With corporate tax reform heating up in Congress, it’s helpful that treasury and finance professionals have a former colleague on the inside. Rep. Lynn Jenkins is arguably the most prominent treasurer-turned-Congressman.

AFP has voiced its approval of bipartisan passage by the U.S. House of Representatives of H.R.634, the Business Risk Mitigation and Price Stabilization Act, which exempts non-financial end-users from imposed-margin requirements on over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives trading, a sought-after clarification to the Dodd-Frank Act.

Following the U.S. equity market indexes peaking on May 22, the investor community has been trying to figure out how the next chapter of the recovery story will play out. As the U.S. economy improves, the need for stimulus will decrease, and the market has been trying to contemplate going back to a more “normal” environment.

While rising gasoline and food prices led to the largest one-month increase in producer prices since February, little in two inflation reports released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics suggests that the Federal Open Market Committee will decide this week to slow the pace of expansion of the Fed’s balance sheet.

This issue begins with a timely interview with John Drzik, CEO of Oliver Wyman, focusing on the global risk landscape. Next, practitioner Dawnette Blake, CCM, explains the benefits of natural hedging. In addition, Nilly Essaides covers the growing appetite for cyber-risk insurance, AFP offers more risk survey analysis and sessions at its upcoming Annual Conference, and more.

Canadian treasurers have many questions about how to approach rating agencies for the first time. Recognizing their concerns, the Society of Canadian Treasurers (SCT) has released a new guide that focuses on how to approach and manage credit rating agency relationships.

U.S. businesses are growing increasingly confident about their intermediate and longer-term prospects, according to the AFP Corporate Cash Indicators™ (AFP CCI™), underwritten by State Street Global Advisors. The forward indicator measuring expectations for the second quarter of 2013 was at -5, following a -4 reading during the previous quarter and only the third negative reading in the history of the survey.

AFP and Aite Group released a new Payments Decision Guide at NACHA PAYMENTS 2013 Monday, presenting retail treasurers with strategies for managing payment acceptance costs and negotiating with merchant acquirers. The guide also provides details on the impact of industry mandates and legislative and court challenges to interchange fees and pricing.

In their 16-year history the annual AFP Pinnacle Awards for excellence in treasury have received many submissions. Tom Hunt, CTP, AFP’s Director of Treasury, offers some tips to make your Pinnacle Awards submission as strong as possible. The AFP Pinnacle Awards are sponsored by Wells Fargo.

The Financial Sharing and Analysis Center (FS-ISAC) conducted the latest Cyber Attack against Payment Processes (CAPP) Exercise on March 12-13 and 19-20, putting 67 corporate participants’ cybersecurity preparedness to the test.