Attend the 33rd Finance Symposium | 18-20 May 2022 | Mannheim

20-04-2022 | treasuryXL | LinkedIn |

 

The treasury and finance community finally meets in person again. treasuryXL is proud media partner of the 33rd Finance Symposium.

 

 

For more than 30 years, the Finance Symposium has developed into the most important industry gathering for treasurers and finance managers in the German-speaking world. Every year, around 2,300 finance experts meet to discuss together, make contacts and receive new impetus. The outstanding congress program offers visitors a broad spectrum of professionally challenging topics from finance and treasury management in three days. In over 170 forums, workshops and expert panels, participants will learn about the latest developments in finance and treasury.

 

 

The speakers are high-ranking finance managers from major companies and prominent guests from politics and business. For example, in 2022 Martin Schulz, former President of the European Parliament , and Verena Pausder, entrepreneur and expert in digital education, could be won for exciting presentations and discussions. The most important banks, system providers and financial service providers in the industry will present themselves on 1,000 m2 of exhibition space.

For more information and tickets, visit: www.finanzsymposium.com

 

 

 

Kendra Keydeniers

Director, Community & Partners at treasuryXL

 

 

 

 

Your free eBook, What is Treasury?

13-04-2022 | treasuryXL | LinkedIn |

 

Receive your eBook What is Treasury? after subscribing to the free treasuryXL weekly newsletter.

The world of Treasury is a complex topic. Many people will think about pirates and big see ships that sank deep into the bottom of the ocean including their ‘treasure’. A mystery treasure map will lead the finder to a treasure worth a lot of money. In some way Treasury and Treasure have similarities, it is about money and other valuables.

Are you having a hard time how to explain what treasury is to family, friends and colleagues? Or are you interested to learn more about the World of Treasury?

 

Subscribe and Download

treasuryXL created a 41 pages eBook for the corporate treasurers and the world of finance addict.

This eBook is designed to answer layman questions about the function of Treasury. treasuryXL bundled the most important information for you and created an easy to read and understand articles about the main subjects within the World of Treasury:

This ebook will answer your questions about Treasury topics.

treasuryXL explains the purpose of each Treasury function; what specialists do, examples of activities, FAQs, and a summary.

This ebook is based on the most relevant best practices that Treasury experts provided over the last years. On the website of treasuryXL you can explore additional information on the latest in Corporate Treasury.

 

HAVE FUN READING!

 

 

Kendra Keydeniers

Director, Community & Partners at treasuryXL

 

 

 

 

EuroFinance International Treasury Management returns to Vienna | 21-23 September 2022

08-04-2022 | Eurofinance | treasuryXL |

 

Featuring keynote speakers, Guy Verhofstadt and Göran Carstedt…

The 31st annual EuroFinance International Treasury Management 2022 will return this September with more than 2,000 attendees, 150 speakers, 100 sponsors and exhibitors.

 

 

For the first in-person event in three years, EuroFinance International Treasury Management keynote speakers will include Guy Verhofstadt, member of the European Parliament and Göran Carstedt, former corporate executive of Volvo and IKEA.

The full line-up brings more than 150 global corporate treasury leaders, financial institutions, technology providers and thought-leaders together to discuss the theme “Treasury in transition”, across 12 stages at Vienna’s Messe Wien Exhibition Congress Center from September 21st-23rd 2022.

Guy Verhofstadt is a Member of the European Parliament and co-chair of the Conference on the Future of Europe. He served as prime minister of Belgium from 1999 until 2008 and also made a name for himself as Brexit coordinator and as a passionate champion of more European integration. He will give the opening keynote on day 1.

Dr Göran Carstedt is the former head of IKEA North America and IKEA Retail Europe and former head of VOLVO France and Volvo Sweden. Having run some of the world’s leading companies, Dr Carstedt is also the former senior director of President Clinton’s Climate Change Initiative. He will give the opening keynote presentation on day 2 on how climate change is changing business.

Corporate treasury leaders from some of the world’s top multinationals – including TechnipFMC, Citrix Systems, Kongsberg Automotive, Autoneum, Equinor, Heinz, Medtronic, John Lewis – have also been confirmed.

 

“We look forward to seeing people connecting and collaborating face-to-face once again in Vienna. It’s great to see live events bouncing back across the world and from the response we have had so far,  it’s clear that our community of speakers, banks and technology providers are eager to meet in-person after 2 years of virtual meetings.” says Asif Chaudhury, Managing Director of EuroFinance.

