What does the position of Treasurer involve?
The main responsibility of a Treasurer is to ensure a sustainable funding which will allow business continuity. I say sustainable, because every loan taken involves a responsibility towards the investor’s community (banks, mutual funds, insurance companies).
To make this debt sustainable, the Treasurer must manage risks, and follow specific guidelines that will provide liquidity to ensure the planned business scenario.
This position includes other responsibilities like building and developing banking relationships, dealing with rating agencies and regulators, ensuring payments to service suppliers and dealers and participating in the pricing process through funding rates calculation.
What are the requirements for this position?
As in all jobs, I believe that the first requirement is to love what you do. Setting aside that, you need to have good understanding of numbers, and as well interpretation of the political/economic environment. Any new regulation, political decision or event, will affect the context where you work so it is very important to be, as I said, updated with latest news. You also need to be good in communication, as you need to translate sometimes difficult concepts to different types of public.
How do you view your experience to date within the group? What are the differences with other banks you have worked for?
I am really enjoying my work within the group. It is very dynamic, and the automotive sector in Argentina changes dramatically every year. Just as an example, in only 3 years in the company, car registrations have ticked the highest volume in its history and 12 months later we were under a severe crisis.
This volatility makes my job challenging, and the possibility to participate in monthly Financial Committees with HQ allows me to understand and to take action in the company’s important decisions. The interaction with HQ, with people from different countries and cultures is also very important for me, and I consider that is a “plus” in a global corporation. I also like cars, so the combination of financials with them is a perfect mix for me!
I would say that the main difference with other banks relates to the size of the structure. The banks I have worked for were bigger, and consequently the decision process was slower and the access to decision-makers more difficult than here. We work in a very agile company and any employee can feel the impact of his work.
What specific projects are you currently working on?
Currently, and it is one of the main objectives for 2020, we are working in the automatization on the supplier’s payment process. This task involves several manual steps, which are subject to risks, and modernizing it will save hours of operational work. There were many improvements in technology applied for cash management and payments, and we must adjust our procedures to the latest “state of the art”.
