ATEL: 30 years of treasury development

PRESS RELEASE

The Luxembourg association has evolved in parallel with the speed of change in the function.

ATEL (*) is celebrating its 30th anniversary in October 2024 and, like corporate treasury, it has evolved considerably. The treasury function has evolved considerably for several reasons: (1) financial crises have given rise to (2) numerous new and restrictive financial regulations, in parallel (3) with technological and IT developments, (4) in a context of globalization and standardization, such as EUR or ISO standards. Regulatory, legal, technological and tax aspects, as well as economic crises, have all contributed in their own way to the phenomenal development of corporate treasury. The need for efficiency and rationalization, combined with the reasons mentioned above, have forced treasurers to rethink their function, which is the one that has evolved the most within the finance function.

Never has a function evolved so strongly and so quickly. Paradoxically, technology has evolved faster than the function itself. It has anticipated needs and will enable the function to evolve even further in the coming decades. Along with the metaverse, AI is undoubtedly the next technology to revolutionize the function. We have gone from a world of treasury departments using XL to a world of hyper-automation, for the most advanced treasury departments. We have gone from a decentralized, fragmented and relatively inefficient world to a centralized world, with in-house banks, follow-the-sun multi-currency cross-border cash-pooling, and an ever-wider range of activities (e.g. procurement, financial supply chain, pension fund, reinsurance, e-payments, etc.).

We have gone from basic treasury management systems (installed on site) on AS400, for example, in two colors (orange on a black background without any chart) to software accessible 'in-the-cloud', which is easier to implement and generic. While it's true that our profession has evolved, we must accept what comes with it: e.g. new financial regulations, new accounting standards, new technologies, etc... Today, we have "co-pilots" or virtual assistants in the treasury, who enable us to be more efficient, more effective and more focused on higher added-value tasks. We even dream (I am joking) of a day when we will ask drinking our coffee at the office: ??Joule, Alexia, Co-pilot or what so-ever, please execute the daily cash management tasks and produce my daily reports, please!”. It is not for tomorrow, but it is coming soon. One day, as in “Minority report”, a treasury will move funds by moving hands on screen to sweep accounts and produce reports. Treasury fiction? I don’t think so. The timing is unknown, but the outcome is clearly known.

These changes have forced treasurers to evolve, to learn and to become more efficient and effective, at lower cost. But it's safe to assume that treasury will continue to evolve at breakneck speed over the coming decades. The challenge will be to be able to adapt constantly. Intellectual agility and broader, more diversified skills will be the challenges of the next 10 years. It is up to treasurers to adapt to these changes and challenges.

Fran?ois Masquelier, Chair of ATEL – Luxembourg – October 2024

(*) www.atel.lu

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About ATEL?:

ATEL (Luxembourg Association of Corporate Treasurers) was created on December 19th, 1994 thanks to the ambition of twelve corporate treasurers - the founder members of ATEL.

Already in its first year, ATEL won no less than 83 members and by the end of the year 2001, its membership will have increased to more than 160 and now?reached nearly 330. Approximately two thirds of its members have the status of "active members", that is, members exercising the function of treasurer within a company or an activity directly related to the treasury function. The other members have the status of "correspondent members" and are essentially bankers but also students or auditors.

Above the Board of Directors consisting of eleven members is a "Committee of Wise Men" that takes care of the preservation of the guidelines having led to the creation of the association.

Within a very short time the association was favourably received by the local financial circles. The "EURO" Round Table organised by the Ministry of Finance in 1997 had invited ATEL as the only financial association to participate in the various meetings that were organised in order to prepare the passage to the single currency.

During the years since its creation, more than 35 "Newsletters" have been published and several conferences, breakfast and dinner debates dealing with topical subjects of corporate finance have been organised.

The endeavour to open up to the outside world has materialised by the establishment of contacts and by the organisation of meetings between ATEL and peer associations, both at the European and the international level.

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