What are YOUR SCAFP goals for this year? What are YOUR expectations of SCAFP?
Have you thought -- " What is SCAFP all about besides earning CTP credits?"
As directors/officers of SCAFP, our mission is to provide YOU, our members:
1) educational and career development opportunities and 2) an interactive forum for the exchange of ideas.
A STRONG association is dependent on the continued and enthusiastic participation of its members.
I want to know if you think we are doing a great job or even if you think we are not. I want to hear from you . . call, e-mail or catch me at the next monthly luncheon to let me know your thoughts.
Susan Q. Mah
SCAFP President
University of Southern California
Treasury Associate
(213) 740-5417 mah@usc.edu
Garima Thakur, CTP, Meeting Programs Chair
Greetings SCAFP members! I hope you have enjoyed the programs and webinars organized so far. Given the current economic environment, I'm sure you will agree with me that it is very critical to keep up with changes in rules and regulations, the global economy, developments in treasury technology and information security, as well as understand the impacts of these changes on one's industry and organization. Our monthly programs and webinars are a great opportunity to get this exposure and a forum for discussions with colleagues and industry experts. We have some very interesting and educational sessions planned for the upcoming months. Please continue to check the SCAFP website for all upcoming events and registration information.
We will continue to invite knowledgeable speakers with interesting and relevant topics for our monthly meetings and webinars. In addition to quality education programs, the monthly events provide a great opportunity to network with fellow professionals and to earn CTP credits. I would love to get your feedback on the programs and webinars, so if you have any suggestions/comments on meeting locations, topics, speakers, speaker referrals or if you would like to be on the planning committee, please feel free to contact me.
I look forward to seeing you at the next SCAFP event!
Dick Ercole, Director at Large
EXPECT HIGHER FEES FROM YOUR BANK
It seems fashionable these days to slam the banks. The government has blamed the banks for the financial meltdown (although it was the government that caused it). So, to get back at the banks, the Federal Government passed the Dodd Frank Bill. This bill imposes hundreds of new regulations on Financial Institutions which will cost the banks millions of dollars each year. The Fed has restricted the amount a bank can charge for debit card transactions which will reduce bank's income. In addition, companies are trying to reduce their bank fees. As an example, PayPal is trying to push their clients to use ACH payments instead of credit cards to reduce their fees to banks. So you have more regulations reducing bank income and clients moving to cheaper payment systems. The only thing Financial Institutions can do is to raise fees. And raising fees is what they are doing.
We have already seen the demise of the Free Checking Account. I predict you will see other fees increasing and new fees being imposed. Currently, consumers do not pay for ACH transactions, but I believe these fees are just around the corner. Other fees like wire transfers, stop payments and the like will have to increase. It's not implausible to see consumers being charged for depositing cash and checks, same as corporate clients.
Before the Financial crises, most banks needed deposits for funding their loans. Outstanding loans exceeded the balances on deposit. Since then, most banks are flush with cash as both consumer and corporate clients fled to the safety of their bank. Banks don't need the deposits anymore, as their deposits exceed their loans. Therefore interest rates on Savings accounts and CD's are at historic lows. It would not surprise me to see banks charge for keeping your money on deposit because of the safe haven they provide.
When the government punishes Banks and Corporations they only penalize the consumer. Unlike government, Corporations and banks must make a profit and their costs must be passed on to their clients or they will be out of business.
Hope this makes sense.
Dick Ercole
Randy Gehres, President-Elect/Expo Chair
Hello SCAFP Colleagues,
It is already that time of year to begin planning for the
31st SoCal Expo 2012. I have my committee and we are beginning to plan for our exciting 2-day event. We received such positive feedback from you about the event in Anaheim that we have decided to hold our event at the same location, at the Crowne Plaza. The hotel was very accommodating with SCAFP in terms of the venue, hotel rooms, food, etc. that having the event at the Crowne Plaza again will be a good draw for attendees and be financially beneficial for our organization. The date for the event is May 10
- 11, 2012 so please make sure to save the date.
The committee for 2012 is as follows:
Randy Gehres, Travelex SoCal Expo Chairman
Meredith Oldorf, City National Bank
Katie Poxon Garda Cash Logistics
Garima Thakur United Online
Ranette Douglas Union Bank
Zach Wilson Occidental Petroleum
Cynthia Rolf HSBC
Zoya Lieberman Informa Research Services
Please let me know if you would like to volunteer to join my committee. Please feel free to send me an email or call if you have any feedback from this years Expo or suggestions for next year.
I look forward to providing you with more updates.
Cheers,
Randy Gehres
Paz Hernandez, Membership Chair
Dear SCAFP Members,
My name is Paz Hernandez and I am your new Membership Chair. I have been a member of SCAFP for quite a few years and have served in various capacities, including president. I value what SCAFP has to offer and am excited to be back serving in this new role.
I would like to share with you what the Membership Committee has been working on and what we will strive to accomplish in the near term.
Our main objectives are to learn more about how to better serve you, our members, and how to grow practitioner membership. We will also be looking at how we may be able to support those members who are in transition. With those things in mind, we are researching what other regional associations are doing for their members and what types of memberships they offer. We will also be sending you a survey, with questions designed for us to learn more about how we can do better; how you may derive more benefit from your Association; and how we can help you achieve your career goals. The survey should be coming out before year end so please, look for it.
The Membership Committee members are:
Scott Hogate, CTP, DDI Corp
Araxi Kevorkian, City National Bank
Kendall McCarty, CTP, Freedom Communications
Janet Pickering, CTP, ADP
Lynne Shulim
George Smith, CTP, Crimson Technical College
Christopher Van Alstyne, Northern Trust Global Investments
Paul Walker, Parsons Communications
And me
Together, and with your help, we look forward to making our Association even better and to learning how we can make it better for you.
Paz Hernandez
Sarine Topdjian, CTP, Education Chair
The last day to apply for the next CTP testing window for December 1st, 2011- January 31st, 2012 period is coming up on September 23rd, 2011 for the standard registration and the final application deadline is October 28th, 2011. For those interested in studying for the CTP test, please contact Janet Reinstra at Bank of America who is offering 11 free conference call training sessions beginning 9/20/11 12/6/11 covering ten chapters starting with Chapter 3. For more information review the following link and contact Janet Reinstra or myself for more details. Good Luck and look out for more study tips on our website coming soon!
