Trésorier/Treasurer magazine - N°83 — Oct/Nov/Dec 2013 - (Page 10)

ONLINE FR/EN ‘‘SHIFTING SHADES OF GREY’’ LE MAGAZINE DU TRESORIER / TREASURER MAGAZINE — N°83 — OCT / NOV / DEC 2013 Moving to a new era for the treasurer’s job We can expect 2013 to be the year of the plethora of regulations, even if many of them apply mostly in 2014, some of them even later. These new regulations will once again disrupt treasurers’ lives, change their organisational structure and divert them from their day-to-day work, preventing them from devoting their valuable time to tasks with a high(er) added value content. The example of EMIR and IAS 39 (soon to be replaced), which we will mention several times in this article, are good illustrations of these forthcoming gradual but profound changes. We have moved into a new era for treasury management. I would say that this job is taking on shades of grey because of the constraints and burdens weighing down upon it. Some jobs are pretty static and change little, other than from the point of view of their IT platforms. The treasurer’s job, by contrast, is relatively recent and keeps on changing by stealth, and not always for the better. From the needle at «empty» to the needle at «full» Over the last dozen years or so we have moved from zero reporting to reporting everything in full. We used to disclose nothing and now everything has to be disclosed in the annual or even the quarterly accounts. The volatility of financial products has switched from being non-existent to now being total and being recognised in the accounts, unless we adopt hedge accounting at heavy administrative cost. The idea of collateral was unthinkable only 10 years work? Quite likely they will! From few or no controls, other than that of internal audit from time to time, we have now moved to hyper-control – internal audit, Audit Committee, external auditors, «stock-market policeman» (e.g. FREP , SEC, FSA, COB,…), etc. Internal procedures and policies have become ever more numerous and strict. This amounts to a huge funnel of rules which inTHE SHIFTING SHADES OF GREY creasingly restricts freedom of action, (novel for treasurers) for risk mitigation reasons or through failings in the new regulations. Treasurers New technical Financial Giga bank Low interest New financial IT evolutions / or at least CFOs become crisis bail-out / rates / regulations / Requirements contagion multi soveEconomic stringent and to focus on intotally risk averse. They no and collateral reign crisis recession tougher IFRS ternal controls / longer manage at all in fact, damages / Lower Rahigh volatility / New taxes Compliance priority to efficiency tings / Low / Crystal they just administer and productivity economic transparen& added value report. The job is changing growth cy and max search (despite disclosures cost cutting) gradually and is taking on shades of grey, with ever more restrictive reporting and disclosures. ago but has now become almost mandaThis also explains why, after starting as tory (in spite of the relative exemption profit centres, the majority of treasury under EMIR – yet to be confirmed by the management units have moved to beEU CRD IV Directive adopting Basel 3). come service centres and then on to cost From an operational structure made up centres, with the latter constantly on the of around 80% front-office (against 20% increase. Complying with diverse and back-office), we have moved to a fiftyvaried regulations costs companies dear fifty split, with half of our job now made and reduces their productivity. Fortuup of proliferating back-office tasks. Who nately TRMS (Treasury zzzzv Systems) can tell whether tomorrow administraare developing continuously making it tive tasks will outweigh the operational possible to fully automate some manual TECTONIC OF CORPORATE TREASURER ROLE EVOLUTION SCORE OF TASK OF CORP. TREASURY SCORE OF TASK OF CORP. TREASURY COMPLIANT ROLE REPORTING ROLE VALUATION ROLE ACCOUNTING ROLE 10 VERSION OPERATIONNAL ROLES (HEDGING FULL STOP)

Table des matières de la publication Trésorier/Treasurer magazine - N°83 — Oct/Nov/Dec 2013

Couverture
SOMMAIRE
EDITORIAL
FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS Luxembourg Tax News
INTERVIEW David White - TriOptima
FOCUS
FORUM
CORPORATE FINANCE
15 MINUTES WITH Capita Asset Services - Luxembourg
NEWS
THE FINANCIAL RISK OBSERVATORY

Trésorier/Treasurer magazine - N°83 — Oct/Nov/Dec 2013