 

Irreversibly changed after the events of the past few years, this year’s theme will explore the “new” treasury; a highly digital and automated function tasked with meeting strategic goals and changing remits against a backdrop of multiple issues from climate change to high inflation. Treasurers will share their experience in practical case studies and technical discovery labs and celebrate the innovations that will drive change.

EuroFinance’s growing list of sponsors and exhibitors for the event includes  J.P. Morgan Chase, Standard Chartered, Citi, Bank of America, BNP Paribas,, Fitch Group, HSBC, Santander Corporate & Investment Banking, Visa, Société Générale, ION, TIS, Remote Technology, B2C2, American Express, Bayerische Landesbank, UniCredit, PrimeRevenue, Northern Trust Asset Management, Credit Agricole, Zanders, ICD, Pictet Asset Management, Raiffeisen Bank, BlackRock, Legal and General, Tietoevry, Amundi, CMSpi, Nomentia, Aviva Investors Global Services, CashAnalytics, Treasury Systems, CoCoNet, Exalog, Traxpay, SisID, Finastra.

For more information and to register, visit: https://www.eurofinance.com/international

About EuroFinance

EuroFinance, part of The Economist Group, is a leading global provider of treasury, cash management and risk events, research and training. With over 30 years of experience, our mission is to bring together the brightest minds and most influential voices in treasury. Through in-depth research with 1,000 corporate treasury professionals every year, we have a unique insight into the trends and developments within the profession and an unrivalled global viewpoint.

Contacts

Marianne Ford
Senior Marketing Manager
EuroFinance

Economist Impact
[email protected]

 

 

Interest payments – How to calculate the days

| 07-03-2018 | Lionel Pavey | treasuryXL | LinkedIn

When entering into a financial transaction you need to be aware of the settlement dates. If you have a contract that states that you must pay on the 1st day of every month what do you do when that date is a non-working day? Furthermore, to be able to calculate the interest owed on a loan, you also need to know what the denominator is – the number of days in a year for the particular product and contract. When a payment cannot take place on a particular date – because it is not a recognised business day, you need to know the convention that the bank uses to adjust the payment date. Here is an overview of the most commonly used business day conventions (which determine how non-business days are handled) and calculation bases.

Business day conventions | Modified Following

Preceding – the first preceding day that is a business day
Following – the first following day that is a business day
Modified Following – the first following day that is a business day, unless the days falls in the next calendar month, in which case the date will be the first preceding day that is a business day

Furthermore reference will be made to the applicable currency calendar for determining non-working days. For EUR this would mean TARGET, for GBP this would mean London, for euro USD this would mean London and New York.

Calculation basis

Actual/360 (Money Market) – the coupon payment is calculated using the exact number of days in the period divided by 360. The start date is included in the calculation, but not the last day.

Actual/365 (Fixed) – the coupon payment is calculated using the exact number of days in the period divided by 365. The start date is included in the calculation, but not the last day

Actual/Actual (ISDA) – the coupon payment is calculated using the exact number of days, with the portion of days belonging in a non-leap year divided by 365 and the portion of days belonging in a leap year divided by 366. The start date is included in the calculation, but not the last day.

Actual/Actual (ISMA) – the coupon payment is calculated using the exact number of days divided by the length of the year, where the length of the year is equal to the number of days in the coupon period multiplied by the number of coupon periods in the year.

30/360 (Bond basis) – the coupon is calculated over 30 days for every full calendar month and the actual number of days for the remaining fraction of a month, divided by 360.

30/360E (Eurobond basis) – the coupon is calculated on the basis of a year of 360 days with 12 30-day months, unless the end date is the last day of February, which is not lengthened to a 30-day month.

Coupon calculation conventions

Adjusted – Interest is calculated on the effective payment date adjusted for the business day

Unadjusted – Interest is calculated on the theoretical payment date, regardless of the effective payment date.

If you are interested to know what the effect of these changes can be on a coupon payment and calculation, please contact us for more detailed information.

Lionel Pavey

 

Lionel Pavey

Cash Management and Treasury Specialist

 

Effective Finance & Treasury in Africa event run by EuroFinance | London

23-02-2022 | Eurofinance | treasuryXL |

 

If your company operates in Africa or is thinking about it, then join us at Effective Finance & Treasury in Africa on March 23rd in London. Now in its 9th year, this intimate event brings together more than 150 senior corporate treasury professionals from leading multinationals – all involved in markets across the continent.

With peer-to-peer learning and knowledge-sharing more important than ever before, join other treasury leaders to debate the key issues, share success stories and gain practical guidance on how to overcome your shared challenges.

