Paul Hussey discusses how treasury professionals can advance their careers by gaining foreign banking knowledge, international experience, and understanding front, middle, and back office operations. He covers the evolving challenges treasury teams face and what skills matter most for growth in the field.
Foreign banking is extremely helpful in the treasury world. You know, you understand products, you understand, you know, simple things like capital weighting. How does that work for a bank? If you're looking for revolving credit facility, you're looking for different type of credit facilities. PD committed, uncommitted, you're looking at trade finance products, you're looking at foreign exchange. And you know, how does a bank look at this? Because there is a few out there in the corporate world that's an endless pot of cash from the banks to fund, whether it's A, B or C corporate, obviously that's not the case. So having that inside knowledge and for myself working with some of the largest institutions and corporates when I was in Danske and prior to that when I was in a couple of other banks, it gives you that appetite and understanding that you're talking the same message as your corporate banker when he or she reaches out to you or you reach out to them about a facility. Because it does help. Because the lack of understanding if you are not in the inner circle, is a fairly big thing. The international experience. I think the one thing I'd say to any of your listeners is paramount. It's the understanding of the different mechanisms and how culturally the banking system will work in terms of, in these jurisdictions. The other thing I'd say, Mike, is to actually have a wide range within Treasury. I spent a lot of time in corporate finance, you know, I spent a lot of time in legal and general bearings and fund management when I was in London, you know, now in Sabic, I've been, I'm over cash management and operations and, you know, having the front office, middle office, back office, understanding, everything goes together. You know, people would say to me, oh, back office, what you want entrance to do with that? That's the lifeblood of where treasury is. You know, the activities, it's the settlement, it's the process, it's the confirmation. The front office is obviously, you know, a lot of people want to do the front office, but if I look at the three of them together, front, middle and back, it's basically a marriage between the three of them. And there should be no discrepancy or there should be no lack of understanding of what treasury is about across those three areas. So international experience, understanding the products, obviously front, middle and back office is a key determinant for anybody to understand and grow within Treasury. It's like a doctor, a doctor cannot just sit still and kind of go, right, I never need to look at the latest medical journal or the latest drugs that are out there. It's the same within Treasury. You can never stand still, whether it's regulations change within China, whether it's mechanisms within treasury that are constantly changing. So it's an evolving career for anybody that wants to join Treasury. The treasury today will be totally different to treasury in 10 or 15 years time, not only due to regulations, but through to banking requirements, also through to automation. So it's evolving, Mike, and that's the great thing about treasury, it never stands still.
