Businesses Still Lax Over Payment Card Security

Payment card data security continues to be lax among retailers and other merchants, with four out of five failing interim assessments of their compliance with international security standards, according to a new report.Compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) act...

By Matthew Heller • March 11, 2015

Why CFO Patrick Pichette is Leaving Google

Most people don’t believe a 50-something exec when they say they are retiring to spend more time with their family.But Google chief financial officer Patrick Pichette, 52, really wants people to believe that’s why he’s leaving the Mountain View, Calif. after nearly seven years in that position – ...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • March 11, 2015

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Top 5 stories from CFO.com

From CPA licensure changes to undergoing a digital transformation, these are the most popular stories CFOs are reading. 

By CFO.com staff

Companies Taking Whistleblower Retaliation Seriously

U.S. companies substantiated 27% of whistleblower retaliation complaints last year, a 125% increase on 2013 that indicates ethics and compliance program leaders are taking such cases more seriously amid tighter regulatory scrutiny, according to a new survey.Navex Global, which runs whistleblower ...

By Matthew Heller • March 10, 2015

How to Become a Sustainability Wizard

If you want to expand your company’s sustainability efforts but aren’t quite sure how to go about it, you’re in luck. And you have His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, otherwise known as Prince Charles, to thank for it.The heir to the British throne created the Prince’s Accounting for Sustaina...

By David McCann • March 10, 2015

Sales Fall, Inventories Rise at U.S. Wholesalers

An economic slowdown in January due to harsh weather, slower global demand, and the now-settled labor dispute at the country’s West Coast ports unexpectedly caused wholesalers’ inventories to rise on slower sales.The Commerce Department’s Census Bureau on Tuesday said that January 2015 sales of m...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • March 10, 2015

Budget Watchdogs See Further Drop in Obamacare Costs

In their latest forecast, federal budget watchdogs have sharply reduced the projected costs of the Affordable Care Act, reflecting slower-than-expected growth in health-care costs and lower-than-expected enrollment in coverage through federal exchanges.The Congressional Budget Office and the Join...

By Matthew Heller • March 10, 2015

Economist Piketty Backtracks on Inequality Theory

In what one critic called “an extraordinary about-face,” French economist Thomas Piketty has downplayed the central thesis of his best-selling book “Capital in the Twenty-First Century.”Piketty rocketed to fame with the theory he summarized as r>g: return on capital (r) outpaces the growth rat...

By Matthew Heller • March 9, 2015

Health Care in America: Shock Treatment

The best-known objective of America’s Affordable Care Act of 2010 — commonly known as Obamacare — was to ensure that the 40 milolion-plus Americans who lacked health insurance could get it. Less widely appreciated, but at least as important, are the incentives and penalties the law introduced to ...

By Economist Staff • March 9, 2015

CFOs on the Move: Week Ending March 6

Dan Arnold has been promoted from CFO to president of brokerage LPL Financial Holdings, replacing the resigning Robert Moore. Arnold has been at the firm since 2007, when it purchased his previous employer, brokerage firm UVEST. He became finance chief in 2013, also taking over for Moore.Marathon...

By Joan Urdang • March 6, 2015

Before Firing an Employee …

If employers fire workers the wrong way, they could end up in court.So says Chas Rampenthal, general counsel for online legal resource solutions site LegalZoom, who outlined in an Entrepreneur article Thursday 10 questions managers should ask themselves before giving an employee a pink slip.Am I ...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • March 5, 2015

CFOs’ Growth Forecasts Diverge

U.S. finance leaders rank among the most optimistic in the world, according to the eighth annual American Express/CFO Research Global Business and Spending Monitor.Of the 565 senior finance and corporate executives surveyed across the globe, U.S. respondents were some of the most bullish, with 83...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • March 5, 2015

Instability in Oil-Producing Nations Endangers Economies

Increasing instability in already-fragile oil producing countries such as Iran, Iraq, Libya, Russia, and Venezuela fueled by low oil prices tops a British insurer’s list of the political risks facing emerging market investors.This year will be particularly challenging for oil producing-countries ...

