ATEL Hosts Treasury Day Event 2025

On the evening of Tuesday 10 June 2025, the Luxembourg Association of Corporate Treasurers (ATEL) hosted its Treasury Day event at the premises of BGL BNP Paribas in Luxembourg, Kirchberg.

The event gathered professionals from across the financial industry of Luxembourg to hear a variety of keynote addresses and panel discussions from experts on subjects such as short-term investments and yield opportunities, interest rate trends, risk management and best practices.

The conference was opened with a keynote speech from Chair of the European Association of Corporate Treasurers (EACT), François Masquelier, who welcomed those in attendance and provided an update on European Union (EU) financial regulations and advocacy developments. He also stressed the importance of ATEL’s role in ensuring changes to regulation are managed and communicated accordingly for the end users of financial services.            

He said: ”95% of our, let us say, regulation and financial regulation are decided in Brussels. Not in Luxembourg, not in Frankfurt, not in Paris, in Brussels. So, it is quite important to make sure that we are, let us say, aware of this legislation.” He added: “It takes a long time to get the processes respected at the three levels because we have three levels at the EU level and then sometimes there are directives to be transposed into national law but someone needs to take care of it.”

François Masquelier then provided details on the EU’s new agenda for the EACT and detailed upcoming reviews to the Foreign Direct Investment Framework and EU procurement rules, debates over the possible expansion of the European Investment Bank’s (EIB) mandate, reform of EU securitisation rules, proposals to simplify regulatory frameworks and other changes in financial sector regulations.

There then followed a panel discussion, hosted by François Masquelier, which featured Senior Associate Vice President Treasury at Revantage, Benjamin Defays, and Head of Money Market at Amundi, Patrick Simeon. They discussed a variety of topics, which included the impact of different interest rate policy in the US, EU and UK and how this has impacted the financial markets, liquidity, product diversification and the advantage of money market funds over traditional banking products. 

Overall, Patrick Simeon, remarked that the EU was in a good position but stressed “we need time to assess the real situation”. Despite uncertainty in the US financial system, he noted that the current situation was good for bond markets but more complicated for money market funds. Benjamin Defays added: “Money market funds, what I have seen is a big advantage, especially in the market moves we see all the time”.  He added “The treasurer can more quickly benefit from the market trend. When [with] banks, sometimes it is difficult to get them to adjust quickly.”

There then followed a panel discussion entitled “Women in Treasury”, which was hosted by ATEL board member, Sanae Maamouri, and featured Raphaela Cova de Lima (Treasury Service Division at Aramco), Krisztina Filo (Treasury Manager at Koch) and Helene Dekhar (Senior Manager and Finance Director at Herbalife). The panel members discussed their career progressions, the challenges they have faced as women in the treasury industry and what advice they would give to the next generations of women entering the industry. Raphaela Cova de Lima remarked: “Early in my career, sometimes I was the only woman in the room. That can be challenging. You need to speak up. Be resilient as well and be able and willing to advocate for yourself and the others.” 

Krisztina Filo remarked: “Be confident, believe in yourself and also, I think, stand together, be together instead of competing with each other.” Helene Dekhar said: “There is still the glass ceiling, unfortunately. The main reason of that is, of course, we do know that women do not advocate for themselves.” She encouraged women to “be more visible” and advocated for greater leadership and mentoring from women, for women.

The conference continued with a series of panel discussions regarding the role of ESG in short-term investments, maximising yield without adding risk, balancing liquidity, investment strategies in a volatile interest rate environment and best practices in corporate treasury investments.

The conference concluded with a networking session where guests and attendees were invited to discuss the topics raised during the evening.