Le Magazine du Trésorier - n°63 - 3ème trimestre 2008 - (Page 22)

large banks that had gone astray? Indirectly, some taxpayers, in the UK for instance through the nationalization of a mortgage credit outlet, the height of cheek in the country of « laisser faire ». Although no one knows whether we have reached the end of the tunnel, it would appear that « sovereign funds » have contributed the lion’s share of the liquidity needed to increase the capital. Sovereign funds from Norway, Singapore and the Emirates, who may be assumed to be interested only in investing in profitable sectors without aiming to run these companies. The Norwegian ones have made clear statements to that effect. But what would happen if sovereign funds from countries which are both capitalist and dictatorial were to play in the match? These hybrids of capitalism and totalitarianism were extremely successful during the last decade. To such an extent that you may well wonder whether the credo whereby a liberal type of capitalism and democracy always go hand in hand still holds true. These sovereign funds are extremely rich, and it is not always easy to see what they are after. I am not convinced that they will be bothered by our concepts of governance. The very nature of banking implies that banks possess an inestimable amount of valuable economic information about their clients. Hence, if the chase after unrealistic objectives continues, the entire FOCUS Olivier Brissaud joined Volkwagen as Treasurer of the Coordination Center in Brussels in 1989 after eight years of correspondant and corporate banking with BBL (now ING). He is Managing Director of both Volkswagen Group Services, a worldwide Treasury Shared Service Center for the Volkswagen Group, and Volkswagen Finance Belgium a subsidiary of Volkswagen Financial Services A.G. He has a degree in Law and Political Sciences from the University of Nice, France. Olivier Brissaud has been Chairman of the Board of the Association of Corporate Treasurers in Belgium (www.atebforum.com), since February 2001. In this capacity ATEB is a founding member of the European Associations of Corporate Treasurers, Olivier is member of EACTs Board (www.eact.eu). He has been elected Chairman of the Board in May 2007. Olivier is currently the Co-Chairman of the European Payments Councils' Customers Stakeholders Forum. ATEB is also a member of the International Group of Treasury Associations. Olivier is an executive Board Member of IGTA since 2004 (www.igta.org). The International Association of CFO's and Corporate Treasurers of China has appointed Olivier as Senior Advisor in 2006. Olivier is a Certified Director, member of the Belgian Association of Corporate Directors, Guberna (www.guberna.be). He is Associate Professor at the Ecole Supérieure des Sciences Commerciales in Angers, France, as well as a regular speaker at conferences. Olivier's articles are widely published. More information about Olivier is available under www.brissaud.info democratic/capitalist system is at risk. Both the schizophrenic citizenwho plays the stock exchange and has a company pension fund scheme- and our political leaders should be aware of this. decisions? Whereby less profitable companies would be less at risk and therefore more attractive? Certainly not. Henceforth, companies must no longer be assessed on the basis of their short term financial profitability only.We are facing a much more fundamental challenge, namely global warming. Attempts have been made to rank companies on their ethical behavior, quite successfully within the Deutschland AG for one; now the time has come for investors to base their decisions on the efforts companies make to come to grips with the challenges of tomorrow. Some time ago the draftsman Serge made a cartoon for « Le Monde » which struck me: it showed a bunch of proverbial big bosses with their hats on and cigars screwed to their mouths, saying that they had grown rich heating up the earth and that now they would grow rich again, but this time by cooling it down! Let us prove that it is possible to be ethical and behave responsibly without forgetting about profitability. Olivier Brissaud WE NEED A CHANGE OF PARADIGM. Does this mean that we should review the criteria for investment http://www.atebforum.com http://www.eact.eu http://www.igta.org http://www.guberna.be http://www.brissaud.info

Table des matières de la publication Le Magazine du Trésorier - n°63 - 3ème trimestre 2008

COUVERTURE
SOMMAIRE
EDITORIAL
FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS
INTERVIEW
FOCUS
FORUM OF ADVERTISERS
TREASURERS’ ASSOCIATIONS
NEWS

Le Magazine du Trésorier - n°63 - 3ème trimestre 2008