Published: April 18, 2008
The German Association of Corporate Treasurers (Verband Deutscher Treasurer e.V. or VDT) was founded in late 1997. The start-up work was mainly triggered by modifications to the German Corporate Act and the Uniform Commercial Code, establishing the obligation on companies’ management to implement an enterprise wide risk management system. Treasurers manage financial risks and, accordingly, have to deal with the impacts of the new legal requirements. Discussions started about risk management methodologies, appropriate processes and controls, reporting requirements etc. These discussions and the increasing importance of professional treasury operations in Germany pointed out the need to establish a common platform for all treasurers to share information and define professional standards, from treasurers for treasurers. That was the starting point for VDT, founded by a few treasury professionals.
Today our members are more than 700 treasurers and finance executives from over 450 companies based in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, comprising multinational groups as well as middle market enterprises, but also banks, vendors of treasury systems or consulting and audit firms.
VDT has been represented in international organizations since April 2001 as a member of the European Associations of Corporate Treasurers (EACT).
Our objectives are:
Our governance is as follows:
Operations are led by the executive body (Vorstand), comprising Prof. Dr. Heinrich Degenhart (Leuphana Universität Lüneburg), Eberhard Köbe (maxingvest ag), Bernd Saitz (PricewaterhouseCoopers) and Dr. Jochen Stich (Porsche Corporate Finance GmbH). Supervision is in the responsibility of the Controlling Body (Verwaltungsrat), headed by Folkhart Olschowy, Wacker-Chemie AG.
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Our main activities are:
- Finanzsymposium Mannheim
- Talking about treasury in co-operation with ACT
- Structured Finance
- Current trends and solutions for asset management
- Liquidity planning - Approaches and limitations
- Hybrid finance structures
- Corporate Management - The financial perspective 2007
- Annual meeting 2007
In 2008, the following events are on our agenda:
Working groups to define best practices and to issue practical guidelines. We have already published:
Communication, information and further services for our members are mainly based on a combination of the VDT internet and regional meetings:
www.vdtev.de is the platform for the documentation of events, interactive chats between members, general information for treasury-related themes via links and downloads, VDT news and much more. As a special service we provide a site with job opportunities.
To strengthen the personal network, our members have the opportunity to attend regional meetings on a regular basis, taking place in seven locations in Germany and 1 in Austria. These meetings are individually organized to cover local interests. [[[PAGE]]]
Learning & EducationCertified Corporate Treasurer (CCT)
In 2005, we established a new course for treasurers. It is designed to enhance the skills of treasurers after their first years of practical experience and to establish a common level of professional core qualification. After an optional pre-course qualifying session, the course comprises the following modules
For each module, a test has to be completed, supplemented by a final oral examination. Successful participants are granted a certification ‘Certified Corporate Treasurer VDT’.
The course is run by VDT in close cooperation with Frankfurt School of Finance & Management and will be repeated annually.
Add-on modules to the Certified Corporate Treasurer
After the first CCT courses it become obvious that due to the rapid development in financial instruments and the implications of taxation and accounting on the use of financial instruments, treasurers today also have a need to be familiar with these themes on a reasonable level of detail. Accordingly, as add-on modules to our CCT we launched two courses:
These courses were run several times in the meantime and will be held twice a year in the future.
In 2007. we proudly looked back on ten years of successful activities. We though that it was a good reason to celebrate and we did so. After our 2007 Annual Meeting, approximately 200 participants had dinner in a delightful historic location in Frankfurt. We welcomed guests who had supported the VDT over many years, and enjoyed speeches about the ‘official’ history of VDT, which also covered many stories that had not been documented officially ... Entertainment was also on our agenda for the evening, and guest speakers on some non-treasury related topics, artists and musicians made it a night to remember.
We are looking forward to the next years, and will be sure to find another anniversary to celebrate.
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