Name | Thomas Rotter |
Position at COPS | Leader of a residential community, Sponsoring |
At the company since | 1999 |
Age | 45 |
Hobbys | Koi breeding, football |
What connects me to corima is … | …increasing challenges and flexibility in everyday life and work |
In ten years… | … I hope that the first progress against climate change can be seen and that the pandemic is no longer an issue. |
corimamagazin: Hello Professor Debus. Thank you for taking the time to talk to us. On the VDT website the following is written about you:
„Prof. Dr. Christian Debus took over the Operations Section on April 1, 2017. Previously, he was a member of the Risk Management Section for several years and contributed to various publications and VDT working groups.
Prof. Dr. Debus has been a freelance consultant for treasury projects since June 2020. Until May 2020, he was the partner responsible for finance and treasury management at KPMG, whose team of around 60 specialists provides consulting and auditing services for all issues in corporate treasury as well as for commodity and energy trading. Before joining KPMG in 2002, he spent several years with an international industrial group, where his responsibilities included investment controlling, treasury, general accounting and financial statements. He also worked as a professor at a university of applied sciences and as a project manager for an IT consultancy.“
To begin with, please describe what the Finance & Operations Board of an association is responsible for and how our readers may imagine this activity!
Christian Debus: The Finance & Operations Section takes care of the organizational basis for the association’s specialized work, which is carried out by the other board members with their respective sections. The operational work is mainly performed by the office. As a member of the Board of Management, I act as a contact person, decision-maker on key issues, signatory of contracts, controlling body and ultimately the person responsible. The main tasks are the administration of the members, collection and use of the contribution payments, financial accounting and payment transactions, public relations and internet presence, budget planning and reporting, organization of events, especially the general meeting and strategy meetings, as well as personnel matters.
„According to the principle of the VDT „by Treasurers for Treasurers“, the current topics that have concerned treasurers at any given time have always been addressed.“
corimamagazin: The VDT is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. What makes the association such a successful „evergreen“ in your eyes?
Christian Debus: The main reason for this is the enormous commitment shown by the voluntary members of the Board of Directors, the Executive Board and the specialist departments, as well as by the staff and the head of the office. According to the principle of the VDT „by Treasurers for Treasurers“, the current topics that have concerned treasurers at any given time have always been addressed. Be it the various regulatory projects (EMIR, MiFID, PSD), be it low interest rates, currency and commodity price risks, reform of benchmark interest rates and much more, the problems were taken up promptly, solution ideas developed in the specialist departments, communicated in publications and newsletters and presented and discussed at specialist conferences. Focus topics and new developments were taken up in new departments and working groups, such as Corporate Asset Management or the Digital Innovation Board. Finally, additional formats were developed for the treasury community to exchange information and ideas, such as the discussion forum on the website, webinars and „Treasury Teatime“. As a result of the extensive range of qualifications on offer, many treasurers have now gone through „the school of the VDT“. There are special offers for young treasurers, such as the regular’s table for young professionals. The VDT already starts with students and organizes an annual Summer School as well as Treasury Days at various universities. Just have a look at the VDT website, you will find the whole range of offers there, which is unique and really covers everything that can be found in corporate treasury. This service, as well as the excellent support provided by the office, is always highly praised by members in the surveys and thus attracts more members. This is also evidenced by the growth over the last 5 years: from 1,100 members at the end of 2017 to 1,600 in the meantime.
„Success makes successful!“
corimamagazin: The VDT has individual, corporate and sustaining memberships. How do you attract new members?
Christian Debus: As described above, success makes successful. Word gets around about the voluntary commitment and the professional support provided by the office. Presence at the major congresses such as Structured Finance and the Finance Symposium with a booth and presentations make the VDT visible. The social media activities are widely spread; on LinkedIn, the VDT has over 3,000 followers. Added to this is the excellent range of continuing education courses, especially in the form of the Certified Corporate Treasurer and the basic qualification, which many companies take advantage of. Since 2005, more than 40 courses have now been held, and of the roughly 800 graduates, quite a few become new members if their employer is not already. And if a treasurer from a member company changes jobs to a non-member, in many cases he or she will make the case for membership there as well. Sustaining members are certainly motivated by the large number of corporate treasuries represented in the association. There are currently just under 300 corporate members, plus over 300 treasurers as individual members. So if you want to be part of the treasury community in Germany, there is simply no getting around the VDT.
corimamagazin: There have certainly been quieter years for the industry and the association in your time. With the Corona pandemic and the current war in Ukraine, the last two and a half years have been filled with challenges of a special kind. How have you supported your members during these times? Have there been any particular challenges for the association itself?
