Recruiting for Next-Generation Finance Skills

The recruiting wish list for today’s corporate finance professional has fundamentally changed. The long list of credentials with top-ranked schools and companies and the connections to industry groups and peers—once the tried and true measures of candidate suitability—have taken a back-seat to hi...

By Brian Peccarelli • Nov. 30, 2016

VW Extends $21 Billion Credit Line to June

Volkswagen has agreed to extend a 20 billion euro ($21.1 billion) bridge loan as it continues to deal with the financial fallout from its emissions scandal.The one-year loan was originally set to expire next month but VW told Reuters it had decided to extend the credit line to June 2017 in a move...

By Matthew Heller • Nov. 28, 2016

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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

Special Report: Connecting the Supply Chain

Less than two years ago, CFO columnists were discussing the potential for building a digitally connected supply chain. They recommended holding brainstorming sessions with supply chain vendors. A.T. Kearney was even promoting “digital sprints,” which are “events similar in spirit to hackathons wh...

By Vincent Ryan • Nov. 22, 2016

CFOs on the Move: Week Ending Nov. 18

Matthew Siegel has been chosen to lead the finance function at CBS Radio. He is a former treasurer of Time Warner Cable, and later became co-CFO and treasurer of that company during its merger with Charter Communications.Ray Dziesinski Teri List-Stoll will become Gap’s finance chief on Jan. 17. S...

By Joan Urdang • Nov. 18, 2016

The Deficit Matters, but Don’t Lose Sight of Other Priorities

In an October 21, 2016 op-ed in The New York Times, former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker and former Secretary of Commerce Pete Peterson argue that while “(o)ur current debt may be manageable at a time of unprecedentedly low interest rates…if we let our debt grow, and interest rates normal...

By Philip G. Cohen • Nov. 18, 2016

Accumulated Deficits Spawn Corporate Risk

Based on historical experience, the U.S. national debt has little impact on corporate finance on a day-to-day basis. But over the long term or in a financial crisis, the impact can be significant.Deficit spending, which has been part of U.S. macroeconomic policy since the 1930s, has had very litt...

By Alfred Sanders • Nov. 17, 2016

Growth Rate for Health Costs Sank This Year

The rate of growth in employers’ medical costs averaged just 2.4% in 2016, according to Mercer. That was the second-lowest figure since 1997 in the consulting firm’s annual National Survey of Employer-Sponsored Plans, which this year included 2,544 participants.The result continued a long period ...

By David McCann • Nov. 16, 2016

Square-Off: Does the National Debt Threaten Corporate Finance?

While it’s a fact that the national debt is growing as a percentage of gross domestic product, the effect of burgeoning deficits on the economy is a matter of heated debate. Before the presidential election, in an Oct. 21 New York Times op-ed, Peter G. Peterson and former Federal Reserve Chair Pa...

By David Katz • Nov. 15, 2016

How Corporations Subsidize the Federal Debt

As the United States approaches $20 trillion in debt, our nation’s leadership has maintained low interest rates, which keep the annual federal government budget deficit from ballooning even further out of control. The 30-year U.S. bond yield is 2.9% at this writing, which is over 5% lower than it...

By Gregory V. Milano • Nov. 15, 2016

New and Improving

Having already reinvented their corporate roles, CFOs are prepared to take on a much broader challenge: spreading the impulse to innovate throughout the business.In a fiercely competitive atmosphere, driven by increasing globalization and unceasing technological change, companies need to find way...

By Josh Hyatt • Nov. 15, 2016

CFOs on the Move: Week Ending Nov. 11

Property insurer FM Global announced that CFO Jeffrey Burchill was retiring after 42 years with the company. He had been in the role since 1999. Kevin Ingram has been promoted to the top finance spot, effective immediately. Another long-termer at the company, having come aboard in 1990, Ingram mo...

By Joan Urdang • Nov. 11, 2016

Film Producer Charged With Hedge Fund Fraud

A movie producer who heads the private equity firm Cyrano Group has been charged with defrauding hedge fund investors of at least $5.8 million that was supposed to be invested in medical-billing businesses.The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said David Bergstein, 54, perpetrated a “highly...

