AFP Blogs

Two experts from the Federal Reserve, alongside two corporate practitioners, just finished taking questions from a packed session crowd here in San Francisco about looming Fedwire format changes to support remittance information. Implementation is expected in the fourth quarter of next year. The panel has discussed how corporates can convince their banks and software vendors to adjust to the new format to support greater information and evaluated case studies from three corprorations that showed low straight through processing rates on wires.

On the panel at the session are Anita Patterson, the treasurer at Manheim, and Susan Boeri from the treasury department at GE, as well as Ken Isaacson from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and Hank C. Farrar of The Clearing House. Read more in the October issue of Payments. Find out more about the format change here.

Permit me to backtrack briefly for those of you who think AFP’s Annual Conference is all educational sessions and exhibit booth presentations. 

Conference attendees (as well as some AFP staffers) descended on San Francisco City Hall last night for a tremendous welcome reception featuring a pair of jazz bands, a pasta bar, flowing beverages and impressively sprawling tables of food. (Crowd favorites included the Black Angus Sirloin, the Danish meatballs and the Roast Loin of Smoked Pork.) And yes, there were guys playing violins on a great staircase out front. Good times.

AFP's 2009 Annual Conference Opening Ceremony in San Francisco's City Hall

Permit me to backtrack briefly for those of you who think AFP’s Annual Conference is all educational sessions and exhibit booth presentations. 

Conference attendees (as well as some AFP staffers) descended on San Francisco City Hall last night for a tremendous welcome reception featuring a pair of jazz bands, a pasta bar, flowing beverages and impressively sprawling tables of food. (Crowd favorites included the Black Angus Sirloin, the Danish meatballs and the Roast Loin of Smoked Pork.) And yes, there were guys playing violins on a great staircase out front. Good times.

AFP's 2009 Annual Conference Opening Ceremony in San Francisco's City Hall

Monday’s a big day for AFP in San Francisco. Attendees of the 2009 Annual Conference are still filing through registration here inside the Moscone Center, the industry roundtables are underway, former Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Alan S. Blinder is about to lead the President’s Breakfast for Finance Leaders and everybody is preparing for the dozens of scheduled educational sessions.

If that’s not enough, Monday also brings a pair of high profile speakers to Hall E – Gillian Tett, the Financial Times editor and author of Fool’s Gold, goes on at 10:30 a.m., to be followed at 1:30 p.m. by Warren Buffett biographer Alice Schroeder. And then there’s the opening of the 2009 Executive Institute. BlackRock COO Simon Mendelson is headlining today’s EI luncheon, where he’ll talk about the impact of government intervention efforts on cash markets, money market funds and short term investors.

Gillian Tett, Fools Gold

Alice Schroder, The Snowball

Monday’s a big day for AFP in San Francisco. Attendees of the 2009 Annual Conference are still filing through registration here inside the Moscone Center, the industry roundtables are underway, former Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Alan S. Blinder is about to lead the President’s Breakfast for Finance Leaders and everybody is preparing for the dozens of scheduled educational sessions.

If that’s not enough, Monday also brings a pair of high profile speakers to Hall E – Gillian Tett, the Financial Times editor and author of Fool’s Gold, goes on at 10:30 a.m., to be followed at 1:30 p.m. by Warren Buffett biographer Alice Schroeder. And then there’s the opening of the 2009 Executive Institute. BlackRock COO Simon Mendelson is headlining today’s EI luncheon, where he’ll talk about the impact of government intervention efforts on cash markets, money market funds and short term investors.

Gillian Tett, Fools Gold

Alice Schroder, The Snowball

The smaller the organization, the more intensive the investment is for treasury operations relative to revenue, according to the 2009 Association for Financial Professionals’ Treasury Benchmarking Survey.

AFP conducted its second annual benchmarking survey to let financial professionals compare the performance of their organization’s treasury operation to that of their peers and top performers. AFP, IBM and Deutsche Bank collaborated again on the 2009 AFP Benchmarking Survey, which expanded to include corporates based in Europe. This year’s participants included AFP members as well as subscribers to London-based gtnews, an AFP company and on-line resource for the treasury and finance community, doubling respondents to this year’s survey to more than 800 organizations.

Marilyn Spearing, Head of Trade Finance and Cash Management Corporates, Global Transaction Banking, Deutsche Bank, said, “Deutsche Bank is pleased to support the further expansion of this important peer group survey. We received very favorable responses from those U.S. corporates who participated in the initial survey that we looked to obtain this data on a cross-regional level. The theme of this year’s survey, ‘Optimal Delivery of Treasury Services,’ is particularly timely as treasurers in today’s market are seeking opportunities to compare the performance of organizations’ treasury operations against those of their peers.”

Other highlights from the 34-page public report, released Sunday at AFP’s 2009 Annual Conference in San Francisco:

Full-Time Treasury Equivalents. The smaller the organization, the more FTEs are required to conduct treasury operations relative to revenue. The financial services industry tends to employ higher FTE levels.

