Reflections on Copenhagen: Treasury Learnings from SAF and CAT

The Slovak Association of Finance and Treasury and the Czech Treasury Association jointly held a discussion webinar with the goal of sharing experiences of the EuroFinance treasury conference in Copenhagen on October 24, 2024.

Members of both associations joined the online meeting, mostly with experience from various years of the Eurofinance International Treasury Management conferences. The last one was in Copenhagen on October 2-4, 2024 and was attended by 7 representatives from the Czech Republic and 11 representatives from Slovakia.

The event was excellently moderated by Anton Ondrej, President of the Association of Finance and Treasury, who at the beginning and throughout the event live guided the audience through experiences from recent years of EF conferences and practical insights into the topics discussed, and was helped by Petr Jablonský, member of the Presidium of the Czech Treasury Association, who helped keep the quality high or the event.

The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the contribution of the conference to the work of a treasurer in general, the specific contribution in terms of the level of the presenters' performances, the benefits of the workshops and the benefits of contacts with exhibitors and conference participants. At the end of the meeting, the participants asked questions.

The general level of the conferences - Vienna 2022, Barcelona 2023 and Copenhagen 2024 was rated very high. The Country CFO from OPmobility appreciated the contribution of linking geopolitical issues to business. In Copenhagen, this was achieved with the speech of the former Prime Minister of Denmark, Ms. Helle Thorming-Schmidt. He also appreciated the contribution of more speeches on the topic of the complexity of cash flow forecasting - which is a topic that interests treasurers from our countries perhaps the most of all.

The Head of Treasury from Alza appreciated the contribution of parallel workshops, which focused on individual areas of treasury management from technology to risk management and allowed participants to participate in presentations and discussions according to their area of individual interest and contribution.

Petr Jablonský was interested in successful cash flow forecast projects using AI. Although this topic was presented in many halls, we have to wait for more comprehensive conclusions. Companies are still in testing mode. The benefit is expected especially in cases of highly numerous (in the millions) customer accounts, where AI in 24/7 mode can bring refinement of previous rough estimates.

The benefit of contact with exhibitors was especially appreciated by the treasurer from T-Mobile / Slovak Telekom and another former treasurer from this company. Both had experience with a very friendly approach from exhibitors. She appreciated the initiative when they agreed to meet with her before the start of the event.

Petr Jablonský raised the topic of experiences with the use of cryptocurrencies and instant payments. Cryptocurrencies were already discussed and presented in Vienna, where they were presented mainly by representatives of fashion brands whose customers demand them. Instant payments using blockchain technology and conversion via cyber currency were also presented.

The conclusion of the discussion was dedicated to instant payments in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and around the world. It was stated that they are in demand especially to the east of our countries. The group treasurer from the Swiss company Swixx Biopharma AG also added her experience to instant payments, confirming that these payments are commonly used for domestic payments, but international instant payments are still awaited.

You can also take a closer look at the treasury topics from the EF conference - with the help of the EuroFinance website, you will find in the sub-streams ideas on how companies solve team composition with the help of AI when there are no people on the market, how to deal with the current high rates with a lack of cheap liquidity, what's new with stablecoins and blockchain, a look at current treasury in individual continents of the world, how to deal with different API protocols on various platforms, and also a big challenge for next year, when Covid loans worth 5 trillion dollars will be refinanced (which happens at much higher rates than when companies took out loans).

At the very end, moderator Anton Ondrej, for both organising associations SAF and ?AT, summarised what we discussed during the webinar, drew attention to SAF's upcoming activities in the field of treasurer education, and reminded participants of the connection between the participation of representatives of both associations at the EuroFinance conference and the participation of both associations in EACT, the European Association of Corporate Treasurers, which helped us establish cooperation with the conference organiser years ago. Since in the past EF cooperated with EACT and with the National Associations (NTAs) on a much wider basis, which allowed for a much wider participation of treasurers from such small associations as ours, we would appreciate the renewal of such cooperation for the next period as well. It is about making conferences with such an important professional focus in the field of financing companies available to small and medium-sized companies of the national level, not only to large international companies.

Hopefully, we have directed new interested members to this professional conference for next year, when the event will be held in nearby Budapest.