SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- The Association for Financial Professionals and Wells Fargo & Company announced the City of Los Angeles won the 2009 Pinnacle Award Grand Prize for excellence in treasury and finance at AFP's Annual Conference.
An independent panel of eight judges declared the Office of the Treasurer of Los Angeles had the superior entry out of a record number of submissions.
The Los Angeles Office of the Treasurer: -- Updated its 30-year-old system and reduced unidentified deposits from 1,220 to fewer than 20 per month; -- Automated general ledger posting, resulting in the reduction of 107 FTE hours per week; -- Realized annual float savings of $1.13 million from implementation of four controlled disbursement accounts; -- Decreased compensating balances with an associated increase in return on investment of $4 million.
"AFP is extremely proud to honor the City of Los Angeles as the 2009 Pinnacle Award Grand Prize winner," said Jim Kaitz, president and chief executive officer of AFP. "Despite seemingly insurmountable external and internal challenges, the City of Los Angeles transformed its treasury and finance operations to benefit residents by more efficiently handling taxpayer revenue -- and leading the treasury and finance industry in the process."
Judges were impressed by the sheer scope of the project: Los Angeles reengineered entire processes and systems while winning buy-in from multiple city agencies and political figures.
For winning the AFP Pinnacle Grand Prize, the City of Los Angeles receives a $10,000 donation from Wells Fargo to the charity of its choice. Los Angeles will donate the award to Angel's Flight for runaway and homeless youth, run by Catholic Charities of Los Angeles. The center is a refuge for runaway teens, most of whom are fleeing abusive families. Teens are welcomed with shelter, food, clothing, mental health care, counseling and education. The program includes a drop-in center and an outreach component, and reaches at least 3,000 adolescents a year.
"Wells Fargo is proud to honor the accomplishments of treasury and finance organizations while helping their communities," said Danny Peltz, head of Wells Fargo's Treasury Management Group. "In the current economic climate, with shrinking staffs and increasing responsibilities, these groups face innumerable challenges that have led them to seek innovative ways to reduce costs and increase efficiencies. We applaud their successes."
About AFP(R)The Association for Financial Professionals (AFP) serves a network of more than 16,000 treasury and finance professionals. Headquartered in Bethesda, MD, AFP provides members with breaking news, economic research and data on the evolving world of treasury and finance, as well as world-class treasury certification programs, networking events, financial analytical tools, training, and public policy representation to legislators and regulators. AFP is the daily resource for treasury and finance professionals.
AFP's global reach extends to over 150,000 treasury and financial professionals worldwide, including AFP of Canada, AFP's gtnews, an on-line resource for the treasury and finance community, and the London-based bobsguide, a financial IT solutions network.
Association for Financial Professionals
CONTACT: Ira Apfel of the Association for Financial Professionals,
+1-301-961-8881
Web Site: http://www.afponline.org/