By Matthew Heller • Nov. 10, 2016

CFOs’ Top Goal for 2017: Better Analysis and Reporting

Modern CFOs are transforming from backroom accountants into boardroom advisers and say improving reporting and analysis functions in 2017 is a top improvement goal, according to a new survey by the consulting firm Kaufman Hall.More than 70% of over 380 finance executives polled say supporting dec...

By Sean Allocca • Nov. 10, 2016

The Death of the Department

The workplace is changing quickly and in an effort to better market to the millennial generation—now the largest subset of the American workforce—businesses are adopting an ever-growing avalanche of new social, mobile,  and collaboration tools. But does adoption equal efficiency?In short, no. Acc...

By Kevin Roberts • Nov. 8, 2016

CFOs on the Move: Week Ending Nov. 4

John Drain has been promoted to finance chief at Hearst Television. He joined the broadcaster in 2010 as senior vice president, finance; before that, he was divisional CFO at Comcast Spotlight.John Drain Gap CFO Sabrina Simmons plans to leave the retailer at the end of the fiscal year. She starte...

By Joan Urdang • Nov. 4, 2016

The Business of Cyber Crime

Talk about white-collar criminals. No longer does a bunch of scruffy hackers performing their dark deeds in a basement represent the most accurate image of the cyber criminal. More typical are rows of clean-cut employees working regular hours, doing their jobs as part of a large commercial enterp...

By David Katz • Nov. 2, 2016

Directors Focusing More on Cybersecurity — But Is It Enough?

Corporate directors are spending more time discussing cybersecurity issues in the boardroom and more money to mitigate cyber risks than a year ago, but they are still reluctant to go public with information about attacks, according to a survey by BDO USA.Almost three quarters (74%) of 160 public-...

By Sean Allocca • Nov. 1, 2016

Get Ready for Phase-Out of Bonus Depreciation

Given Congress’ recently updated rules on the first-year bonus depreciation of equipment, it’s important for businesses, especially leasing and other equipment-heavy companies, to be planning for next year.And the year after next.And the year after that.Nancy Geary In a nutshell, Congress late la...

By Nancy A. Geary • Oct. 28, 2016

Durable Goods Orders Fall 0.1% in September

U.S. durable goods orders fell in September, confirming another weak quarter for business spending, but core capital goods showed some signs of a recovery.The Commerce Department said orders for items meant to last three years decreased $0.3 billion, or 0.1%, to $227.3 billion last month, followi...

By Matthew Heller • Oct. 28, 2016

Would a Territorial Tax System Squeeze IRS Coffers?

If U.S.-based multinational companies didn’t have to pay any U.S. tax on profits earned in other countries — as some current proposals advocate — how much income would such firms shift outside the United States?Not nearly as much as you might think, according to new research.With more than $2 tri...

By David McCann • Oct. 27, 2016

IP Cyberattacks Expected to Rise

The number of IP cyber thefts is expected to increase in the next 12 months, according to a recent poll by Deloitte. One in five respondents (20.1%) said they believe such a crime is likely to be an inside job.Fifty-eight percent of approximately 2,900 business professionals, a vast majority of t...

By Sean Allocca • Oct. 27, 2016

Special Report: The Promise of Predictive Analytics

What can applying predictive analytics — the branch of analytics used to make predictions about unknown future events — do for an organization? A lot, according to the experts. As Viral Chawda says in one of the articles in this special report, (see “Five Ways CFOs Can Implement Advanced Analytic...

By Vincent Ryan • Oct. 26, 2016

Five Ways CFOs Can Implement Advanced Analytics

As the amount of available data grows exponentially, companies increasingly recognize data and analytics (D&A) as valuable assets. In tandem, institutional investors and equity analysts are now weighing companies’ D&A strategies as part of their valuations, according to a 2015 report by K...

By Viral Chawda • Oct. 26, 2016

The Power to Predict

More and more CFOs — and companies — are applying predictive analytics to boost planning and forecasting accuracy and solve an ever-increasing range of business problems.One reason: The barriers to using predictive analytics tools, which employ statistical models to make forecasts and projections...

By Keith Button • Oct. 26, 2016

Why Your Tax Department Should Have a Bigger Voice

With tax authorities around the world pressing ever harder to get their legislated share of revenues from firms doing business in their jurisdictions, some companies may need to reconsider their overall approach to tax.Generally, there are two ways companies handle taxes, according to Andy Ruggle...

By David McCann • Oct. 25, 2016