New York Sues Student Loan Servicer

New York State Attorney General Letitia James has filed a lawsuit against the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency, saying the agency has failed to properly administer the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, which was created to encourage graduates to work in public service by off...

By Lauren Muskett • Oct. 4, 2019

6 Cybersecurity Misconceptions

It seems like every few months we hear about a major hack or data breach affecting millions of people. This summer, it was Capital One and some 100 million Americans whose personal data was harvested. Increasingly, it’s small and midsize businesses that are the target of cyberattacks, and because...

By Vincent Ryan • Oct. 4, 2019

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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

CFOs On the Move: Week Ending October 4

Shake Shack promoted CFO Tara Comonte to the expanded role of president and CFO. Comonte joined the fast-casual food chain in 2017 and has more than 20 years of strategy, finance, technology, and operations experience in the public and private sector, spending much of her career at global media a...

By Lauren Muskett • Oct. 4, 2019

Samsung, Finablr Partner on Cross-Border Payments

Samsung and global payments platform Finablr announced they have launched an in-app international money transfer service. Under the arrangement, Samsung Pay users will be able to use the “Money Transfer” feature of the app to make cross-border payments to 47 countries, including India, Mexico, Ch...

By Lauren Muskett • Oct. 3, 2019

GM Idles Mexico Plant and Lays off 6,000 Workers as Strike Continues

General Motors idled a plant in Guanajuato, Mexico, temporarily laying off 6,000 workers, amid a strike by the United Auto Workers union that is pushing into its third week.The automaker cited a parts shortage due to the strike as the reason for the plant closure.The plant produced highly-profita...

By Lauren Muskett • Oct. 2, 2019

5 Keys to a Strong Employee Value Proposition

In today’s candidate-driven hiring market, marked by jobs growth, low unemployment, and high quit rates, employers need to ensure they’re positioning themselves as competitively as possible to attract and retain top-performing talent.Beyond the standard job description, a well-thought-out employe...

By Lauren Muskett • Oct. 2, 2019

AI is Ushering in a New Era of Integrated Receivables

The idea of implementing AI as part of a business process is often received with mixed feelings. Many believe that AI will take over jobs — or even entire industries. But in reality, fears may be overblown. Jobs, as we know them, may change, but adapting to innovative technologies will free up ti...

By Sayid Shabeer • Oct. 1, 2019

Ford Partners with Mumbai-based Mahindra

Ford and Mahindra & Mahindra are forming a joint venture, valued at $275 million, to develop, market, and distribute Ford-branded vehicles in “high-growth emerging markets around the world.”Mahindra will own a 51% controlling stake, and Ford will own a 49% stake. The joint venture will be ope...

By Lauren Muskett • Oct. 1, 2019

Law Allowing College Players to Profit From Their Image Has Big Implications

We may be about to see the NCAA lose near-total control over athletes at the school with the most college basketball championships, UCLA, and those on the vaunted USC Trojan football team, a national brand, that has helped make Southern California a top-20 region in terms of college sports revenu...

By Vincent Ryan • Sept. 30, 2019

Blackstone to Buy Colony Warehouses for $5.9B

Private-equity giant Blackstone Group has agreed to acquire Colony Capital’s industrial warehouse business for $5.9 billion as it continues to build a logistics empire to support e-commerce.The deal, announced on Monday, includes 465 “last-mile” warehouses owned by Colony’s industrial platform. T...

By Matthew Heller • Sept. 30, 2019

Forever 21 Scaling Back Global Ambitions in Bankruptcy Plan

Retail chain Forever 21 has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States, saying it plans to carry out a global restructuring to focus on its core operations while exiting most international locations in Asia and Europe. Its Canadian subsidiary also filed for bankruptcy, saying...

By Vincent Ryan • Sept. 30, 2019

Fast and Easy G&A Cuts Won’t Cut It in the Next Downturn

More than half of executives who lead general and administrative (G&A) functions, including finance, expect a downturn this year or next, a new Bain & Company survey shows.The good news is that most believe the next downturn will be shallower and shorter than the last one, and will requir...

By David McCann • Sept. 30, 2019

Flurry of SEC Cases Disclosed

As the U.S. government heads toward its September 30 fiscal year-end, the Securities and Exchange Commission has announced a flurry of lawsuit settlements and charges against seven different organizations in two days. Three of the cases involved wrongdoing in China, and two of them involved viola...

