the 6th annual conference on managing international growth · world of start-ups. every treasurer...

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The 6th annual conference on

Managing International GrowthMarch 18-19, 2O2O | InterContinental San Francisco

Bringing together treasury leaders from the world’s top MNCs and fast growth companies

Early bird discountBook by Friday February 7 and save up to $8OO

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Managing International GrowthJoin to hear thought provoking big picture plenaries, fireside chats and case studies from the best in class treasury teams across various industries.

The US West Coast is nursery to dozens of fast-growth start-ups and innovators in tech, pharma, healthcare and finance. The treasurers of these firms face unusual and complex challenges as they balance boosting the business with the daily chores of managing cash, funding and risk. From smaller start-ups to household names, these companies and their finance functions need to use the latest techniques and technologies to keep that growth going and jump the hurdles that could slow them down. But it is not just the dazzling world of start-ups. Every treasurer of every company with international growth plans faces a myriad of obstacles and opportunities across the treasury agenda from financing expansion to ensuring adequate working capital to getting the day to day cash management operations efficient and ensuring risks are mitigated. EuroFinance’s March 2O2O San Francisco event delivers the peer presentations, case studies and technical breakouts that fast-growth companies need to keep on track.

This event offers big picture sessions around the global economy and its challenges for companies; the latest tech developments offering real opportunities to solve finance function pain points; regulation and other current trends. Afternoon sessions are divided into in-depth sessions split between two streams.

Why attend?

• Hear direct from treasurers who have successfully entered new markets

• Discover the latest technologies that can support your global strategy

• Examine risk strategies that work in complex markets

• Learn how to avoid the common pitfalls of international regulatory and tax changes

• Understand how to effectively manage international liquidity

• Network with an unrivaled senior audience of 2OO+ delegates

• Benchmark your operations with treasurers from all industries

Who should attend?

• Corporate treasurers, CFOs and finance directors who need to know, the latest trends in international treasury and risk management

• Financial institutions, technology and system providers who want to meet with treasury decision makers and better understand the challenges they face

2Managing International Growth: Facing the Future

Corporate seniority

3Managing International Growth: Facing the Future

Corporate companies that attended last year’s conference included:

• AA.T Kearney• Adobe• Aerojet • Rocketdyne• Agilent Technologies• Airbnb• Align

Technologies• Alphabet• Amazon• Aon• Applied Materials• Atlassian• BioMarin

Pharmaceutical

• Bechtel• Box• Broadcom• CDK Global• Cisco• Deliveroo• Disney• Driscoll’s• Dropbox• eBay• Equinix• Eventbrite• Expedia• Fitbit• Five Guys • Enterprises

• Fluor Corporation• Flex• Gensler• Google• Hitachi Data

Systems• HP• Hyundai• ICD• Infobox• Informatica• Ingram Micro• Intel• Intuit• Juniper Networks• KLA

• Lam Research• Levi’s• Lime• Logitech• Maxim Integrated• Microsoft• Nvidia• Oracle• PACCAR• Pattern Energy• Postmates• Prologis• Pure Storage• Ring Central• Rio Tinto• Sage

• Salesforce• Sanmina• ServiceNow• Shopify• Square• Starbucks• Stripe• Synopsys• Tesla• Uber• Veritas Technologies

• Varian Medical Systems• Volvo• Warner Bros.• Western Digital• Wilbur-Ellis• Workday• Zendesk

62% 83%

49% 77%

Corporate attendance

of corporates discovered new vendors and/or treasury solutions

of which were senior corporates( Group Treasurer / VP Treasurer / Head of Treasury / CFO level )

of corporates said this is the best treasury event they attend

What’s driving or not driving the global economy and what matters for companies now

Economies have stopped working the way we expect. The link between employment and inflation seems broken. A quarter of all investment-grade bonds now have negative yields. Central bank balance sheets bulge with the bonds they have bought. The role of those banks and their governments in fiscal and monetary policy is blurring. The rules of business are in flux too. Political turmoil matters more than the normal rules of the market. The continued move towards global supply chains and the digital reinvention of sectors as far apart as taxis, pizzas and healthcare collides with nostalgic populism and its desire to reassert nation states and their boundaries. New generations of consumers demand sustainability from markets, driving leaders to seek profits with purpose. And all the while, more than a decade after the financial crisis, debt levels continue to rise, and a private equity bubble looks set to burst, if it hasn’t already. So why is the new thinking that emerged after previous crises missing this time round? Is the Chinese model showing the deficiencies in the neoliberal consensus and will populism overturn it? And what can companies do to ensure that they avoid extinction in what seems awfully like the transition to a new era?

