Greece is the Word: Setting up a National Treasury Association

The newly established Hellenic Association of Treasurers (HAT) aims to support a vibrant community of Greek treasurers, both at home and abroad. Here, Alexandros Bellos, board member and Co-Founder of HAT, who is also Senior Treasury Manager at PVH Corporation, is joined by another HAT board member, Marianna Polykrati, Group Treasurer, Chipita S.A., to explain the association’s key areas of focus for the year ahead.

National treasury associations play an important role in both professional development and expanding the network of peers that treasurers can engage with. Whatever challenges or projects you might be facing within your organisation, there is usually someone who has been through something similar and can offer advice or support. But what do you do if your country doesn't have such an association in place? That was the challenge facing Greek treasurers until the Hellenic Association of Treasurers (HAT) was officially founded on 8 December 2020.

The concept for what would become HAT began around four years ago, explains Bellos, when President and Co-founder of HAT, Alexandros Koliavras, during his role at Group Treasury at Philips, collaborated with the Chairman of the Dutch Association of Corporate Treasurers (DACT). This exposure, coupled with the continuous ‘brain drain’ that Greece was facing in the years following the financial crisis where many young, bright minds left Greece, spurred Koliavras into thinking about forming a similar association. A national association that could leverage the international knowledge and experience of the Greek Treasury professionals around the world, establish a ‘brain gain’ for the country and put Greece on the treasury map. The seeds of the idea for HAT had been planted, but it would take a while before the green shoots of the new association would emerge.

“Koliavras later advanced his career as a Global Business Advisor for the Group Treasury of ING, where he partnered with Dimitrios Chasapopoulos and Chariton Papatriantafyllou at the bank,” explains Polykrati. “The three of them built the fundamentals of the association, and together with Bellos and Aris Nafpaktitis they founded the association and then I also joined the initiative. We formed the Board and started working together during the pandemic.”

The need for a Greek treasury association has been driven by the growth and increasing sophistication of corporations in Greece, according to Polykrati. “Now with the worst of the financial crisis behind us, Greek companies are starting to grow and develop. Finance departments are transforming and becoming even larger. The treasurer’s role in Greece is starting to expand and to have more substance. The timing of this new association is perfect.”

A hybrid approach

HAT’s vision is to ensure that treasury, in all companies, evolves into the department where all financial risks are monitored and managed in a specialised and professional way. Its mission is to unite all Greek treasury professionals, whether they are based in the country or abroad, and there are several interesting steps that the association is taking to achieve this.

Bellos notes: “From the start, we established this association for all treasury professionals, those who are focusing on the corporate world and also those in financial institutions. We want to include everyone.”

Polykrati adds: “Essentially, we are operating a hybrid model, in the sense of including corporate and bank treasurers together, but it’s also hybrid in other ways. For example, we have Greek members from the Greek market, but also have Greek treasurers working overseas. This gives us a broad knowledge of, and experience in, different cultures, and we are also gaining knowledge of completely different stages and maturities of treasury functions. Add in the treasurers’ roles within banks alongside that of the corporate treasurers, and you get a really interesting mix. This is something that can be beneficial for sharing different best practices.”

Assembling the work streams

With the vision and mission of HAT established, thoughts then turned to setting up working groups within the association to look into specific treasury topics. Built by treasurers for treasurers, these working groups have already identified some core issues to explore.

“We have been scanning the market to see which areas generate the most interest for our members,” says Bellos. “So far we have identified that there should be a working group on cash management and treasury infrastructure. There should be another focusing on corporate finance and risk management, as from the first interviews we understood that Financing was one of the most addressed issues for our members as well as FX [foreign exchange] risk management. Another group is looking at treasury policies and regulations, such as KYC [know your customer] compliance, to help solve the day-to-day headaches treasurers face, IBOR transition and National and European policies and directives that affect Treasury to help Treasurers prepare for the changes in the tax and regulatory landscape as well assisting them to achieve best in class Treasury Governance” and so on.

Alongside these traditional challenges for treasury, HAT is also examining emerging challenges that treasurers should also be focusing on, such as environmental social and governance (ESG) issues. Polykrati explains: “One of our working group topics is sustainability. This covers the whole range of ESG, not just ‘green’ issues. We already have members who have expressed interest in this, and we are now in the process of recruiting members who will be forming each working group.”

Accelerating growth

Despite being a legal entity for just a few months, HAT already has 58 members. Looking ahead, the association has plenty of ideas for growing the community during the year. To support this growth and development, the association has formed committees, to monitor the association’s operations, identify issues for review, gather and evaluate information and recommend courses of action. The association is currently on-boarding the members to assist on the day-to-day functions. 

“We just had our first general assembly, which was all in Greek,” says Bellos. “As the members come both from Greece and abroad, the association’s language shall be bilingual. Greek shall be the starting point as it is the unifying link amongst our member base, and switching to English whenever and wherever needed, for a more international outlook as we develop and grow to accommodate the Global know-how and the local market knowledge. ”

Attracting more Greek treasurers will be down to HAT’s ability to sell the benefits of the association to potential members. Peer interaction is one of the main attractions. “To be able to have access to 100 treasury peers, whom you can share information with and ask questions of, is a big selling point,” notes Bellos. “Then, through this interaction, you can also gain visibility. You might write an article for, or make a presentation with, your peers and through those activities everyone will get to know you.”

With plans to create a bespoke platform for member interaction, and content generation that is as tailored as possible to the needs of the Greek treasury world, HAT has a busy and exciting year ahead. Visit www.treasury.gr to find out more or to join the association.