Vienna, May 20-21, 2005

Attendants EACT Members

ACT : Richard Raeburn
AFTE : Pierre Poncet, Jean-Paul Rigaud
AITI : Cino Ricci, Gianfranco Tabasso
ATEB : Olivier Brissaud, Luc Vlaminck
ATEL: François Masquelier
CAT : Ivan Haco, Vit Sigmund
DACT : Hans van Erp
GEFIU : Felix Liermann
HTC : Tamás Ónody
IACT : Jimmy Doyle
OPWZ : Wilhelm Stejskal
SAF : Andrej Revay, Peter Daniel
SCTA : Joûko Peterlin, Franjo Mlinaric
VDT : Jochen Stich

Copies EACT Members

AFTE : Charles-Henri Taufflieb
ASSET : Josep Monclùs

EACT Contacts

Bjorn-Eric Pagels (Finnish Corporate Treasurers Association : Ahlstrom)
Vassilis Tzortzis (Greece: BP)

1) Admission of new members

Richard Raeburn (ACT), Ivan Haco (CAT), Peter Daniel (SAF), Joûko Peterlin (SCTA) and Tamás Ónody (HTC) presented their respective associations and were unanimously accepted as EACT members.

2) Harmonisation of payment systems (SEPA and NLF)

SEPA = Single European Payment AREA
NLF= New Legal Framework (draft of an European directive detailing the legal framework of the new paneuropean payment schemes as well as rights and obligations of Payment Services Providers -PSP- and Payment Services Users -PSU-)

2.1) SEPA

The EACT draft of the 10 SEPA proposals to be submitted to the ECB on June 6 was presented. After discussions, a new draft reflecting comments and recommendations is sent on May 24 before its finalisation on May 27.

It is also proposed to post this paper on the EACT website and that each EACT Board member sends it with a covering letter to their representatives in the Economic and Monetary Affairs Commission of the European Parliament (relevant listings have been handed out in Vienna).

Gianfranco Tabasso who chairs the EACT Payments Harmonisation Committee (PHC) briefed EACT members on recent activities and contacts with the EU Commission and the ECB on SEPA. He gave his personal views on where SEPA is going.

2.2) NLF

Gianfranco Tabasso already sent on May 16 a paper proposing to reply to the EU Commission on possible incentives to be included in the NLF directive in order to make SEPA a success and launching e-invoicing and dematerialization of the financial supply chain (12 recommendations are proposed for comments). This paper must be shortened before its dispatch to the EU Commission. It is decided that each EACT member will send its proposal to Gianfranco Tabasso and Luc Vlaminck; then the PHC Committee will work out a synthesis of replies received and circulate it to EACT members a few days before its dispatch to the EU Commission.
Gianfranco Tabasso will send his Vienna presentation which outlines EACT proposed position on standards development and standards decision process within SEPA.

During long discussions, several points need to be highlighted:

this question is both technical and political with heavy impacts on treasurers, corporates, banks, merchants, consumers. EACT Board members must, within their own association, develop the perception of the importance of this question and arouse membership in the PHC Committee.

Can EACT detail corporate requirements and give them to the various bodies (ECB, EPC, EU Commission)? Yes and it is a logical move but already completed in many working groups (SWIFT MA-CUG, TWIST, ROSETTANET,….) so that it's not feasible to start again a complete new study. But requirements should be summarised in some way and we will need them anyhow to study the EPC schemes when they will be published.

EACT will not endorse any standard related to the three new paneuropean payment schemes because we do not yet know them and because we want to endorse a method (XML standards developed through ISO 20022 UNIFI) and a standard body (ISTH). ISTH is, in our view, "better" than ECBS as it is more international (ECBS is within EPC) and working smoothly. As long as standards are adopted within this framework, they are interoperable; it has been confirmed that a company A working with the standard S1 can dialog with a company B working with the standard S2 on the same payment scheme with datas flowing from A to B through the banking system, as long as S1 and S2 are interoperable.