It’s tough out there and companies may have to change

US companies have gotten used to an easy ride from their domestic tax, employment, data protection and anti-trust regimes. But when they try to export their business practices elsewhere, it’s a different story. In Europe and Asia, investors, and more significantly governments, are looking much harder about how tax and regulatory arbitrage, monopoly practices and unfair employment strategies, rather than genuine innovation, lie behind outsize profits at some firms. In Europe the low to non-existent taxation paid by key digital platforms is a target. Some companies misuse of private customer data to generate ad revenues has been punished with large fines. Others have been hit with a billion dollars of fines for misuse of data and selling product below cost. And online content providers are under scrutiny for how they manage, promote and monetize that content. In Asia, chasing Chinese business comes at the cost of censorship, nixed M&A deals and blacklisting threats. How can fast-growth US innovators avoid the regulatory backlash? Learn from the firms who have experienced it.

Plenary sessions

Plenary sessions Monday March 18, 2O19

4Managing International Growth | San Francisco 2O2O

Teasing out the trends that impact the business

It’s a big picture world right now. Mega trends in politics, economics, trade, technology, regulation and the environment matter more than the details. Has the tech bubble burst? What does the US-China trade war mean for business? Is Europe falling to pieces? What does business look like after the next round of digitalisation, after automation and AI get to grips with Big Data? Will a quarter of all investment grade bonds stay at negative yields? Listen to our expert snapshots and join in their discussion with a treasurer about what each of these trends mean.

Are the China days over?

The escalating tariff fight between the U.S. and China creates problems for manufacturers there. These firms need to look at moving production to unaffected countries in Asia, such as Vietnam and Thailand, or even to Mexico. But which countries are most attractive from the point of view of wages, taxation and proximity to high-tech supply chains? And what about Taiwan?

GDPR plus CCPA ...equals what?

Surveillance capitalism has a problem. Customers have woken up to the fact that they are giving away billions of dollars of value for free and regulators have noticed that firms from search engines to loyalty card schemes are not very good at explaining what they are doing with data, nor at keeping

it safe and private once they have. So what does giving people the right to see their data do to the businesses that monetize it and how much of a risk are companies really facing?

Which bubble is bursting what?

It’s not just WeWork. A host of IPOs have disappointed. But are investors tired of tech? Or are they tired of things masquerading as tech, or whose tech is no barrier to entry? And which investors? Venture capital flows into fintechs and cybersecurity start-ups are still strong. Private equity is still buying big tech firms. So are public markets rejecting private valuations across the board, or is it more complicated? These firms and investors give us their view.

What’s wrong with interest rates?

In Denmark, some financial institutions are offering borrowers “negative” mortgages that pay interest. The global pile of negative yielding debt has swelled above $12.5 trillion. And in the US, the yield on 1O-year Treasuries is close to being negative in real terms with growth at 3.1 per cent in the first quarter and the US economy grew by an annualized 2 per cent in the second quarter. The US Federal Reserve is adding both permanent and temporary liquidity to financial markets to counter structural issues in the repo markets and is signalling smaller rate rises going forward. So are low rates permanent? What could cause shocks on the upside? Negative rates is also a bank relationship and counterparty risk issue.

The big debate: will regulation kill innovation?

