How it started—and past editions

SFT’s summer school for financial translators began with informal networking among translators working for brokerages, banks and the Paris Bourse at the end of the 1980s.

With support from the Bourse and the French financial community, these exchanges became a one-day, then a three-day conference (2002), with a series of business lunches along the way.

The wave of new financial products that preceded the 2007-2008 crisis provided further impetus, followed by new regulatory environments and a host of new investment products.

Yet our focus has been clear from the start: you can’t translate what you don’t understand.

• In financial and business translation, genuine specialization is not optional—it is the core of skilled translators’ contribution to increasingly complex, high-stakes projects. Terminology: naturally. But also familiarity with the the concepts and fundamentals that underpin financial markets and drive societal trends.
• In this demanding segment of the market, the onus is on translators to acquire and hone the skills they need. Yet clients and translators who set the bar high have everything to gain from working closely together, and from understanding each others’ processes and priorities.

Twenty years on, these priorities are more important than ever.

Effective cross-border and cross-cultural communication is a critical challenge for companies and public authorites, with markets moving faster than ever. Confidentiality and timing issues are regularly in the spotlight. Financial translation is no place for amateurs or hastily compiled teams of anonymous providers “found on the internet”.

Whence our program, focusing on financial and economic fundamentals, topical issues, new techniques and products, legal restrictions and new or upcoming regulations. Understanding these topics now is critical for understanding the texts that skilled translators will be working on tomorrow.