Official Relaunch of Malaysian Association of Corporate Treasurers

9 October 2013, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

The Malaysian Association of Corporate Treasurers (MACT) today announced that it will position itself as a ‘Centre of Excellence’ for all aspects related to treasury management within Malaysia. It aspires to be the recognised body to articulate common views of its members to regulatory bodies, banks, vendors, and training institutes. The MACT will also work together with these parties to raise the knowledge level of treasury management in Malaysia.

For the past several months, MACT has been working toward setting up a reliable forum for treasury practitioners’ to exchange views and share information on the financial market and the economy. The initiative to re-launch MACT as an official treasury body was spearheaded by major corporates’ including Telekom, Astro, MISC, Axiata, Genting, UEM, MAS and Sungard in Kuala Lumpur during June 2013. The association will now spread its wings to other companies and SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises) within Malaysia.

“As corporates’ and SMEs in Malaysia achieve growth and extend business presence both, within the region and internationally, there will be a growing need for an association such as MACT to provide a sound and informed platform for communication exchange on relevant treasury practices. This would entail increasing business knowhow of treasury related financial products, loan and funding proposals, and obtaining an understanding of complex risk management products frequently introduced by financial institutions.

Increasingly, treasury practitioners have found a pressing need to evaluate all these issues from a corporate perspective, independent of the views presented to them by financial institutions”, said  Ms Anne Rodrigues, President, MACT.

“Apart from providing and enhancing relevant and topical economic and financial  knowledge for its members, and aid independent decision making, an initiative such as this, will go a long way  towards raising the performance of practitioners”, Ms Anne Rodrigues said.

MACT is committed in its approach towards providing financial literacy and training, thereby elevating present skill levels, particularly in the complex areas of treasury management, while at the same time supporting learning and on the job training and education for newcomers in the profession.

A significant objective of the MACT is to maintain, nurture and step up existing dialogue with sister treasury associations in countries including Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, UK, and those associations affiliated to the International Group of Treasury Association (IGTA). One of the principle functions behind such information exchange is sharing of views on common issues and updates on matters of present day economic concern and interest. MACT will also serve as a single point of contact for treasurers worldwide intending to seek information on prevailing treasury practices and new regulations affecting the treasury scenario in Malaysia.

The MACT’s scope includes core aspects such as Risk Management, Foreign Exchange and International Monetary issues, Economics, Exposures (hedging, forward purchases), Interest rate risk and Credit limits. Some of its other broader functions comprise cash and liquidity management, capital markets and funding and corporate finance.

MACT Summary

The Malaysian Association of Corporate Treasurers (MACT) was incorporated in 1996 by its founding members that include MISC Berhad, Sime Darby Berhad, Tenaga Nasional Berhad, Telekom Malaysia, Malaysia Airline System (MAS) and the Axiata Group (erstwhile Celcom).

During its formative years, MACT, with its strength of 48 corporate members, and 110 individual members, was affiliated to the International Group of Treasury Associations (IGTA). It engaged in routine interaction with sister associations in Singapore, Australia, France and Hong Kong, and also participated in the Annual IGTA Conference.

For further information and queries, please contact:

The Malaysian Association of Corporate Treasurers
Ms Lai Leng Low, Secretary
Email: [email protected] / [email protected]