It may not be treasury but the whole idea of technology and what it can do has always fascinated. And, the lesson that technology has and always will disrupt relates to any industry or profession. From developments in flight, urbanization, computers and energy, the effects have always been economic and social – and so political. But the difference today is that the effects of the latest developments are beginning to be seen not as progress - not lifting people from poverty and bondage - but as regressive and reversing previous gains. Technology that takes jobs without replacing them; algorithms that hack humans into harmful but profitable behaviours; companies that undermine the political system that gave limited liability corporations the right to exist. Like Big Tobacco and Big Oil, the tech firms themselves understand that what they provide needs to be regulated. But how much, by whom and what basis? And how much will regulation kill innovation?

Going for Green: sustainability impacts us all, can treasury contribute and help the bottom line?

Environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) is becoming a critical part of corporate reputation, driving not just customer retention and loyalty but also investor and other stakeholder behaviour. So how can treasury contribute to companies’ overall ESG efforts? One easy step is to ensure that any service provider to treasury – including banks - is itself a responsible and sustainable partner. This idea can be extended to the supply chain via innovative green SCF solutions that tie discount rates or other financial incentives to suppliers’ own demonstrated sustainability. Another is to look at moving to the increasing number of sustainable financing products in the bond, bank and leasing markets. Banks can even help companies meet their sustainability commitments through structuring their working capital requirements to help fund renewable energy projects in ways that are more economical than other funding options. In this session we bring you three socially responsible companies who not only tell you their treasury growth stories but also explain how treasury has gone green.

Peter Filipovic, VP, Treasurer, Starbucks Coffee Company

Plenary sessions

Plenary sessions Monday March 18, 2O19


Plenary sessions

Plenary sessions Tuesday March 19, 2O19

So what now for cryptocurrencies?

How well cryptocurrencies are doing depends partly on your politics. The news that some workers in tech are choosing to be paid in bitcoin was viewed by some as an endorsement of digital currencies and by others as a regression to the kind of payment-in-company-tokens that created forms of corporate bondage in the not-too-distant-past. More prosaically, cryptocurrencies have not yet been able to demonstrate that they are currencies, rather than assets, and that they can become institutionalized as money. But the biggest news in crypto is the deterioration of the Libra project in the face of opposition from governments and regulators and the resulting departure of partners such as MasterCard, Visa, PayPal and eBay. Central Banks saw Libra, which worked on a permissioned blockchain, as potentially a systemically important payment system, rather than as a currency, and so demanded the same resilience they would expect from channels like SWIFT. So are central banks the real future of digital currencies? If the People’s Bank of China does roll out DCEP, as has been announced, then maybe.

My career path: a fireside chat about treasury

Not every path into corporate treasury is obvious and in today’s companies it may even help to have an unconventional treasury background. As treasury is transformed by technology, data, cybersecurity and systems skills can trump traditional expertise. As automation, outsourcing and shared service centres moves basic processes out of treasury, the need for strategic and communications skills to partner the business increases. And as regulation becomes an ever more significant driver of business location, structure and activity, treasury’s role in compliance and investor relations becomes more significant. So how did this treasurer at one of the world’s leading businesses start out? How did they end up where they are now? And just how deliberate was that? And finally, where next?

KAL’s closing

KAL, the Economist’s resident cartoonist, has published over 8OOO cartoons, many of them gracing the cover of the Economist year after year as well as appearing in well-known news organisations globally. He has drawn every major political figure in the last few decades and won awards around the world for his editorial and satirical coverage of political events. He is passionate about his work and the use of humour as an important tool in the defense of freedom of speech. He will take us on a current events trip using his art and show us that everyone has a cartoonist lurking in him or her. He will close out the event with a short drawing lesson where you will be able to draw and take home a ‘realistic’ caricature of a major political figure!

Kevin Kallaugher, Editorial Cartoonist, The Economist

Adjourn to network reception and book signing


It’s all about the tech: out with the old, in with the new

The benefits of technology are well touted: doing more with less; freeing up time for value-added activities; cost savings and efficiency gains; better business intelligence from new generation Big Data analytics. But these gains come with a warning: high IT staff turnover makes in-house builds a nightmare; but buying third-party solutions is also a leap of faith, with implementation and enterprise scalability critical. Legacy issues are always more difficult to overcome than expected and APIs are not magic: they can’t link the unlinkable and they can’t circumvent regulations. They also come with their own cyber risks, as does the whole of digital transformation. So, what are the key areas and technologies on which treasurers should focus? And how can they minimize the pain and complexity of technology change?

