Treasury is a diverse and exciting area of finance to work in. It’s a career that will see you make a real difference to the success for any organisation. Your role and responsibilities will vary depending on the size and nature of the business you are working in.
The skills you build will be highly transferable, valued and internationally relevant. They can also set you up for the most senior roles in business and finance by helping you develop important communication, leadership and people skills which make for a well-rounded professional. Whether you decide to stay in treasury or move into other roles, your experience will be enjoyable, challenging and full of variety and your skills and knowledge in demand.
Treasury skills - what makes the difference?
So what are the skills you need to be a successful treasury professional? These are outlined in the ACT Competency Framework, which sets the global treasury standard. As the chartered body for the profession, this framework defines the must-have technical, business and behavioural skills and competencies you need to be recognised as a well-rounded treasury professional. ACT qualifications are a recognised way of building accredited skills.
Technical skills – the expertise to shape and enhance corporate strategy and business growth.
For example you could be required to:
- Manage the business’s cash flows and liquidity by making sure it has enough money to pay its bills and meets its short and long term objectives
- Manage investments, this includes handling surplus cash and borrowing requirements
- Identify, assess and manage financial risks. Business leaders need to think about what could go wrong with their plans and part of your role is to help them do that
- Raise money to fund new business initiatives and put funding solutions in place so money is available whenever it’s needed
- Be involved in mergers and acquisitions. This includes raising capital and assessing the associated risks and opportunities
- Monitor external market conditions, determine how they may impact the business and plan accordingly eg are interest rates rising? How volatile are foreign exchange rates?
- Stay up-to-date on accounting rules, tax and regulation and how they may affect the business and your treasury activities
- Develop the financial strategy and policies to support business objectives.
Business skills – how you use your treasury knowledge and experience to work with and communicate with a range of stakeholders to meet the business’s treasury objectives.
For example you’ll need to:
- Be a confident communicator when talking to key stakeholders both inside and outside the business.
- Be the main point of contact when talking to banks, credit agencies, investment analysts, consultants and regulators etc.
- Collect, analyse and translate data into easy to understand information to help with problem solving and decision making across the business.
Behavioural skills – how to be a commercially driven professional who is accountable for your own actions, has persuasive influencing skills and can work effectively as part of a team.
For example you’ll need to:
- Persuade others in the business to support a particular idea or plan of action which could add value to the business.
- Work closely with people from across all parts of the business to ensure they have the money needed to fund projects.
- Work as part of a team to achieve both the team and business objectives.
What types of people are suited to treasury?
A career in treasury is for you if you are curious, interested in financial markets, technically skilled, enjoy making things happen, are good at problem solving, and love working with lots of different people.
In essence, you need a combination of technical, finance and social skills, together with a willingness to become closely involved in the business and its people. It’s also important you can win trust, are ethical in approach and act with integrity when making business decisions.
In-demand skills and character traits include:
- Good with numbers
- Technically capable and willing to learn and develop your skills
- Problem solving, big picture thinker
- Good at strategic thinking and planning
- Curious about the wider business with a desire to be in a pivotal role
- Open to variety and challenge
- Very good at attention to detail
- Driven, hardworking and self-motivating
- Outgoing and sociable
- A good communicator
- Excellent at building relationships
- Confident to work with people at all levels and from different fields
- Conservative in terms of financial risk and confident in handling it
