At the ACT Cash Management 2016 conference last month, in the ‘Panel discussion: treasury security and controls’, Fiona Crisp, independent consultant and ACT’s Deputy President, described what she believes are the fundamental requirements for internal controls within a corporate treasury department:

1. segregation of duties where no one person can do everything on a transaction. (But this is a problem in the small corporate treasury department with only 2-3 staff, so may need to involve other staff.)
2. good IT is essential to be able to support the segregation
3. use good auditors who can help put in place appropriate procedures
4. have the right people: this is where HR have an important role to ensure that you employ good people who will able to follow the security and control procedures
5. use opportunity controls, e.g. reconcilations which are essential but tedious. ( Find people who understand this work, and who like doing it, and then keep hold of them.)
6. use comprehensive reporting of all processes and transactions.

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CTMfile take: Great advice from one of UK’s leading corporate treasury advisors