Each session in this steam will feature an expert speak to summarise the scene and help you keep up to date with development within each of these technologies. We then prevent live, robust case studies from companies that have implemented solutions. Finally we offer you a beauty parade of tech providers and their solutions to give you a snapshot of real tech solutions to common operational pain points.

Payments: keeping up with the changes

Part 1: It’s a revolution not evolution

The payments ecosystem is developing so rapidly it is hard to keep up. The ease with which developers can access payment APIs, bank and other transaction data means that the number of platforms, apps and channels is multiplying almost daily. With these come better visibility, improved credit control, real-time and instant payments, but also cybersecurity and data privacy risks. They are also starting to upset the balance of power in the system of interchange, the fees that underpin much of the payment system. Cash wallets freeze out the credit card intermediaries and reduce bank income; new Big Tech payment players can afford to assume transaction credit risk and lower fees to merchants. They in turn are migrating customers to alternative payment platforms like Amazon Pay, Klarna and Zibby. As other large companies offer their own wallets [think Walmart Pay], the game will change again. So what is the big picture? What do all these various initiatives mean for corporate treasury? And is all this good or bad for the banks? This speaker sets the scene.

Part 2: Companies embracing the changing payments environment: case studies

Leveraging APIs: APIs give corporate treasurers an alternative to traditional online channels at their banks, SWIFT or host-to-host connectivity. This treasury achieved better integration, straight-through processing and a near real-time payments

and reconciliation service from their core banks with less investment in technology and a better interface.

Just-in-time treasury: Big corporates initial reaction to instant payments was that they pulled the rug from their delayed payment cash management strategies. That’s changing. Instant payments (and the corollary, instant collections) will have a transformational impact on treasury, especially as the value limits on instant payment initiatives increase. Just-in-time payments enhance working capital, allow more precise funding, and reduce costs, especially in credit control. Real-time payments also boost new business: instant digital payment eliminates supplier credit risk, so firms can broaden their supply chain. And they enable new digital business models and a wider customer base, again, by eliminating credit risk. This treasurer is a convert.

Migrating to alternative payments: For fast-growth companies payments pain points are a real problem. High processing costs, payment delays, manual AP processing, fraud risk, limited transaction visibility, mismatches between supplier payment methods and company systems, and problems in remittance data processing all cause real financial friction. Alternative payment providers can solve many of these issues as their barriers to market entry have been eroded by advances in technology and business models. This treasurer explains how.

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Part 3: The payments tech parade: five minutes to make a difference

The range of payment platforms and channels is now confusing enough to be a problem for corporate treasurers. Faced with too many choices to evaluate through POC, and with the additional complexity of bank-fintech collaboration, treasurers need straight talking from the sell-side. Here three vendors give their side of the story.

Cash forecasting: finally some solutions

Part 1: The challenge of cognitive cash

Cashflow forecasting is still a manual, spreadsheet-based process involving too many people, resulting in monthly or quarterly forecasts for, often, only the current quarter or even the year. The granularity of inputs is insufficient and manual interventions obscure the data patterns that could have been useful. AI-systems use combinations of machine learning and true AI on data at an invoice, employee and vendor payment level to learn the historical patterns that form the baseline truth of the cash position. Machine learning systems then automatically reconfigure forecast models by comparing forecast versus actual cash positions to improve accuracy with time.

Part 2: How treasurers see the future

A new enterprise-wide ERP system was an opportunity to look again at forecasting. Having decided on a bottom-up process and a two-month rolling forecast, this company

looked at what technology, including AI and ML, could deliver what they needed. This is how the project unfolded.

Excel and an inflexible, legacy ERP system push-button visibility and a cutting-edge cash planning and business intelligence tool. Broken down into 25 ‘micro-challenges’ the project took a year but now delivers better entity level forecasts and has even affected dividend distributions. This is how the team did it.