3) IAS 32 and 39

François Masquelier updated EACT members on IAS 39 evolution (document to be sent via email). It looks as if, and Richard Raeburn confirmed it, IASB is keen to move, in a 'second round' with IAS 39, to a standard that is more rigorously a principles-based application as opposed to the rules-based approach that has driven IAS 39 hitherto. François Masquelier thinks it is a worrisome move as it will increase results volatility while others were not so sure of the pitfalls of this evolution.
François Masquelier and Richard Raeburn will prepare a paper on the subject in order to be ready to comment when these evolutions become clearer.

4) ABI / AMTE

After discussions it was decided that:
- EACT will not be formally involved in the AMTE working process
- in any case, ACT and possibly AFTE will provide to EACT a follow-up of their discussions.

5) DACT inputs

Hans van Erp presented two DACT contributions which could be used by other NTA (National treasurers Associations) if they wish so.
Syndicated loan documentation - With the help of Clifford Chance, DACT issued a document on this question which has been given to EACT members present in Vienna. Clifford Chance would cooperate wih NTA willing to promote/develop such a document.
Pierre Poncet (AFTE) indicated that the related AFTE Technical Committee will issue before year-end a paper on the same topic. It is proposed to forward it to EACT Board members.
Corporate treasurers paneuropean payments requirements - DACT with the help of DCE (a consulting firm) issued a booklet on this topic which is handed out to EACT Board members.

6) EACT Annual Report and Election of Officers

The EACT Annual Report (document attached) is approved.

The actual Board of Officers is unanimously reelected:
- Pierre Poncet, AFTE as Chairman
- Cino Ricci, AITI as Deputy Chairman
- François Masquelier, ATEL as Secretary
- Jimmy Doyle, IACT as Treasurer

7) JP Morgan Asset Management

ACT and JP Morgan Asset Management agree to extend their annual survey on cash management to EACT whose logo will be put on the front page. NTA will have to decide whether or not they want to participate, i.e. circulate the survey to their own members.
François Masquelier will send a revised version of the JP Fleming front page survey.

8) Miscellaneous

Ratings agencies code. EACT supports IOSCO Code for the time being; we will monitor its implementation. In two years, others actions might be studied.

CESR and MiFiD. A paper was sent before the meeting summarising the actual situation.

STEP. Updated information has been sent on May 23 to all EACT Board members.

Email votes. The following article 1 of the EACT Internal Regulation has been approved:

In case of need of voting between the Assemblies, the Chairman can ask for a resolution to be taken via email.

Each EACT member can express one vote(unless differently provided in the Statute)

Each EACT member expressing a vote , that should be notified to all other EACT members, has three possibilities:

yes (positive vote)
no (negative vote)
abstain (in case of expressed abstention, absence or no voting)
Withholding tax. The paper circulated before proposed to start the process of proposing changes in the actual Directive. An email proposal will be sent in the next weeks.

9) New set-up for the EACT meetings

One day is obviously not enough for seriously discussing most topics we want to adress. So, it was decided that next meetings will start at 14.30 on Fridays up to 17.30.
The agenda will be established in such a way as more important topics will be put for Saturdays. On Fridays afternoons, proxies could be used for those of us who could not attend. The EACT Statutes must be changed accordingly and it will be done in Berlin where an EACT Extraordinary General Assembly will be held.

10) Next meeting in 2005

Following our agreement with Eurofinance, the second 2005 EACT meeting will be held at the end of the Eurofinance Conference in Berlin on October 7 afternoon/evening and October 8.
EACT will make a presentation (1 hour to 1,5 hour) on October 6 afternoon during the Eurofinance Conference in Berlin.It was agreed that:

Pierre Poncet will briefly present EACT, its goals and main areas of interest

François Masquelier will speak on IAS 32/39

Gianfranco Tabasso will present our inputs on SEPA and NLF

Patrice Tourlière (AFTE) will speak on the ratings agencies code and how EACT and IGTA plan to monitor the IOSCO Code implementation