out for more events on our website.
The membership team continues to work on a wide range of member benefits including professional development resources through the ACT Career Hub, our mentoring scheme, CPD podcasts, the strategic insights podcast series and our Future Leaders in Treasury group. We also recognise the need to support members’ wellbeing and have developed resources in The Treasurer, podcasts, webinars and blogs to help members with this – visit the wellbeing page here.
In 2021 we will be hosting a number of virtual member events focusing on business and behavioural skills, with our new ‘In conversation with…’ series, and technical ‘hot topic’ discussions at our new ‘talkingtreasury’ events. Please visit the member events page for more information.
2020 has brought us even closer in many ways, and I’m personally looking forward to how we can maintain the greater collaboration and inclusion we have found in some areas, as well as bringing back the benefits we have been missing during the pandemic crisis. The ‘next normal’ can and will be better than what we had before, I believe, and it’s up to us to ensure we don’t forget the learnings we have made through the last 12 months as we celebrate our regained freedoms. Our lives will be immediately enhanced as we start to socialise in person and the fear/threat of COVID is removed. We may find we move to a more balanced lifestyle than before, and if that is the case for you then you might want to consider volunteering with the ACT, as we have many different opportunities available for you. You can express your interest by writing to volunteer@treasurers.org.
As ever we welcome your views on the way that ACT supports the treasury community and you, our member. If there is any additional information, resources or support you would like from us, please let us know by completing this online form. And I of course welcome any direct feedback at cstockmann@treasurers.org.
Thank you again for your support over the past year. You have been loyal to us through these difficult times, and we trust that this is because you feel you get great value from the ACT. I hope this remains the case, as we are determined to continue to support you in the best way we possibly can, for many years to come!
Warm regards
Caroline Stockmann
Chief Executive, Association of Corporate Treasurers
Renewing your membership is easy - simply click here to pay online. If you would like us to send you an invoice please email membership@treasurers.org (If you pay by direct debit this payment will be taken from your account and you do not need to click the link. The payment collection date will be detailed on your invoice).
If your circumstances have changed and you would like to speak to the membership team about our unemployed/career break/retired rates or how we could help you, please email membership@treasurers.org.
Please note that in light of the COVID-19 crisis we are offering reduced subscriptions to standard paying Fellow, Associate and Affiliate members who self-fund their membership and have been furloughed at a rate of 80% of the normal amount. Just select this option from the menu.
A small discount is available if you choose to pay by direct debit - find out more here
UK taxpayers: if you are in employment and pay your own membership fees, the ACT’s annual subscription is approved by the Inland Revenue for tax relief, obtained via your annual tax return.
For those who need to make a CPD declaration (all active FCT and AMCT members) you can declare today. You do not need to submit your CPD record with your declaration, but if you are selected for an audit, you will be contacted by 31 July 2021.
The Trust has awarded over 300 bursaries to provide financial assistance to those from developing countries who wish to study for an ACT qualification but are unable to secure company sponsorship. We have also supported treasury training courses in Africa as well as a number of UK BAME bursaries for the first time in 2020. We are really excited about the enthusiasm of our bursary students – read some of their stories here.