History

The history of Asset | Accounting & Finance

The association Asset | Accounting & Finance, formerly the Financiële Studievereniging Tilburg (FST), was founded in 1999 by notarial deed as the result of a merger between ISABEST and FAT Mercurius.
 
ISABEST and FAT Mercurius

Before the Financial Study association Tilburg was founded, the association existed of two separate entities.

The first of these two entities was ISABEST (InformatieSystemen, Accountancy en BedrijfsEconomie Studenten Tilburg). Primarily, the target group of this association were the students with an interest in accountancy and controlling, or students graduating in the so-called KostenWaardeWinst (Cost-Value-Profit) programme. ISABEST was founded by five students and the first General Members Meeting was held in October 1986. At that time there were only 20 members. In January 1987, ISABEST was declared an official association by drawing up the general regulations and by registration in the Chamber of Commerce’s register.
Until the merger in 1999, the association grew to a total number of 300 members. Moreover, there were some well-established activities being held throughout the year. The most important activities were the ISABEST conference, the National Accountancy Conference, the magazine RA’drs and two symposia.

The second association involved in the founding of FST was FAT Mercurius (Financierings Associatie Tilburg). FAT Mercurius was organising activities for students interested in financial economic study programmes, like Ondernemingsfinanciering (Corporate Finance), Geld Krediet en Bankwezen (Money and Banking) and Kwantitatieve Financiering (Quantative Finance). Like ISABEST, FAT Mercurius was founded in 1986. The total number of members grew to a high of 300 at the time of the merger. Several of the activities organized by FAT Mercurius in that time were the Investor Day, the Finance Day, a conference, the magazine Mercurius Financieel, and a symposium.

Both associations delegated one person to take place in the organisation of the Economic Business weeks Tilburg (EBT). Historically, this event was organised by joint forces of 6 other associations connected to Tilburg University (Makub, Tev, Sbit, Vite, Top Down and Efact).
      
Financiële Studievereniging Tilburg

Both ISABEST and FAT Mercurius were connected to the Economic Faculty of the Katholieke Universiteit Brabant (KUB) and decided in 1998 that it would be better to continue as one organisation. The most important reasons for deciding to merge the two associations were the implementation of a limited, four-year government grant for students, the implementation of a new education programme at the university, the pressure from the university to reduce the number of study associations, having to enlarge the basis to cooperate within the pre-existing national platform, and improving the attractiveness of the association towards the corporate sector.
The perspectives for the several associations diminished because of the introduction of the prestatiebeurs (performance-related grant). Also, the educational structure at the KUB changed a lot, meaning that as of 1997/1998 students did no longer have to decide on their specialism in the first year of their studies. Both of these reasons made it more difficult to get the students involved in the study association at an early stage of their studies. Furthermore, the contact with the departments of the KUB became increasingly more difficult because there were simply too many associations and activities that requested the support of the university’s professors.
The companies that both ISABEST and FAT Mercurius were in contact with did not show much overlap and hence provided synergy in the merger. Most of the corporate contacts were either multinationals or in the accounting, banking and insurance sectors.
Joost Janssen became the last chairman in the board of ISABEST; Sándor Sepsanie was FAT Mercurius’ last chairman when the merger was completed in 1999. Koen Wagemakers became the first chairman of the Financiële Studievereniging Tilburg (FST). The first secretary was Michel Lerou. The board’s proposition to merge the two associations was accepted during the Extraordinary General Members Meetings of both ISABEST and FAT Mercurius. The first GMM of FST was held on 1 September 1999. As subtitle to this organisation was added organisation for accountancy, controlling and finance.
Since its establishment, FST focuses on students studying accountancy, controlling, financial economic management, investment theory or financial economics and other students interested in these fields of expertise. The statutory objective of the association states: “The objective of the association is to represent the interest of the students interested in the disciplines accountancy, controlling, finance and investment theory. For this purpose the association tries to build a bridge between the theory of the courses and the practise of business. Moreover, the association seeks to play a supporting role to the studies of its members. Finally, the association tries to fulfil an intermediary role between the student and the corporate sector, one and another in the broadest sense.”
This objective has been changed during the GMM of September 2004 due to the introduction of the Bachelor-Master structure. This caused several study programmes to change name.
   
Asset | Accounting & Finance

During the college year 2006-2007 the Executive Board of Tilburg University decided to cut back on the number of student grants that are available to the study associations represented at Tilburg University. Within three years the decrease would be realized. However, when the associations would come to an agreement on founding a new faculty association the reduction of the number of grants would be limited. In addition, the executive board wanted one party to be representing the economic study associations and also the business sector wanted more unity in the way sponsorship was requested.
In the period 2006 – 2008 the boards of all economic study associations related to the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration of Tilburg University have been working on the establishment and realization of the faculty association. As a result, all associations announced an Extraordinary General Members Meeting in July 2008. A change of statutory documents was proposed and agreed upon, which meant that the association would officially join the COdE foundation and be part of the faculty association. Moreover, a change of name was part of the change of statutory documents. As of July 1st, 2008, our association is called Asset | Accounting & Finance.
By organising activities on a faculty-wide scale and in coordination with the faculty association, Asset | Accounting & Finance tries to meet the needs of the students better more adequately.