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Tuesday, 16th September 2025 |
| Regulatory compliance risk management emerges as key element of treasurer's job |
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| Today’s corporate treasurer not only has to manage interest rate, foreign exchange, inflation, commodity and cash/financing risk, they now also have the challenge of dealing with regulatory compliance risk, writes the new chairman of the Irish Association of Corporate Treasurers, Andrew Glover. |
The role of the corporate treasurer is changing. Previously, the typical corporate treasurer had to manage two main risk ‘groupings': (1) interest rate, foreign exchange, inflation and commodity risk and (2) cash/financing risk (trying to get the best rate for deposits or the lowest borrowing rate).
However, in recent years, regulatory compliance risk has emerged as a very important third risk ‘grouping' to
be managed by treasurers. This grouping encompasses compliance with applicable accounting (including the adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards – IFRS), legal and other regulatory frameworks. It is also becoming less common for corporates to employ a full-time treasurer. The role is often absorbed into
another role, mainly in finance.
The Irish Association of Corporate Treasurers (IACT) was founded in 1986 with the aim of promoting the practice of corporate treasury management in Ireland and to provide a forum in which corporate treasurers can meet and exchange information.
The Association is a not-for-profit organisation having charitable status. It currently has in excess of 300 members, including treasurers from major Irish public companies, multinationals and commercial state entities, as well as a significant number of smaller and medium sized companies.
The Association's aims are to encourage and promote the study and practice of treasury management in Ireland, set guidelines for best practice and act as a forum for treasurers to interact and network with their peers and service providers.
Currently the Association has four main themes:
• Being the voice of the corporate treasurer
• Delivering best practice in treasury and corporate governance
• The changes in accounting standards and taxation
• The changing role of the corporate treasurer.
In recognition of the importance of education, the Association also runs a one-year, part-time programme for a Graduate Certificate in Corporate Treasury in conjunction with Dublin City University. This specialist programme commenced in September 1998.
In September 2005, following extensive discussions with the UK Association of Corporate Treasurers (ACT), we succeeded in negotiating significant exemptions from the ACT’s examinations for graduates from our programme. All past and future holders of the Graduate Certificate will be eligible to proceed directly to the ACT’s Full Membership Qualification (MCT), without having to take any of the Associate Member (AMCT) papers.
This is a unique distinction as the Graduate Certificate course is the only educational qualification that has been recognised as meeting the ACT’s exacting standards for direct entry to the MCT examinations. The Committee of the Association is working on a number of other educational initiatives which will be communicated to members over the coming months.
The Association also organises seminars, conferences, training courses and social events for members. An example of some of the recent seminars held are listed in table 1.
All presentations are posted on the Association's website, however, they are only available to members who
have a secure login name and password.
The Association is a member of the European Association of Corporate Treasurers www.eact-group.org and the International Group of Treasury Associations www.igta.org, each of which was formed to foster better contacts between treasurers and their Associations world-wide, to work towards a common view of technical matters of interest to treasurers and generally enhance the activities of member Associations.
The role of the treasurer has evolved simultaneously with the changes in the requirements of the business it serves. While basic financial knowledge (funding, cashflow and cash management) is a given, an Irish treasurer is expected to have a thorough understanding of corporate finance, tax and regulatory compliance as well as contribute in a significant way to the organisation’s strategy.
The Irish workforce is very well served with treasurers. The international focus of the Irish economy, the treasury functions based in the IFSC and large multinationals such as IBM, Xerox and Pfizer have added further depth.
If you are interested in attending (subject to availability) any of our events in 2006 or would like information on how to become a member of the Association, please contact Michele at webmaster@ treasurers.ie. As an Association, we would welcome any comments that you may have.
Contact us
The Irish Association of Corporate Treasurers; P.O. Box 10104, Lucan, Co Dublin; Tel: 01 – 6108574; Email: info@treasurers; Website: www.treasurers.ie |
Andrew Glover is group treasury manager with Dublin Airport Authority plc, and is chairman of the IACT
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