By Matthew Heller • March 4, 2015

Fraudsters Infiltrating Apple Pay Verification Process

Fraudsters are already finding ways to take advantage of holes in the security around Apple Pay.Payments expert Cherian Abraham reportedly started warning banks and credit unions last month about vulnerabilities in Apple Pay’s verification process that enables users to add a credit card to the mo...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • March 4, 2015

Supreme Court Hears Affordable Care Act Case

The Supreme Court Wednesday heard oral arguments in a case that could throw a wrench in the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. Meanwhile, Congressional Republicans are working on a “plan B” if the court strikes down the ability of the federal government to offer health-care subsidies to m...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • March 4, 2015

Tweets, Likes, and +1s: Do They Matter?

CFOs: it’s time to expect more from social media and demand proof that there is a return on investment.So says Harvard Business School senior lecturer Frank Cespedes, who Tuesday penned a column, “Is social media actually helping your company’s bottom line?” on the Harvard Business Review web sit...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • March 4, 2015

Why Target Lost Its Aim

At one of Target’s shops in downtown Chicago, one recent weekend, customers congregated in the electronics department and the area that sells towels and bedding. Upstairs, the women’s clothes department was almost deserted. A quick examination of its stock revealed why: dowdy dresses, garish swea...

By Economist Staff • March 3, 2015

Corporate Officer Awarded Whistleblower Payout

The latest whistleblower award has a twist that CFOs may want to note.A former company officer earned between $475,000 and $575,000  for reporting a securities fraud at his or her company “when it became apparent that the company’s internal compliance system was not functioning well enough to add...

By Vincent Ryan • March 3, 2015

Genworth Flags Material Weakness in Accounting

Life and mortgage insurer Genworth Financial disclosed Monday that it had failed to spot a $44 million after-tax calculation error because of a “material weakness” in its accounting controls.The error was connected to a review of long-term care reserves completed in the third quarter of 2014, the...

By Matthew Heller • March 2, 2015

Google Throws Its Hat Into Wireless Ring

Google is gearing up for a move into wireless services that would allow it to offer plans to consumers without having to build and maintain a network.Google senior vice president Sundar Pichai, who oversees the Android operating system, told a conference in Spain on Monday that the service would ...

By Matthew Heller • March 2, 2015

SEC Charges VC Fund Manager in Ponzi Scheme

The Securities and Exchange Commission charged a venture capital fund manager with running a Ponzi scheme.In a press release Friday, the SEC said that it had filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, charging Gregory W. Gray, Jr., and his firms Archipel C...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • March 2, 2015

Your CIO’s Not Strategic? Five Ways to Fix the Flaw

Long gone are the days when the chief information officer’s role was to “keep the lights on.” That isn’t enough in this digital age. CFOs, along with CEOs and board members, expect technology to be at the heart of their organization’s business transformation.Bob Dvorak While the old IT operating ...

By Bob Dvorak • March 2, 2015

Report Card Time for Private Company Council

The trustees of the Financial Accounting Foundation are asking stakeholders to weigh in on the report card they are preparing on the performance of the Private Company Council over the past three years.In a notice issued Thursday, the trustees, who created the PCC in May 2012, asked for comment o...

By Matthew Heller • Feb. 27, 2015

Government Spending Decline Shaves Q4 GDP

The country’s gross domestic product rose at an annual rate of 2.2% in the fourth quarter, according to revised numbers by the Commerce’s Dept.’s Bureau of Economic Analysis, a fall from the 2.6% rise initially reported.The 2.2% increase reflected positive contributions from personal consumption ...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • Feb. 27, 2015

How Inaccurate Sales Tax Calculations Spur Class Actions

 In 2014 there were over 780 sales and use tax changes in the U.S. alone. For businesses, keeping track of these changes in order to calculate, collect and pay the correct tax is not only complicated – it’s risky.Carla Yrjanson Charge too little and you run the risk of audit penalties and adjustm...

By Carla Yrjanson • Feb. 27, 2015

Sheltering Whistleblowers

Corporate whistleblowers are getting a boost from the Securities and Exchange Commission.The commission is cracking down on any attempts by companies to muzzle would-be whistleblowers, by asking for firms’ nondisclosure agreements, employment contracts, confidentiality agreements, severance agree...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • Feb. 26, 2015