By Vincent Ryan • Sept. 27, 2019

Mylan Settles Charges With SEC

Pharmaceutical company Mylan has agreed to pay $30 million to settle charges from the Securities and Exchange Commission over accounting and disclosure failures relating to its EpiPen.According to the SEC’s complaint, Mylan classified the EpiPen, its largest revenue and profit-generating product,...

By Lauren Muskett • Sept. 27, 2019

CFOs On the Move: Week Ending September 27

Rahim Lakhani Letgo, an app to buy and sell locally, hired Rahim Lakhani as its first chief financial officer. Most recently, Lakhani was chief operating officer and CFO at online real estate platform OfferPad. Prior to that, he was CFO, India/Southeast Asia at Anheuser-Busch InBev and a vice pre...

By Joan Urdang • Sept. 27, 2019

AI Gets Real in Professional Services

Remember when researchers predicted that professional services jobs in industries like insurance, tax and accounting, and finance and legal would soon be replaced by artificial intelligence (AI)? That was in 2013 when AI was just starting to peak on the hype cycle, and headlines like “Your Next A...

By Vincent Ryan • Sept. 26, 2019

SoFi Launches Crypto-Trading Service

San Francisco-based fintech startup SoFi has launched a cryptocurrency trading service that allows users to trade bitcoin, ether, and litecoin. The company said it will add more cryptocurrencies in the coming months.The company said users will not be able to withdraw their cryptocurrencies to an ...

By Lauren Muskett • Sept. 26, 2019

Juul Replaces CEO; Altria-Phillip Morris End Merger Talks

E-cigarette giant Juul Labs is undergoing a major corporate shakeup and two giant tobacco companies are ending merger discussions amid government criticism that the company’s advertising targets young people.Juul, which is the main target in several federal investigations, said CEO Kevin Burns wi...

By Lauren Muskett • Sept. 25, 2019

DOL Updates Overtime Rules

The United States Department of Labor released a final rule on overtime compensation, updating the earnings thresholds necessary to exempt executive, administrative, and professional employees from the Fair Labor Standards Act’s minimum wage and overtime pay requirements.Under the new rule, emplo...

By Lauren Muskett • Sept. 25, 2019

Comscore Fined $5M Over Accounting Fraud

Data analytics giant Comscore and its former CEO have agreed to pay $5.7 million to settle allegations that they engaged in a $50 million accounting fraud scheme in order to beat Wall Street revenue estimates.The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said Serge Matta, who served as chief execut...

By Matthew Heller • Sept. 25, 2019

Fluor Cuts Dividend in Half After Strategic Review

Texas-based engineering and construction firm Fluor announced it would cut its dividend to $0.10 per share, from $0.21 per share, and sell $1 billion in assets following a strategic review.The company said it was initiating plans to sell its construction equipment rental company, AMECO, and its g...

By Lauren Muskett • Sept. 24, 2019

Has Non-GAAP Reporting Become an Accounting Chasm?

Non-GAAP financials can be described as the “numbers management talks about once the auditor leaves the room.” Often described as “adjusted,” “core,” or “cash” earnings, these figures purport to give investors a cleaner view of a company’s true operations before the subtraction of a whole host of...

By Drew Bernstein • Sept. 23, 2019

Thomas Cook Collapses, Leaving Thousands of Travelers Stranded

British travel company Thomas Cook Group was forced to shut down operations on Monday, leaving hundreds of thousands of vacationers with defunct travel plans, grounding all airplanes, and laying off all employees.The British Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) confirmed the forced liquidation of Thoma...

By Lauren Muskett • Sept. 23, 2019

Nissan, Execs Settle SEC Charges Over Undisclosed Compensation

The former chief executive of Nissan, Carlos Ghosn, and its former director Greg Kelly have agreed to settle with regulators over charges related to false financial disclosures that omitted more than $140 million to be paid to Ghosn in retirement, the Securities and Exchange Commission said in a ...

By Lauren Muskett • Sept. 23, 2019

Fed’s Rosengren Says Rate Cut ‘Not Needed’

Boston Federal Reserve Bank President Eric Rosengren defended his vote against cutting interest rates, saying that the move was unnecessary and may be harmful to the economy.“Additional monetary stimulus is not needed for an economy where labor markets are already tight, and risks further inflati...

By Lauren Muskett • Sept. 20, 2019