Certified Treasury Professional (AFP)

The term Certified Treasury Professional (CTP) refers to a financial title given by the Association for Financial Professionals to professionals with experience in cash management who pass an exam showing their knowledge (AFP). The privilege to use the CTP designation with their names for three years is granted to successful candidates, which can boost career chances, professional reputation, and compensation. CTPs also work in a range of industries such as treasury management, finance, and accounting.

Job Responsibilities

The CTP exam is designed to test mastery of knowledge and skills required by treasury professionals to execute critical functions related to corporate liquidity, capital, and risk management, such as:

Maintain corporate liquidity required to meet current and future obligations in a timely and cost-effective manner.
Manage optimal cash positioning through forecasting and short-term investing and borrowing activities.
Employ working capital strategies and tools to efficiently manage current assets and liabilities.
Utilize various types of payment systems and Internet technologies to transfer monetary value and business documents between parties.
Monitor and control corporate exposure to financial and operational risks.
Optimize capital structure, manage costs of long-term capital, and quantitatively evaluate capital resource investments.
Manage cross-border funds movement and utilize international trade financing methods.
Coordinate financial functions and the sharing of financial information with other internal departments.
Delineate appropriate ethical behaviors expected in business activities.
Recognize corporate governance issues that arise from the separation of corporate ownership and control.
Build cost-effective relationships with financial services providers.

Exam Details

The Certified Treasury Professional (AFP) exam consists of 170 questions. There are numerous alternative answers to each question on the exam. In addition, the Certified Treasury Professional (AFP) test will take 4 hours to complete. The individual taking the test looks over the response alternatives and chooses the most accurate response to the question. AFP members pay a cost of $875 for the exam if they register early. If they register during the last cutoff period, the fee increases by $100. Non-members may also apply for the test, but the fees are higher—$1,270 if you register early and $1,370 if you register late. For a period of three years, the certification is valid.

Eligibility

The professional experience requirement to sit for the CTP exam is a minimum of two years of full-time work experience in a career-based corporate cash/treasury management or corporate finance-related position. Internships, vacation/holiday work, and volunteer work do not count toward the full-time experience requirement. The application deadline, not the start of the testing window, is when the experience criteria must be met. In addition, candidates who submit their application before meeting all of the academic and/or experience requirements may be ruled ineligible.

Certified Treasury Professional (AFP) Course Outline ‘

The CTP Exam is made up of 170 multiple-choice questions that are based on treasury management principles and experiences. Each question is based on the knowledge base. The course plan for the Certified Treasury Professional (AFP) test is as follows.

Domain 1: Maintain corporate liquidity required to meet current and future obligations in a timely and cost-effective manner (25%)

Manage optimal cash positioning through short-term investing and borrowing activities
Forecast/manage cash receipts and disbursements [cash flows]
Leverage cash concentration/pooling structures
Manage foreign exchange (FX) exposure
Managing trade financing (including letters of credit)
Manage intercompany financing (including loans, repatriation, in-house banking)
Review cash balances and reconcile transaction activity to ensure accuracy
Optimize treasury operations (including considerations for roles/responsibilities and outsourcing options)
Calculate, analyze, and evaluate financial ratios to optimize financial decision making

Domain 2: Manage capital structure, manage costs of long-term capital, and quantitatively evaluate long-term capital resource investments (18%)

Negotiate and manage syndicated agreements
Manage investment portfolio
Issue debit and equity
Manage revolving debt agreements
Assess the impact of mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures
Evaluate current market conditions (including credit availability, spreads, interest rates, terms, risk) as they relate to long-term borrowing strategies

Domain 3: Manage internal and external relationships (20%)

Build, maintain, and review relationships with external financial service providers
Evaluate and implement treasury products and services (including banking products, treasury workstations)
Administer bank accounts (including bank fee analysis) and maintain documentation
Identify, negotiate, and select relationships and operational agreements with external service providers (including financial, technological, and investment/retirement advisors) to ensure best practices and competitive pricing
Serve as an internal trusted advisor and consultant (including Project Finance)
Manage merchant services programs (including fees, risk, controls, card security compliance, retention requirements)
Build and maintain relationships with internal stakeholders (including accounting, IT, legal, and tax departments)

