The past 18 months have brought the skills of treasury professionals into the foreground around the world. The Middle East, which has seen significant impacts to its cash inflows with hits to travel and tourism coupled with falling oil prices earlier in 2021, has certainly seen its corporate treasurers stepping into the spotlight.
As the COVID-19 crisis highlighted treasury skills to the wider organisation and as the region looks towards a path back to growth, the Association of Corporate Treasurers Middle East Summit 2021, on 28-29 September, brings together treasury experts and practitioners to share experience and best practice.
Taking place virtually, the region’s premier treasury event will feature treasurers and executives from the region’s most significant organisations and takes place under the patronage of the UAE Ministry of the Economy.
One of the hallmarks of the pandemic has been the pace of operational change. Speakers will explore the opportunity that the pandemic brought to drive transformation through technological and process innovation. The arrival of application programming interfaces (APIs) allowing the sharing of data between software programmes; new possibilities in in-house banking; and the potential to optimise the functionality of treasury management systems will all be explored.
Taking place online, the summit will also highlight:
Along with the fundamentals of:
ACT chief executive Caroline Stockmann will open the proceedings and introduce the first session of the conference on the importance of SMEs and entrepreneurship in the wider economy. Supply chains, liquidity and automation are key topics for day one.
On day two, Rola Abu Manneh, CEO of Standard Chartered bank in UAE, will speak on the subject of women in treasury, exploring progress towards greater diversity in the Middle East and providing equal opportunities across finance and treasury professions. Other topics on day two include ESG and sustainability, credit ratings and the advance of real-time payments.
The final keynote session will cover the changing demographics in the region. Muhsin Al Rustom, CFO at Omani logistics services provider ASYAD, will discuss how organisations can be multigenerational and manage talent for the success of the business.
You can find out more about the ACT Middle East Summit programme here.