BFW3652

Corparate treasury and credit management

Tutorial 1 (Suggested Answers)

Suggested answers:

1. Based on ACCA competency framework, which two jobs are

most appealing to this course unit?

If you do not have accounting major as your double major, your major in
banking and financial management alone or with other non-accounting major
as your double major, then the most appealing jobs listed in this ACCA
competency framework would be under the area of Financial Management
that is relevant to Corporate Treasury and Credit Management would be:

a) Treasurer - as this role requires you to be an expert in the area of

corporate treasury.

b) Credit Control Manager - as this role requires you to master the area
of trade credit management – extension of credit, monitoring,
collections and recovery of accounts receivable (trade debts)

You would need to start off as a trainee/officer/executive with your degree to

climb up the corporate ladder.

But if have accounting as your double major, you can consider all the job
options suggested by the framework as ACCA is an accounting-focused
association.

Beyond the scope of corporate treasury and credit management, you should
consider all the areas under financial management if your major is banking

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and financial management. For post-graduate qualification in finance, apart
from the academic route as such a Master /Doctoral in Finance degree, you
can become qualified finance professional by taking the professional finance
qualification such as the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) program (See
https://www.cfainstitute.org/).

For corporate treasury and credit management, there are professional

qualifications such as UK’s Association of Corporate Treasurers (ACT) and
Chartered Institute of Credit Management (CICM), which formerly known as
ICM before gaining the “Chartered” status a few years ago (in Australia, we
have AICM). In the UK, qualified CICM members can be a liquidator, which
traditionally only licensed to qualified practising accountants.

However, these qualifications are not well known in Malaysia or Southeast

Asia as CFA and professional accounting qualifications (ICAEW, CAANZ,
MICPA, ACCA, CIMA) are more prominent in business. Even the London
Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) book-keeping certificate and the
diploma in accounting, which are pre-university qualifications are way much
popular than ACT or CICM. LCCI is more of practice-based qualification like
Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) and is well accepted
in the workforce to become a book-keeper (Accounts assistant/supervisor,
etc.) but beyond book-keeping, a qualified accountant would need to be
engaged especially for the preparation of accounts to be audited.

In summary, besides CFA, there is a real need to promote more professional

finance qualifications in Malaysia for the non-banking sector over the next
decades in order to command better status and remuneration for finance
professionals. The Malaysian Association of Corporate Treasurers (MACT) is
not so active and the Association of Credit Management Malaysia (ACMM) is
not active (dormant?). It is all up to you as the future finance professionals to
uplift your profession!

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 2. Describe the common job functions, desired attributes, and
the high-level competencies required for the jobs. Do these
jobs suits you? Why?

Treasurer

Treasurers control the liquidity and cashflow by taking charge of financing and
funding of the company. They need to raise funds and use financial products/
instruments to support/facilitate their roles. They ensure that the company has
enough cash reserves and financial assets to meet changing economic conditions
and future liabilities.

In this current era, the treasurers' are involved in the following functions: (1) Cash
management (2) Foreign exchange (3) Investment and funding (4) Financial supply
chain (5) Risk management (6) Regulation (7) Financial technology (Fintech).

Treasury is particularly suited to financial professionals as it involves attributes such

as money management, accountancy (e.g. ACW1100/ACW1200 plus relevant IFRS),
risk management, corporate governance and corporate financing and also some IT
and digital skills to manage treasury operations through treasury management
systems.

The high-level competencies required as a treasurer, being a highly regarded

finance professional includes strategy, technology and innovation, ethics and
professionalism. Practical experience required includes evaluate investment and
financing decisions, Evaluate management accounting system, plan and control
performance, monitor performance.

Based on the above, does the job as a Treasurer/Finance manager suits you? Why?
Write your career aspirations in your own words and match with the above.

Credit Controller/Credit Control Manager

Credit control managers are responsible for ensuring account receivables/debts

collection in a timely basis, in line with the terms and conditions of the sale (credit
terms) which is vital in managing working capital and cashflow.

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Credit controllers are required in the corporate sector, public sector, financial
services, shared service organisations (SSO), etc. A credit controller needs to have
the appropriate knowledge and experience to be competent: record and process
transactions and events, analyse and interpret financial reports and credit reports
(CTOS, D&B, etc.), identify and manage financial risks.

The high-level competencies required by credit controllers include governance, risk,

and control; leadership and management; stakeholder relationship management;
ethics and professionalism.

Based on the above, does the job as a Treasurer/Finance manager suits you? Why?
Write your career aspirations in your own words and match with the above.

3. Based on the local setting, who is at a higher position level in a

typical organisation chart – the Finance Manager or the
Accountant? Justify? Who do they report to?\

By referring to Figure 1.2 on page 43 of the prescribed text, the treasurer position is
on par with the financial controller. Both report to the Chief Financial Officer (CFO):

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In Malaysia, the designation of Treasurer is seldom used. It sounds like a treasurer
in an NGO/clubs or societies. It is commonly used in the public sector and in
universities’ administration. For corporate, the designation of Finance Manager is
more prevalent than Treasurer.

However, in Malaysia, most Finance Managers are accounting-based. This

accounting-based finance manager is one level higher than the accountant position.
However, if the finance manager is non-accounting based and purely doing financial
management work, then this Finance Manager position is the same the Accountant
(normally Senior Accountant or Financial Controller).

This is very confusing as we have finance managers that are non-accountants that
perform the work of a treasurer and/or credit control managers. Therefore, by looking
at the qualifications, we could distinguished the two.

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Sites visited:

1. https://www.barclaysimpson.com/introduction-treasury

2. https://growthhub.swlep.co.uk/docs/librariesprovider2/default-
document-library/funding-finance/credit-control-an-introduction-
to.pdf?sfvrsn=75afc7b2_2

3. https://academy.treasurers.org/why-choose-career-treasury

4. https://www.theglobaltreasurer.com/2018/03/13/what-is-the-function-of-
corporate-treasury/

5. https://www.accaglobal.com/pk/en/qualifications/why-
acca/competency-framework/job-profiles/financial-management/credit-
control-manager.html

6. https://www.cfainstitute.org/