This firm wanted a dynamic dashboard to gather treasury-critical information into a single window and realised that new technologies could clean their data and upgrade their analysis techniques to improve the accuracy of their forecasts and reconciliations. The treasurer explains how they chose technologies and vendors and what the project delivered.

Part 3: The tech parade: what the vendors say

Whatever the problem, more data and some AI to crunch it is the answer. That’s the way it seems from trade surveillance, to cybersecurity to cashflow forecasting. But is it true? Surely AI systems need far more data to learn from than most companies have in their accounting systems? That’s why it’s Big Tech that dominates AI research. And isn’t AI just the latest fintech bandwagon for coders seeking VC backers? These companies say no. So, are the impressive claims they make for their products borne out by results? Is AI the answer to the

cashflow forecasting problem or could treasury get by with just a more rigorous version of the existing process? These three vendors give their side of the story.

Session 3: FX trading

Part 1: Non-stop change in foreign exchange

FX markets continue to change. New regulated trading venues, further multiplication of platforms and rapid means that FX liquidity and execution now vary widely depending on location and instrument (spot, forward, NDF, swap, option). For corporate treasurers, a once simple marketplace has become a tangle of choices. Banks are doing their best to provide liquidity and a single point of access to both regulated and off-venue liquidity pools, as well as a choice of execution algos depending on market and the purpose of the trade. But how can treasurers know that they are getting the best price and service? Where do they get transaction cost analysis tools and quality market data? Do they need to re-examine counterparty relationships and selection criteria – in this new marketplace is it better to use more or fewer counterparties? And how can technology help treasurers with transparency and efficiency in accessing FX liquidity?

Part 2: Three treasurers’ take on trading tech

Algorithmic trading: Algos are becoming an indispensable tool for corporate treasurers as they seek new and efficient ways to

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manage their foreign exchange exposures. This treasurer’s experiences show that the range and accessibility of algos is now so extensive that companies of almost any size can benefit in a wide variety of trade situations.

Too much choice: The explosion in FX channels and venues creates a problem for corporate treasurers. Can they assume that their relationship banks are still the best place to go for FX or do they need to go direct the various regulated and unregulated liquidity pools available and which differ region by region? This treasurer’s bank teamed up with an e-FX platform to give them the best of all worlds.

AI/ML: While artificial intelligence and machine learning have been used by buy-side firms whose business is earning returns from trading FX, the use of these technologies to help corporate treasurers is less well-developed. However, there are practical applications in both modelling successful FX execution strategies and in hedging. This treasurer’s core FX service provider uses AI in its offering. Here are the pros and cons.

Part 3: The tech parade: five minutes to make a difference

As with most things tech, the problems for potential users boil down to two questions: how do I evaluate so large and complex an ecosystem of providers and narrow down to the handful to take to the POC stage? And how do I run that POC to determine whether

a solution will practically align with my existing systems, staff and business objectives? In this beauty parade, three vendors explain how their solutions improve FX pricing and transparency while integrating into existing TMS and ERP systems.

Session 4: Blockchain for supply chain and trade finance

Part 1: Ready, finally, for the real world?

As the hype around distributed ledger technology dies down, the work to create practical solutions goes on. But even in trade finance and the supply chain where blockchain technology looks to have most promise as far as financial markets are concerned progress has been slow. Yes, there have been significant POC and pilot transactions, but a lack of standardisation, the banks’ reluctance to work together and continuing regulatory issues around key building blocks such as (in the US) smart contracts have made progress slow. To confuse treasurers further, there are at least 2O different overlapping consortia of banks and fintechs offering blockchain solutions in supply chain and trade finance, but offering different products in different regions and focusing on different parts of the transaction.

Part 2 Case Studies: Beyond the proof of concept

Bank payment undertakings: BPUs are the online equivalent of a letter of credit in which the buyer’s bank providing the seller with an

irrevocable undertaking to pay the invoice at maturity date and against which the seller can request financing from its own bank providing early payment by discounting the BPU. Blockchain transactions including BPUs have now been executed in the wild. This company explains the process and the benefits.

