The fate of the eurowas uppermost in the minds of delegates at the International Cashand Treasury Management conference held by EuroFinance at the endof September. According to an interactive poll, 57% of the financeexecutives at the conference say their company is prepared for acountry exiting the euro, although only a third believe that therewill be fewer countries in the euro by this time next year.

Patricia Greenfield, head of treasury operations at AstraZeneca,said the pharmaceutical company has put in place a eurozone taskforce and taken measures including setting up contingency bankaccounts in legacy currencies in case the need arises.

Jörg Bermüller, head of cash and risk management atMerck KGaA, another pharmaceutical company, said his companylaunched a new IT project to ensure its systems could handle newcurrencies and the respective exchange rates if necessary.Bermüller said that while Merck is prepared for a breakupof the euro, he is optimistic that the common currency willsurvive.

Marianna Polykrati, group treasurer of Vivartia, a Greek foodcompany, gave some sobering insights into the challenges Greekcompanies face in the current climate. Vivartia has swept half ofits surplus cash out of the country, but is keeping the other halfin Greece in case the government introduces FX controls, whichcould prevent the company from bringing money back into thecountry.

Other contingency measures Vivartia has taken include setting upelectrical generators and back-up servers in case of a significantelectricity outage. The company is also looking at the possibilityof paying employees using a barter system.

Polykrati noted that treasury's role withinthe organization has been “upgraded” as a result of the crisis.

She challenged the merits of keeping the euro together at allcosts. When asked for her personal views, Polykrati said thatshe thought Greece should have defaulted two years ago when itstill had cash on hand to grow the country again.

A panel session at the EuroFinance conference explored the rangeof possible outcomes, including a significant breakup of the euro,a continuation of the current situation or substantial politicalintegration within Europe. The overwhelming consensus of thepanelists was that it was impossible to predict what was going tohappen.

European politicians have had some form of fiscal union on theagenda for the past 19 years, but the process was mishandled at theoutset, with clear design flaws, said Stephen Boyle, head of groupeconomics at RBS. Europe is now moving towards the right kinds ofstructures and solutions, Boyle added, but doing so will taketime.

In a later session, John Micklethwait, editor-in-chief of theEconomist, argued that a common mistake is to believe thatunsustainable situations will continue indefinitely, such as theexistence of a single European currency without a fiscal union.Micklethwait predicted that the euro will survive, but said somesort of federal union will be necessary, and pointed out that theconsequences of such a union would be significant for countries andbusinesses across Europe.