… isn’t so merry these days, at least for corporate treasurers. Across the Atlantic, U.K.-based corporate treasurers, like their North American counterparts, have their work cut out for them as they navigate the current credit crisis.

Those are the findings from a series of interviews with 43 U.K. corporate treasurers that were conducted by the Association of Corporate Treasurers (ACT) earlier this year. For starters, average borrowing costs have skyrocketed to three to five times pre-crunch levels. What’s more, most loans written today come due in 3 years, versus the previous norm of 5 to 7 years.

Banks’ credit and capital allocation committees appear to have a greater role in green-lighting lending deals, making it difficult for even the banks’ account managers to know whether a loan actually will be approved. On top of that, banks are paying greater attention to companies’ ancillary business when establishing lending relationships. Some even are demanding a piece of the business rather than just the opportunity to quote it.

Making things even more complicated, banks themselves are continually tweaking their own lending policies, treasurers said. “Members have asserted that banks give the impression that they do not know their own minds from day to day,” according to the report.

These changes have kept treasurers busy. Treasurers with loans coming due in 2010 are scrambling to renew them now, in order to “make more robust the going concern basis for reporting” at the end of the first half of 2009, the report says. Auditors, before they’ll sign off on the report, need assurance that the companies have sufficient liquidity to carry them through the upcoming 12 months.

Given uncertain bank financing, more treasurers are seeking credit ratings in order to give their firms a shot at the bond market. And, many have upped their focus on working capital, consolidating cash from subsidiaries and putting it to work. They’re also halting share-buyback programs and cutting capital investments.

Such steps are critical, given that few treasurers predict a quick fix. While rates and capital availability may ease a bit, no one is expecting a return to pre-crunch levels anytime soon. As ACT’s chief executive, Stuart Siddell, noted in a release, “Banking markets have suffered changes, some of which could persist for a generation.” ###