Dear Members,
The March Technical Committee meeting was held a week before the Brisbane Essential Treasurer and enabled the committee to have a last review of the agenda for the event. More on this event below.
We discussed a number of current issues, such as the potential impacts from ASIC’s stated stance of “Why not litigate” and the apparent effect of the Financial Services Royal Commission on retail lending. While the requirement for all entities who have trades reported to ASIC to have a Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) was briefly discussed there was a spirited discussion around the need for many companies to estimate an incremental borrowing rate for implementation of the new Leasing Standard (AASB16). Members felt there needs to be more guidance on this aspect of the Standard and agreed to discuss this more fully. We also discussed the recent cyber-attacks and vulnerabilities. On technology, we also noted the increasing importance of automation and AI in treasury management systems.
This has been a busy period for events: we noted the successful International Women’s Day events in Melbourne and Sydney (and we understand there will be a Women in treasury event for Adelaide soon), and our recent Webinar on derivative valuations was very well attended and received (assuming you attend a Webinar?). There is a long list of Webinars, presentations and seminars on the way so make sure you keep up with this newsletter for details of the new events. As a committee, we want to ensure we provide regular professional development covering areas which matter to you.
As we’ve now completed the Essential Treasurer series, I wanted to take some time out to congratulate everyone involved in organising the series. To EY for hosting us in some great locations (despite the 24 flight descent of the fire stairs in Melbourne!), to the State Committees for ensuring a good crowd at each location and our presenters for their insights. For those who attended, I’m sure you’ll agree there was a lot of great information on the economy, opportunities to use technology for process improvements, IBOR fallbacks, the Leasing standard and capital funding markets and processes. Each session contained some great information and we got a good overview of the incremental borrowing rate issue noted at the start of my update and how to deal with the estimation problem.
In closing, I would say the Essential Treasurer series was a great opportunity for Treasurers in Brisbane, Sydney, Perth, and Melbourne to get together and hear updates from experts across a wide variety of issues. I certainly enjoyed meeting many members to hear about the big issues we can explore at the Technical Committee.
If you missed it this year, make sure you come along next year: it will be worth it.
Until next month.
Lindesay Brine
Technical Committee Chair