From treasury technology to managing liquidity risks, financing strategies, FX, payments and more, the concise 1 day agenda will provide all the information you need to redesign your treasury operations for cost and efficiency, power innovation and support business growth.

Speakers include:

Jan Beukes, Group treasurer, MultiChoice Group Ltd

Omofolake Fawibe, Head of finance, IBS, Danone SA

Ricky Brink, Treasury professional, Siemens SA

Titus Owoeye, Head finance, Fan Milk West Africa

Gain all the tools you need to succeed in Africa in 2022 and beyond.

 

Registration is open – find out more and register now.

 

 

 

Changing priorities of corporate treasurers post-pandemic

| 15-11-2021 | Eurofinance | treasuryXL | LinkedIn

More than 18 months have passed since treasury professionals around the world had to leave their offices at short notice due to the escalating covid-19 crisis. In April 2021, EuroFinance carried out a survey to find out more about the different ways the pandemic has affected treasury professionals. Alongside the adoption of remote working, the subsequent report highlights treasurers’ accelerated adoption of digital technologies, and the contribution that treasurers make to board-level decision-making during a crisis.

What are the key takeaways from this report?

  • The importance of cash flow forecasting has been underlined by the crisis. Almost three quarters of treasury professionals have increased their focus on cash forecasting during the crisis, while 54% plan to prioritise cash forecasting in the future.
  • Cash management and liquidity management remains a top priority for treasury professionals. Seven out of ten said cash management/liquidity management was a top priority going forward.
  • Covid-19 has accelerated digital transformation. Alongside the rise in remote working, treasury teams have increased their adoption of robotic process automation (RPA), APIs/cloud, machine learning/AI and virtual accounts/in-house banks.
  • Treasurers have been more involved in board-level decision making during the pandemic, with 39% of treasurers saying they are more involved since the crisis began.

Want to see the full report?

Download here

 

 

Your Last Call | International Treasury Management Virtual Week | September 27 – October 1

22-09-2021 | Eurofinance | treasuryXL |

It’s free, It’s Virtual…

International Treasury Management is the annual meeting place for 1000s of the World’s most senior treasurers to learn and share experiences in valuable peer to peer discussions. With a reputation for ground-breaking sessions and world-class speakers, our 30th anniversary event will explore the boundaries of the profession, take a glimpse into the future of business, treasury and working life as well as offer the practical case studies on the treasurer’s top agenda items.

Only one treasury event can deliver the comprehensive mix of big picture global insight and granular treasury knowledge you need to make the right choices for the future.


Back to the future, again

Over the past 30 years since EuroFinance’s inaugural conference on International Cash and Treasury Management, much has changed. Treasurers have firmly become business partners, technology experts, risk managers and opportunity spotters. They often lead fundamental change within the company as markets, business models and technology shifts.

What next? This event will delve into how treasury operations can gear up for the future, having learned the lessons from the past. Where, who, what and how will the corporate be in the coming years and what is treasury’s role?

Keynote sessions will offer big-picture insight alongside themed streams including:

  • Payments revisited
  • Risks and Rewards
  • Digital strategies
  • Practical solutions to day-to-day Treasury challenges
  • The power of partnership

What makes International Treasury Management the must-attend event of the year?

  • networking on a global scale – a significant rise in attendees in 2020 boosted the value networking with banks, providers and potential clients… all in one place
  • strategic insights and best practices – get solutions to the challenges you face from treasury and economic experts during keynotes, practical case studies, fireside chats, analytical panels and more
  • future trends – delve into the latest innovations and new technology driving change in treasury, and their practical applications
  • live Q&A with world-class treasurers – enjoy borderless networking and live Q&As with high-profile speakers directly after each session
  • cost and time-efficiency – tune in form anywhere in the world, at the click of a button with no long distance travel or accommodation costs
  • continued learning – catch up on any missed sessions and re-watch your highlights, on demand for up 2 months after the event
  • unite your international teams – as a free event, it offers an opportunity for your whole treasury team to attend. Perfect for encouraging learning and development at all levels

September 27th – October 1st | Virtual

Register Now for Free!

 

 

International Treasury Management Virtual Week | Celebrating 30 years as the world’s leading treasury event

| 19-05-2021 | Eurofinance | treasuryXL |

International Treasury Management is the annual meeting place for 1000s of the World’s most senior treasurers to learn and share experiences in valuable peer to peer discussions. With a reputation for ground-breaking sessions and world-class speakers, our 30th anniversary event will explore the boundaries of the profession, take a glimpse into the future of business, treasury and working life as well as offer the practical case studies on the treasurer’s top agenda items.