Smart contracts in the US: A smart contract is simply computer code that can automatically monitor, execute and enforce a legal agreement. But in the US, and other legal jurisdictions, the question is whether smart contracts deployed on a distributed ledger can meet the elements required of a legally enforceable agreement. That question may have been answered affirmatively for some elements, but others remain a problem. For example, blockchain technology impedes retroactive alteration and so smart contracts are unmodifiable and final. What happens if an action performed under the underlying contract needs to be declared void?

Working with platforms: So how does a blockchain trade finance transaction actually work from the treasurer’s point of view. How do you ensure standardization of data formats and security protocols? What about interfacing with legacy treasury systems? And does everyone in the entire transaction chain have to be on the same platform? This treasurer explains the pros and cons as they see them.

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Part 3: Blockchain Beauty Parade

With so many providers, so many slightly different takes on the same underlying problems, should treasurers wait? Should they (can they?) sign up with multiple platforms? And can any of the banks and fintechs involved demonstrate real improvements in efficiency or cost? These three providers explain.

Session 5: Robotics: automatics in the treasury

Part 1: A not so bumpy road to robotic process automation

Turning repetitive, manual treasury tasks into software is the natural extension of treasurers’ longstanding drive for STP. Like STP it depends partly on how quickly and easily existing technology infrastructure can be connected and integrated with third-party software and services and partly on the elimination of internal inefficiencies. Internally, areas such as FX, AP, AR, credit control and physical and financial supply chains all still contain manual and semi-manual processes and spreadsheets. Externally, it is not just the explosion of new technology partners that is causing integration issues; banks still do not have common interfaces and template requirements, even across their own branches globally. TMS providers do not provide standardised interfaces and treasurers often find themselves building them from scratch. So, does robotic process automation solve any of these issues, or

does it need to wait until the underlying problems are tackled? And how big does a treasury have to be to have the scale to make RPA cost effective?

Part 2: Automatic means automatic

Treasurers asked to break down core processes into programmable chunks may worry that they are analysing themselves out of a job. Some may believe that automation and AI will release them to become more valuable deliverers of strategic insights to the business. Systems will perform many of the functions previously the preserve of treasury, but treasury will become a centre of expertise in tailoring treasury strategy to support the business’ chosen trajectory. Others see treasurers morphing into guardians of these new automated systems (attended RPA), acting on automated outputs but taking final decisions themselves while also shouldering more responsibility for increasingly complex regulation and compliance. This treasurer is in the midst of a large-scale automation project: this is how they are progressing and how they see their future.

Priti Kartik, Head of Treasury, Credit & Collections, Logitech

Part 3: Robots on parade

RPA spans the whole range of treasury sexiness processes, from unattended RPA’s focus on high-volume, low-value processes such as reporting and invoice processing, to attended automation in which parts of a more complex, high-value process are

automated to enhance the final result. Three vendors from different parts of the automation spectrum illustrate the possibilities.

Session 6: Liquidity and asset management: a changing view

Part 1: Liquidity gets smarter

Better liquidity management starts with multi-bank, multi-currency, real-time gross settlement and continuous reconciliation. Blockchain and other new technologies have made this a practical proposition, allowing treasurers to unlock more of the liquidity trapped in their networks. The next step is to use next generation liquidity management techniques to make the most of it. These include new open-architecture bank platforms and digital ecosystems, which provide investment analytics, trading, settlement, and reporting capabilities that can integrate with TMS and other enterprise systems via reporting APIs and custom file integrations. Treasurers can also now choose from a variety of innovative liquidity planning and forecasting solutions that apply artificial intelligence and automation to historical patterns to make predictions about cash positions, and provide treasurers with insights that improve yields or reduce interest costs. And all of these services are becoming available on an omni-channel basis, enabling treasurers to work seamlessly regardless of location or device

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Part 2: Seamless liquidity and asset management: a case study

Automated cash placement into money market funds is not new. Banks have offered the service for a couple of years now, allowing treasurers to set the rules under which they could maintain daily liquidity for transactional purposes while automatically investing their surplus cash on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. The next generation of these tools are beginning to incorporate cognitive analytics and are able to adapt investments to predicted cash movements and needs. This treasurer shows the benefits.

