The Annual Dinner, held in London on 19 June, provided its usual excellent opportunity for networking between corporate treasurers. It was also attended by four previous Chairmen of the Society who were introduced by the current Chairman, David Blackwood. He also thanked the Society's administrator, Heather Parsons, for her excellent work for the Society and for arranging the Annual Dinner at short notice.

The Guest Speaker, Steven Kaempfer, Vice President Finance and Acting First Vice President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), was introduced by Chris Bowmer of Rexam PLC. Steven's theme was a background to EBRD and its operations, commencing with its founding in 1991 as a AAA rated ‘supranational' agency owned by the G7 and other governments to foster change from ‘command' to market driven economies in Eastern Europe. He explained that the Bank would only consider commercially and environmentally viable projects at market rates and terms, always in conjunction with a partner, but without risk layoff.

Through its operations in 24 countries, the EBRD has now committed €30 billion of funds to projects valued around €100 billion with write-offs to date of only some € 0.5 billion. The Bank is now the largest single financier outside the oil & gas sector in this region. Steven explained that one of the big success stories for the Bank was the recent integration of 8 countries (the EU8) who had previously been aided by the Bank, as new members of the European Union and who were expected soon to be, as a consequence, outside its mandate. EBRD was thus expanding its activities further east and into the ‘stan' countries. He outlined the impact on the Bank of Russia restructuring and the economic turnaround there based on higher energy prices, but with its continuing high risk and cashflow issues.

Steven answered various questions, noting particularly that the key future areas of interest for EBRD would be Russia , infrastructure and energy sector projects, and supporting local foreign currency exchange markets. He was thanked by David Blackwood for a stimulating and interesting presentation.

Brian G. Lowe

Director General