F. Masquelier: “consolidating and federating the treasury community”

Last November, the Association des Trésoriers d’Entreprise à Luxembourg (ATEL) was rewarded with the Outstanding Contribution to Luxembourg Financial Place prize during the Luxembourg Finance Management Awards ceremony. Warren met with Chairman François Masquelier to discuss the association’s main missions, the promotion of Luxembourg abroad and treasury trends to come in the next years.

What’s the main mission of ATEL? What are the four pillars of your association?

ATEL has four major missions. The 4 pillars of the association are the Education of its members to prepare future treasurers and to help staffing treasury centers, the Training and information of its members through dedicated courses, workshops (soft and hard skills) or conferences, the Lobby (more at EU level as today all major decisions impacting finance and treasury are taken at the EU Commission level in Brussels) and eventually the Networking in order to facilitate and encourage exchanges between members and to share best treasury practices.

ATEL is rather active as it organizes roughly 18 events per year (i.e. workshops, training, courses, conferences, peer groups and roundtables).

One of ATEL’s middle run objectives would be to extend the association to include the attention of financial professionals. 

What is being done to promote the Luxembourg finance place on a global scale?

ATEL has created a sub-group of a few members named the LCTE (i.e. Luxembourg Corporate Treasury Expertise), which is in charge of promoting Luxembourg, helping new treasurers when they come to Luxembourg and to give support to corporates interested in centralizing treasury activities in Luxembourg. As a stakeholder, ATEL does its best to accompany new comers when they arrive in Luxembourg. ATEL also provides support and advice to foreign entities who wish to set up a treasury hub in Luxembourg, by responding to their queries and addressing all potential treasury and non-treasury issues (e.g. Where to locate the offices? How to staff the team? With which bank partners or IT vendors partnering should we work? etc).

Beside conferences, ATEL regularly publishes articles in its quarterly magazine to promote Luxembourg treasury expertise abroad and to demonstrate its capabilities in terms of corporate finance. It also overcomes and counteracts certain preconceptions or prejudices people may have about considering Luxembourg as a potential alternative for relocating its treasury activities.

ATEL works in close relation with Luxembourg for Finance and Luxembourg for Business in order to give the maximum free support to potential candidates. We believe that the existence of a good, well-known and active treasury association is also one of the key criteria a CFO would consider when he contemplates different relocation possibilities.

In other countries, none of the treasury associations are involved in these types of processes. ATEL intends to give its support, when possible and with its limited resources, to help attract new treasury centers in Luxembourg. A key part of its duty is to promote the country as a real financial alternative to the Netherlands, Switzerland, Ireland or Belgium.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the jury members who supported our application to the Outstanding Contribution to Luxembourg Financial Place Awards and who recognizes the association’s hard work. 

Can you tell us more about your 2015 strategy?

ATEL’s strategy remains consistent and stable: we try to attract new members and new contacts in Luxembourg and in the Euregions (three neighbor’s countries). We always try to consolidate the treasury community and to federate it. Having a solid group of large companies represented in our association gives us more power to try to influence decisions, to lobby locally or internationally and to defend the treasury profession. With new financial regulations, we have realized the absolute necessity to strongly lobby to defend our interests and the profession against potential impacts (e.g. lobby against some provisions of EMIR, lobby to flex some provisions of Basel III CRD IV, express our views on the mega project of Commissioner J. Hill on Capital Market Union, etc…).

In 2015, ATEL launched a lot of initiatives in order to fulfil its 4 main core missions and to “sell” abroad Luxembourg as an excellent location for treasury centers. It also participated in the cluster on Central Treasury launched by the “Haut Comité de la Place de Luxembourg” and the Minister of Finance, Pierre Gramegna.

What’s going to change in 2016?

Nothing! We will keep lobbying intensively as ATEL or at EU level as member of the EACT (European Association of Corporate Treasurers). The regulation tsunami is unfortunately not yet over and the wave is still moving fast. If we want to make sure our members will not be hit by some of the Directives, rules or provisions, we need to organize a strong lobby in Brussels. We work closely with the EACT lobbyist to defend our interests and to protect the treasury function and avoid as much as possible financial (direct or indirect) impacts on corporates.