Treasury Cycle Times. With a few exceptions, size is not a significant predictor of cycle time, suggesting that size does indicate overall complexity when other factors are constant. Financial services tend to have lower average and benchmark cycle times than those of other industry groups.

Complete survey results are available here.

Ira Birns at Opening Ceremony

The Association for Financial Professionals’ 2009 Annual Conference is officially off and running. Inside downtown San Francisco’s Moscone Center, AFP Chairman Ira Birns and CEO Jim Kaitz just led the opening general session, a program headlined by a Q&A with financial writer Michael Lewis. Lewis offered his take on a tumultuous time in financial markets, the open and the opaque, even tracing the crisis back to the “intellectualization” of Wall Street in the 1980s. Interesting stuff. Check AFP’s home page tomorrow for more on the Lewis interview.

Birns in his opening statements billed AFP’s 2009 conference as a “powerhouse in essential information for treasury and finance professionals.” More than 4,000 are attending AFP’s conference this year, Birns noted, and more than 110 corporate treasury teams are represented, including those from Google, Chevron, FedEx and Yahoo. Immediately following the general session was the opening of the 2009 exhibit hall, which created a good rush between the two spots in the convention center. Keep updated on AFP’s 2009 Annual Conference at www.afponline.org.

Ira Burns, AFP Board of Directors at Opening Ceremony

Dear AFP Members:

As the certifying body for the Certified Treasury Professional (CTP) designation, this is certainly a year for celebration at AFP.

Our 2009 Compensation Survey found that CTP holders now earn up to 30 percent more than their non-certified colleagues do. So it is no wonder that now more than 20,000 have earned the CTP/CCM designation, located everywhere from North America to the Middle East, Japan and Australia. These people have demonstrated a mastery of broad treasury knowledge, and are spreading this expertise around the world.

And this year, for the first time, AFP is pleased to offer a Chinese-translated version of the CTP exam in China. The CTP exam was administered in Beijing and Shanghai. We have over a hundred new CTPs in China as a result.

As part of a pilot program, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the largest bank in the world, hired Kaplan Coinage to provide training that will culminate in taking the CTP exam. Right now, this Chinese-translated version of the exam is available only to ICBC employees, but there are plans to offer it to all candidates in China. Meanwhile, Kaplan Coinage will expand the program with ICBC with plans to work with the Bank of Communications and eventually take it to the remaining two of the Big Four banks in China.

This year we are also updating the Body of Knowledge for the profession, beginning with job analysis research. The resulting Essentials of Treasury Management, 3rd edition, will reflect the international perspective and the global nature of treasury and finance functions. It will be released exactly a year from now at the 2010 AFP Annual Conference in San Antonio. See you there!

Jim A. Kaitz
President and CEO

Copyright © 2009 | Association for Financial Professionals, Inc. | All rights reserved.

Gillian Tett of the Financial Times has written one of the best accounts of the financial crisis with her critically acclaimed book, “Fool’s Gold.” She will speak at AFP’s Annual Conference in October but for now you can listen to her on a new podcast.

Trained as a social anthropologist — she earned her PhD from Cambridge University — Tett observed the “tribe” of investment bankers at J.P. Morgan who popularized credit-derivative obligations in 1994 and perfected risk management of capital markets — or so they thought.

Speaking to AFP members, Tett relayed advice that Winston Churchill gave during the darkest hours of World War II: “Keep calm and carry on.”

To address the growing ties between U.S. corporate treasury and business operations in China, AFP is proud to present a China Symposium at its Annual Conference. This track will help corporate treasury better understand the business and finance climate in China, and let them network with peers already doing business in the PRC.

Here are the three China Symposium sessions:

 
Treasury Trends in Asia:
Fresh Paths to Treasury Efficiencies in the Region

• October 5, 1:30 pm – 3:00 pm.
  Debra A. Hinds, Patrick P. Villers, Peter T. Tan and Ali Agha will discuss cash management in Asia. Hear the improvements these corporate treasury managers made while setting trends in regional treasury management in Asia.

Treasury Essentials for Doing Business in China:
An Intensive Presentation and Discussion

• October 6, 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm.
  Marc Monyek, Peter Sun and Stephen Green will provide a comprehensive overview of the fundamental issues and best practices for treasurers conducting business in China. They will present an overview of the Chinese economy, focusing on growth dynamics, as well as outline cross-border and trade regulatory issues.

Treasury Essentials for Doing Business in China:
An Intensive Presentation and Discussion Part 2

• October 6, 3:15 pm – 4:15 pm.
  Monyek, Sun and Green will discuss the nuts and bolts of banking in China, touching on wholesale banking, transaction banking capabilities, trade, and supply chain finance.

Copyright © 2009 | Association for Financial Professionals, Inc. | All rights reserved.