Only one treasury event can deliver the comprehensive mix of big picture global insight and granular treasury knowledge you need to make the right choices for the future.


Back to the future, again

Over the past 30 years since EuroFinance’s inaugural conference on International Cash and Treasury Management, much has changed. Treasurers have firmly become business partners, technology experts, risk managers and opportunity spotters. They often lead fundamental change within the company as markets, business models and technology shifts.

What next? This event will delve into how treasury operations can gear up for the future, having learned the lessons from the past. Where, who, what and how will the corporate be in the coming years and what is treasury’s role?

Keynote sessions will offer big-picture insight alongside themed streams including:

  • Payments revisited
  • Risks and Rewards
  • Digital strategies
  • Practical solutions to day-to-day Treasury challenges
  • The power of partnership

What makes International Treasury Management the must-attend event of the year?

  • networking on a global scale – a significant rise in attendees in 2020 boosted the value networking with banks, providers and potential clients… all in one place
  • strategic insights and best practices – get solutions to the challenges you face from treasury and economic experts during keynotes, practical case studies, fireside chats, analytical panels and more
  • future trends – delve into the latest innovations and new technology driving change in treasury, and their practical applications
  • live Q&A with world-class treasurers – enjoy borderless networking and live Q&As with high-profile speakers directly after each session
  • cost and time-efficiency – tune in form anywhere in the world, at the click of a button with no long distance travel or accommodation costs
  • continued learning – catch up on any missed sessions and re-watch your highlights, on demand for up 2 months after the event
  • unite your international teams – as a free event, it offers an opportunity for your whole treasury team to attend. Perfect for encouraging learning and development at all levels

September 27th – October 1st | Virtual

Register Now for Free!

 

 

Global Treasury Americas | Planning the post-pandemic Treasury

| 12-05-2021 | Eurofinance | treasuryXL |

The leading virtual event defining today’s corporate treasury agenda

For the past year, treasurers have sweated the core stuff: securing short-term liquidity and longer-term credit; enhancing risk monitoring and hedging processes; and dealing with the implications of remote working. But in the complex and uncertain transition to a new ‘normal’, finance functions will have to resume the search for growth. Can treasury help identify where growth is most likely to come from and which parts of the business are most threatened by digital disruption? And can they do better – can they help build the business strategies needed to prosper as we emerge into the next phase of the pandemic.

This event will explore the practical steps treasurers can take to make enterprise and treasury digitalization a reality and look at varied case studies of transformation in the treasury. The event will look in-depth at new technologies in action as well as more strategic concepts including the sustainability agenda. We look at how treasury can make a difference. Finally, we look at what it takes to transform treasury wherever you are in your journey in order to increase efficiencies, protect the business and make a difference to the bottom-line.

Global Treasury Americas: Planning the post-pandemic treasury

2 days of actionable insights, plus real world case studies tackling the key issues facing treasurers in the region. Topics include:

  • The Great Bounce-back
  • Practical steps on the path to automated Treasury
  • Why sustainability matters for Treasury
  • Name that threat: What’s next
  • Building a true cash culture
  • Payments evolution – the Treasurer’s view

What makes Global Treasury Americas your must-attend event of the year?

  • Understand the practical steps towards making enterprise and treasury digitalization a reality
  • Gain actionable solutions and best practices from varied real-world case studies
  • Network with an unrivalled audience of 800+ senior treasury professionals across the Americas
  • Benchmark your operations against the regions most forward-thinking treasury teams
  • Explore how to support business growth whilst balancing the traditional role of treasury

June 9-10 | Virtual

Register Now

 

 

Corporate Governance and Treasury | Embrace the Corporate Treasury Policy

| 18-02-2020 | François de Witte | treasuryXL |


Corporate Governance

Corporate Governance is a mechanism through which boards and directors can direct, monitor and supervise the conduct and operation of the corporation and its management in a way that ensures appropriate levels of authority, accountability, stewardship, leadership, direction and control.

The ultimate responsibility for Treasury management within an organization lies with the board of directors. Due to the practicalities and technical aspects involved in corporate treasury, the board typically delegates the daily management of risk to responsible individuals in each department. In the case of financial risks, many of these are delegated to the treasurer.

Whilst, due to its specific activities, the corporate treasurer needs to take a lot of actions and decisions independently, it is important that he does this within a framework and Governance. Quite a lot of corporates have formalized this in a “Corporate Treasury Policy”.