One of our key objectives would be to reach a total of 325 members. We have reached the 315 mark in 2015 and have ambitious targets for next year…

How do you see finance transforming in the years to come?

The finance function will keep being more and more complex in the years to come. It will require more skills (soft and hard) and strong knowledge in many areas. The treasurers, as risk managers are generalists with lots of specific and high level skills. IT will play a more prominent role in the future. Finance will be highly dependent on technology. The IT solutions will be in the cloud. The cyber risk will be a key one.

What does ATEL need to do in order to stay on top of trending finance topics?

ATEL needs to constantly follow the news, the trends and the technological evolution in treasury. The FinTechs are revolutionizing the way we work with bank partners for example. We need to be on top of all these new solutions and to talk to all stakeholders of the finance community, here and abroad.

In my role as Chairman of ATEL I always try to follow everything happening in the treasury sphere and to keep up with trends. Being myself an acting treasurer, it is easy to be on top of all these new trends and new solutions. We need to read a lot, to listen a lot, to test and to get access to information. It is also important to feel market tendencies, expectations and wishes to make sure we satisfy our members. We have set up a Luxembourg Treasury Peer Group (LTPG) with the 30 largest treasury centers based in Luxembourg and it is a great forum to share ideas and to stay on top of priorities and new (IT) solutions. Fortunately Luxembourg, despite being small, remains extremely active and all actors talk to each other as well as all associations. It helps with being aware of the next big issues and hot topics in finance.

What will be the main challenge to cope with for treasurers in 2016?

In 2016, there are many challenges. In my view, one of the most important challenges is the cruel dilemma of how to improve efficiency and performances while maintaining the size of the team constantly. How to enhance productivity with limited resources and with more regulations, more demands for reporting and eventually tougher economic situation. We have to navigate at sight in a very complex economic environment with an extremely high volatility on the markets. Our industries are operating a huge and significant transformation. A digital revolution is on its way. Treasurers won’t be excluded from this digital revolution.

The challenge in such a tough environment remains to be calm, to keep things under control and to reinforce organization to mitigate risks. New risks are emerging (e.g. cyber risks, frauds, regulatory risks, counterparty risks, compliance risks, etc). It is vital to be prepared and ready to face them. It is one of our duties to prepare our members and to give them the means to protect their operations and their finances. The challenge will be to manage and to face our many obstacles together.

Moreover, the risk of burn-out is around the corner for unorganized teams.

What are the next events organized by ATEL?

ATEL will organize its annual General Assembly end of January and then its first conference will be organized in the premises of the bank Degroof-Petercam in Cloche d’Or on 15th of February 2016. The topic we will address is the 2016 economic outlook by their Chief Economist, Bruno Colmant.

There are also a long list of workshops and conferences which will run until the summer break. After the holidays, in the second half of September 2016, ATEL will organize its annual conference to celebrate its 22ndanniversary.

We plan a total of 16 to 18 events in different formats across this next year.

How do you manage with your career at RTL Group alongside your duties at ATEL and probably other initiatives? 

After 20 years of experience in treasury and Enterprise Risk Management fortunately I have acquired, at RTL and even before, a good experience and expertise in treasury. It helps me in facing the difficult environment all treasurers are confronted to.

ATEL takes a lot of my time and energy. However, my position brings me lots of returns in terms of experience, expertise in some specific areas, skills in organization and high level contact. It forces me to consistently stay updated and be at the forefront of treasury matters. I am obliged to constantly review my knowledge. These challenges are also part of my motivation. I have to confess that I love treasury and cannot imagine another job. It’s also true that I spend part of my spare time writing articles and books in finance, risk management and treasury. Being in charge of our quarterly magazine is really an exciting job. My curiosity always pushes me to discover new treasury horizons and to contemplate new fields and projects. I do not feel as stressed or under pressure as I have the privilege of being in love with my job. If treasury is my jail, it is ring fenced with golden bars…