Part 3: The liquidity beauty parade

As elsewhere, treasurers’ main problem in liquidity management technology is the pace of development of new platforms, providers and channels. In this presentation, three solutions providers show how a combination of traditional techniques, better integration between third-party suppliers and upgraded internal systems and innovative new ecosystems and technologies are transforming corporate liquidity management.

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Unlocking and protecting growth opportunities: a series of fireside chats

The expectations of treasury have changed. Now seen as a potential source of insight and business impact, treasurers need to deliver accelerated innovation while managing the new risks that innovation brings. With more pressure on treasurers than ever before, this stream looks at how you can support your business, bring innovative ideas to the game and make a real difference to underlying growth.

How to be an effective treasury organization and team to support growth

There is a lot of talk about ‘strategic treasury’ but not a lot of detail about what that means in practice. To deliver value to the business and to wider stakeholders, treasury needs a plan. This will include a digital transformation map, details of how automation will be introduced and a timeline for specific value-added deliverables. The development of treasury as a source of high-impact business insights, as well as maintaining its role as provider of the optimum funding mix, the most appropriate risk management strategies and the most effective cash and liquidity management programme inevitably means change. Treasuries taking on new activities such as managing benefit plans or real estate portfolios, need to keep learning new skills. This presentation will deliver practical examples of the transactions, processes and steps along the way to developing the treasurer – and treasury – of the future.

The right structure for your growth strategy

Tax and accounting regulations drive most treasury structures. Adapting domestic treasuries to global growth strategies is a complex and difficult task. Just ensuring that the structures chosen remain viable in a volatile regulatory environment is hard enough. Throw in cross-border funding and cash management, risk management, supply chain financing and the acquisitions that usually accompany growth and building a future-proofed but efficient treasury

becomes more difficult still. So, should treasurers of fast-growth and internationalising firms start with a robust tax minimisation structure and work from there? This speaker explains how they built an international tax structure and how technology is critical to baking resilience into what they have built.

Tailored strategies for digital treasuries

It is all too easy to generalise about digitalization. Yes, there is an increasing tension between the real-time transactional world experienced by customers and clunky treasury technology. Yes, developments in technology across the full spectrum of treasury activities have given treasurers unprecedented choice over who supplies them with core products and services. And yes, it is clear that digitalization is an opportunity for treasury to develop real-time capabilities and to begin to deliver genuinely strategic insights to senior management. But one size does not fit all and many of the structures and solutions being proposed today are unsuited to the resources and needs of mid-sized, fast-growth companies. How much of their treasuries should be on-premises versus in the Cloud? Instead of enduring the costs and lead-times of difficult legacy integrations maybe it’s better to start again? This treasurer gives their perspective on building the right digital treasury for you.

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Liquidity management in a negative rate world

Roughly a quarter of the debt issued by governments and companies around the world are currently trading with negative yields. Even some junk bonds have a negative yield to call. The question of how to respond is really above the treasurer’s pay-grade. Yields are this low because central banks want banks to lend and companies to spend. And the corporate response has been to spend – at the end of 2O18 America’s cash mountain was down 15% from the record $1.99 trillion at the end of 2O17 – though more on stock buy-backs than gainful investment. So, the question is really one for the board: with money not worth much in the bank, what are the other ways to use it? And the savers’ nightmare is the borrowers’ paradise, so is now not the time to be refinancing? It is also true to say that this is more hype than reality: the nominal levels are eye-catching but are they a distraction? After all, real yields have been close to zero and negative before. So, is it simply the nominal losses that worry treasurers and if so why? If their firms are too worried about recession to invest now, then they have to accept the cost of insurance – that cash at hand – has risen in parallel. There are strategies for avoiding nominal loss, but they all come with risk – risks that will likely crystallize in the event of the recession that is preventing investment. So, it makes little sense to take a risk with liquidity that you are not prepared to take for the firm’s future. This situation requires a change of policy from the top, not simply a tweak of cash pooling or

liquidity management technology. This treasurer explains what he has told the Board and what happened next.

