The purpose of this seminar is to give you a good and practical understanding of the objectives, tasks and tools of a bank treasury department.
We start with a general discussion of the role of the treasury function in banks. The importance of funding choices and sound risk management will be explained, and we present an asset-liability framework for treasury management.
We then take a closer look at the organization of a “typical” treasury function. We define the scope, level and content of the function, and we suggest appropriate policies and procedures the day-to-day treasury operations, and we review how the various parts of treasury interacts with other parts of the organization. We also look at how the Asset-Liability Management Committee is organized in a typical bank.
Further, we explain how to build core treasury skills, including the practical handling of tasks such as cash management, liquidity management, foreign exchange management, interest rate management and the use of financial instruments (dealing, clearing, settlement etc.).
On day two, we first explain practical issues related to accounting and reporting. Accounting issues include “fair value” accounting for financial instruments under IFRS and US GAAP. We then discuss how the treasury can coordinate its activities with other departments to create banking products that maximize the bank’s spread (and fee) income, or products that can be used for indirect risk transfer. We give examples of “optimal” cash management services and of deposits and loans that are structured to meet the clients’ as well as the bank’s needs.
Finally, we give a number of practical examples of how derivate instruments can be used in treasury management. Applications include interest management, spread management, yield enhancement and asset-liability management.