„Last but not least, the pandemic-related restrictions have also driven digitization in the association.“
Christian Debus: Like our members, we had to switch from face-to-face formats to online offerings. This worked out very well with great support from the office. As a result, it has been possible to maintain the range of services to a large extent. The number of newsletters and their content increased significantly. Instead of congresses, there were webinars and instead of face-to-face classes, the seminars and the qualification offers were carried out with Teams or Zoom. The sections and the committees met virtually and worked on their expert topics. Even the trade fair appearances took place in the virtual rooms of the organizers. And even the 2020 general meeting was streamed with the help of a professional provider. Last but not least, the pandemic-related restrictions have also driven digitization in the association. We launched a major multi-year project to redesign the website with a whole range of additional service functions for members, from an app to registration forms, search functions, event calendars, collaboration tools and an online library. As an association, we can’t talk about the digitization of the Treasury without setting ourselves up accordingly.
corimamagazin: Digitization in treasury is a perfect keyword. As a TMS provider, this topic particularly interests us. Are there any short- and long-term trends that you and the VDT see here?
Christian Debus: Basically, it is the automation of repetitive and standardizable processes, the better use of available data and electronic documentation that make up and will continue to make up the largest part of the digitization of processes and methods. This can then be the automation of cash management, currency management, reporting or payment transactions. In liquidity planning, credit risk assessment, fraud prevention, exception-based management or process monitoring, mass data processing using statistical methods and AI will increase. Financing instruments, KYC processes and bank account management will be documented and handled in digital form. There are constant ups and downs with cryptocurrencies, so I wouldn’t dare to predict whether these will become significantly established in treasury. All of these topics are not entirely new, but they are not yet so widespread in treasury, so this will certainly be a task for many years to come. Many treasuries are still busy exhausting the technical possibilities of their existing systems, so that the new possibilities of digitization will be on the agenda in only some time and with the appropriate degree of maturity. In addition, the data must be available in the required quality and in the appropriate formats – many companies still have some catching up to do here.
corimamagazin: We could see that all participants of this year’s Finance Symposium very much longed for and then enjoyed the personal contact. Nevertheless, the Corona pandemic has permanently changed the present and the future. We see clear trends that remote meetings have replaced some of the formerly face-to-face meetings in the long run. Associated travel time and costs are saved, but personal contact is declining. The customer loyalty that correlates with this requires new impulses and measures. How does the VDT, how do you see this?
Christian Debus: As mentioned earlier, we in the association have adapted to the new situation quite quickly and have also largely provided our services in digital form – just like most companies, I’m sure. So, the options for online meetings and home offices are now available that didn’t exist before – just think of the difficulty in the second quarter of 2020 of getting all the notebooks for the employees in the home office. In addition, in my experience, most have become accustomed to these formats, so there is no longer the „feeling of foreignness“ of the early days. However, we also see that the face-to-face meetings are very much appreciated – not least in the higher attendance at our general meeting or the specialist conferences. I assume that in the future, both will occur in contact with customers – or, in the case of VDT, members. Presentation of content, knowledge transfer, obtaining information or results presentations will probably be carried out online very frequently. Getting to know each other, discussions, presentations of offers, customer events or conferences will again largely take place in personal contact.
corimamagazin: If you state Treasury as a hobby in our questionnaire, then it seems as if you have turned your hobby into a profession. Since you intend to devote yourself only to your hobbies in 10 years‘ time, will the list then be smaller by „Treasury“ or do you think that fascination and connection with the subject will remain?
Christian Debus: In 10 years Treasury will most likely not be my hobby anymore. I have been doing this for three years in an industrial group and over 20 years in consulting and will probably still be dealing with it for the next 2 – 3 years. But then „enough is enough“ will also apply to me.
corimamagazin: Speaking of enough is enough: Dear Professor Debus. Thank you for your time and all the interesting information about the German Treasurers Association and its 25th anniversary. See you at the latest at the anniversary celebrations on October 27th, 2022 in Frankfurt am Main.b