Sustaining rapid growth: a fireside chat

Most treasurers have planned for risks on the downside, but how many plan for risks on the upside? In companies that are growing fast, treasury can unwittingly become a brake on growth: ‘no, you can’t launch the product there; no, you cannot pay that vendor; no, you cannot accept that currency.’ Keeping ahead of the business in order to facilitate growth is a discipline most treasurers need to learn. Critical to it is the choice of bank and vendor partners. Are they flexible enough to support your growth? How can they help with technology? If you have an e-Commerce model, can they help you with low-value, local payments and trapped cash in emerging markets? And can treasury keep up with the volumes if the business becomes more direct-to-consumer? In this fireside chat, this treasurer talks about how they balanced the traditional role of treasury – focusing on funding, working capital, risk and credit control – with the need to make it as easy as possible for the business to expand into new regions, customer bases and sales channels.

David Watt, Head of Treasury, Sonder Inc.

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The venueInterContinental San Francisco 888 Howard Street, San Francisco, California, 941O3, US

Hotel bookingsAbsolute Corporate Events, as our exclusive accommodation partner, can assist you with a range of hotel rooms in San Francisco at preferential rates. As space is limited, we advise you to reserve your room as soon as possible. All bedrooms will be subject to availability at the time of booking and you will need to provide a valid credit card number to guarantee your reservation.

IMPORTANT: Absolute Corporate Events is the only booking agent we are working with and will not contact you first. If you receive an unsolicited call from a booking agent claiming to be affiliated with EuroFinance, it may be phishing/scam related.

Further enquiries

+1 (212) 641 9837 (US)+44 (O)2O 7576 8555 (UK) [email protected]

Terms and conditions Fees include: Refreshments, lunch, full documentation and conference materials where available. They do not include hotel accommodation. All fees are inclusive of published discounts. Bank transfer charges are the responsibility of the payer. EuroFinance Conferences Limited reserves the right to alter the programme content, speakers or course at any time due to circumstances beyond their control. Dress: Business. Cancellation terms: Receipt of registration (inclusive or exclusive of payment) constitutes formal agreement to attend this conference/course and cancellation terms apply. Full refunds are available on all cancellations received in writing to [email protected] 28 days before the conference/course start date. No refunds or credits after this date and any outstanding payment will be required in full. The option to transfer to another conference or course is subject to availability. All confirmation details will be sent upon receipt of booking. Attendance fees will not be refunded (irrespective of the date of booking) in the event or threat of war, terrorism or circumstances outside of the organisers’ control. Promotional discounts: EuroFinance Conferences Limited regrets that additional discounts received after the registration has been submitted cannot be retrospectively applied to reduce the original price charged. Please note: There will be photography and/or filming at this event and your image may be captured by us and used for our business and promotional purposes, in printed publications, videos and/or on our website. By registering for the event you are giving us your permission to use your image in this way. If you have any queries about this, please email [email protected].

© EuroFinance Conferences LimitedFloor 5, 2O Cabot Square, London, E14 4QW, UK

How to registerRegister online. Please go to:

www.eurofinance.com/sanfrancisco

Get the best rateWe offer a variety of discounts for group bookings, loyal customers, clients of our sponsors and more. For advice on how to get the best rate for you, call our marketing team on +44 (O)2O 7576 8555 or email [email protected].

PricesRegister and pay by Friday, February 7, 2O2O to qualify for the early registration discount. If payment is not received by this date, you will be charged the full registration fee.

Early bird registration Full registration

Treasury or finance professionals within corporations $1,355 USD $2,135 USD

Financial institutions / system suppliers / consultants / lawyers / accountants $2,265 USD $2,755 USD

Special discounts

A 25% discount on the full registration fee is available for treasury association members. Not be used in conjunction with any other offer, including the early registration discount.

Key information


the 6th annual conference on managing international growth · world of start-ups. every treasurer...

Documents