Domain 4: Monitor and control corporate exposure to financial, regulatory, and operational risk (including emerging and reputational risk) (25%)

Comply with treasury policies and procedures (such as investment, FX, risk management, hedging, credit approval)
Draft treasury policies and procedures for approval (such as investment, FX, risk management, hedging, credit approval)
Detect and mitigate fraud (such as payments, bank transactions, internal, external)
Benchmark performance against external sources to ensure best practices (including banking fees comparative analysis)
Evaluate and manage counterparty risk (including risk related to supply chain, banks, brokers, dealers)
Develop, maintain, and test business continuity plans (including bank balance reporting process, funds transfer capabilities)
Hedge FX, interest rate, and commodities exposure
Ensure regulatory compliance, and report internally and externally on compliance

Domain 5: Assess the impact of technologies on the treasury function (12%)

Leverage technology systems (including enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems and treasury management systems)
Identify security issues and concerns associated with new and existing technology
Identify cyber-related risks
Monitor information security risk and cyber-related risk (including e-mail scams, phishing scams)

Certified Treasury Professional (AFP) FAQ

Exam Policies

The candidate who is preparing for the Certified Treasury Professional (AFP) exam must visit and read all the rules and regulations by AFP. Also, the candidate should visit exam policies that clear any doubt the candidate has. Here are AFP STANDARDS OF ETHICAL CONDUCT, in case the candidate wants to visit.

Preparatory Guide: Certified Treasury Professional (AFP)

However, it should be obvious if you know where to begin while studying for any certification or exam. As a result, Testprep training has compiled a list of all the learning procedures and resources that will assist you in becoming a Certified Treasury Professional (AFP).

CTP Official Website

First of all, you should visit the official website of the CTP because it offers the most reliable information about the exam. CTP provides a study guide for each of its certifications and exams. The Certified Treasury Professional (AFP) course outline is also present on the CTP website. Further, the study guide provides all the reliable and most relevant information on a particular exam. It also includes the objectives and the basic details about the exam.

Review All the objectives

With complete exam objectives, the candidate’s exam preparation time is better spent because they already know what to study. Significantly, this is the most important step in the preparation guide. So, let’s take a quick look at the Objectives of the Certified Treasury Professional (AFP) Exam.

Maintain corporate liquidity required to meet current and future obligations in a timely and cost-effective manner (25%)
Manage capital structure, manage costs of long- term capital, and quantitatively evaluate long-term capital resource investments (18%)
Manage internal and external relationships (20%)
Monitor and control corporate exposure to financial, regulatory, and operational risk (including emerging and reputational risk) (25%)
Assess the impact of technologies on the treasury function (12%)

Instructor-led Training

For both online and in-person led courses, AFP both hosts and works with organizations and colleges. To give the most trustworthy and up-to-date Certified Treasury Professional (CTP) test preparation possible, all courses employ AFP-developed material (The body of knowledge for 2020-2022 encompassing the basics of treasury management, version 6) and are taught by AFP-approved facilitators.

Books and Guides

Finding the right study material may be difficult, but the applicant must learn and investigate the right study material. Books and publications assist candidates in fully comprehending the Certified Treasury Professional (AFP) test. Furthermore, one of the most crucial phases in the preparation guide is this.

Join a Study Group

Participating in a group study will also benefit the candidate. It will motivate them to put forth more effort. Additionally, studying in a group will allow them to maintain contact with others who are on the same route as them. Furthermore, the conversation in such study groups will assist students in passing their tests.

Try Practise Test

Practice exams are the only way for a candidate to know how well they’ve prepared. The practice test will assist applicants in identifying their areas of weakness so that they may focus on improving them. However, because there are so many practice exams available on the internet these days, the applicant may pick and choose which ones they wish to take. We also provide practice exams at Testprep Training, which are quite useful for those who are prepared.