Corporate Treasury Policy

The Corporate Treasury Policy is the mechanisms by which the board, or risk management committee (RMC), can delegate financial decisions in a controlled manner. This document should be a summary of all the principles approved by the Board or the Financial Committee of the Board as a mandate of the Board to the treasurer (the Treasury Mandate).

The Corporate Treasury Policy is a framework document, which covers the following areas:

Organization of the Treasury Function

In most of the companies, the Corporate Treasury Reports to the CFO. The CFO is usually himself a Member of the Executive Committee, which itself reports directly to the Board of Directors. (Treasurer – CFO – Treasury Committee – Audit Committee – Board):

A policy should set out clearly which decisions are delegated to the treasurer and when the treasurer should refer a decision back to the board or other person within the organization. Within several corporate, the Board of Directors have delegated the decision process to dedicated committee, like the Risk Committee, and the Liquidity and Funding Committee.

Treasury Control Framework (including the Code of Conduct)

Procedures and controls to manage the risk should be put in place to provide an overall framework for decision-making by the treasury team.

Ideally, this should also include a code of conduct. The Corporate Treasurer should act as a Corporate Custodian. In other words, he is Protector of the company’s assets, and should act according to a strict Code of Conduct and Ethics. There exist examples of codes developed by professional organizations such as IGTA, ATEB, AFTE, ACT and ATEL.

Liquidity and funding

The board should be informed about funding possibilities to put currency, maturity, cost and equity/debt character into a wider context. The board should decide on the strategy but can delegate fund raising decisions and actions to treasury. However, I recommend that Treasury asks the final board approval for strategic decisions (e.g. major syndicated loans, bond issues, etc.).

The board should have an overall view on the liquidity risk of the company. The Board should also define the financial policy, covering the gearing and maturity issues, fixed and variable interest rate obligations, dividend policy and covenants.

Banking Relationship

Banks chosen by the treasurer must be able to meet the needs of the organization, both domestically and internationally. I recommend that the Board approves annually criteria for selecting the banks with whom it will work.

Risk Management

The Treasurer must identify the various risks to which the company is exposed, quantify the impact, and should inform the Board thereof. He should estimate the size of these exposure risks and their impact on the he overall operations and financial performance of the company, and make recommendations in these areas

The board must approve the hedging policy, the company’s foreign exchange, interest rate and commodity risk management policy and its attitude to risk. It should define which part of the risks must be hedged and the hedging horizon. I recommend that the Treasurer submits at regular intervals to the Board the list of authorized instruments, the amount per instrument and their term

Investment Policy – Counterparty Credit Risk

The board should approve the treasury’s Investment policy including the choice of instruments, the list of counterparties used + the maximum amount/counterparty & maturity. It is recommended that the Board provides guidelines and limits per instrument.

It is recommended that the Board approves the guidelines for fixing counterparty limits, and maximum exposure per counterparty.

Authorized instruments and Arrangements – Authorized Approvers

The Treasurer should make sure that the board must understands and approve the strategies and instruments used and sets guidelines for the appropriate limits for their use. These guidelines need to ensure that treasury has not sacrificed long-term flexibility or

survival for short-term gain, especially in view of the volatile financial market’s situation.

Treasury Operational Risk

The treasurer should make the Board aware of the operational risks to which the company is exposed. He should provide recommendations in this area. Furthermore, the treasurer should also submit recommendations to the board on the treasury organization and the ways to reduce the operational risks.

Monitoring

A Corporate Treasury Policy has only sense, if there is a regular follow up and control framework; Hence procedures and controls to manage the risk should be put in place to provide an overall framework for decision-making by the treasury team.

It is also important to provide to the Board a regular update on the way the treasurer complies with the policy. The policy should also be regularly reviewed.

Treasury must alert the board to external changes and internal strategic developments, which may have long-term implications for the organization and make proposals for managing them.

The policy needs also to be reviewed at regular intervals each “Policy” in function of the market and of other internal or external developments. I recommend having treasury on the Board’s agenda on a quarterly basis.

Conclusion

Treasury is not an island in the company. It is closely linked to the corporate governance. Hence it is important to define the right framework.

I recommend to corporates to put in place a treasury policy validated by the Board of Directors and reviewed regularly. It is important to update the Board at regular intervals about strategic topics, such as strategic financing topics and risk management.

The treasurer has also an important educational role, as he must be able to make complex treasury topics understandable for the board members.

Hence there must be a good interaction between the treasurer, the CFO and the Board is key, where the Treasurer is the linking pin.

 

François de Witte
Founder & Senior Consultant at FDW Consult
Managing Director and CFO at SafeTrade Holding S.A.
treasuryXL ambassador