Execs Still Make Big Decisions With Their Gut: Study

Just because there is more data doesn’t mean that executives are more data-driven.According to a new study, most still rely on a mixture of gut instinct and intuition rather than data when making important business decisions.However, at the same time, 64% of the executives polled in the survey, w...

By Iris Dorbian • Sept. 17, 2014

Did Home Depot’s Outdated Software Help Hackers?

Former information security managers at Home Depot told Bloomberg Businessweek that outdated security software might have given hackers freer rein to breach the retailer’s payment data systems.Although the Home Depot has said little about what contributed to the recent cyber-attack, various unnam...

By Iris Dorbian • Sept. 16, 2014

Explore the Trendline➔

Tax policy shifts: What CFOs need to know to stay ahead

Discover how evolving tax policies are creating new opportunities and challenges for CFOs.

By CFO.com staff

Publisher Reveals SEC Probe and CFO Departure

Bankrate, an online publisher of consumer financial information, revealed Monday that it’s under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission for potentially improper accounting of more than $1.5 million of accruals and expenses during 2012, Reuters reported.The company also said that ...

By Iris Dorbian • Sept. 16, 2014

Banks Clamping Down on Unethical Currency Traders

To prevent currency traders from exploiting clients for profit, several top banks are imposing a series of restrictions. Sources tell Bloomberg that these measures include capping how much bank employees can charge clients for exchanging currencies, limiting access to information about customer o...

By Iris Dorbian • Sept. 16, 2014

Strong Investor Demand Leads Alibaba to Hike IPO Price

In a move that should come as no surprise to Wall Street, sources told Bloomberg that Alibaba, the most anticipated IPO since Facebook, is planning on raising its reported debut price of $66 a share to “just below $70.”Alibaba founder Jack Ma. The news outlet said that the Chinese e-commerce gian...

By Iris Dorbian • Sept. 15, 2014

Income Gap a ‘Macroeconomic Problem’ for States, S&P Says

State tax revenues are taking a hit from the growing income gap in the United States, Standard & Poor’s says in a new report, calling income inequality a “macroeconomic problem” that states cannot necessarily address through tax reform.The top “one percent” of earners tend to save more and sp...

By Matthew Heller • Sept. 15, 2014

Bitcoin Breaks New Ground With First Regulator-Approved Swap

Virtual currencies reached a milestone Friday as a swap execution facility registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission unveiled the first bitcoin financial product to be approved by a U.S. regulatory agency.TeraExchange’s derivative product, Reuters reports, allows clients to protect...

By Matthew Heller • Sept. 15, 2014

SEC Yields on One Aspect of Revenue Recognition Adoption

Companies that choose the retrospective method for adopting the FASB’s new comprehensive accounting standard on revenue recognition are getting a break from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.Under SEC rules, financial reports must include five years worth of data, all following the same...

By Matthew Heller • Sept. 15, 2014

Delaying Supplier Payments Isn’t Always Smart

Is it wise to take advantage of early-payment discounts offered by suppliers? Or should you make other use of your cash until payment is due? There are lots of things to consider.We’ll kick off the discussion with a simple example. Let’s say we’ve just opened our business selling widgets, and we ...

By Scott Pezza • Sept. 12, 2014

Study Links Intense Job Demands to Breaking the Rules

Intense job demands have a more immediate impact on workers’ routine compliance with professional standards than has been previously recognized, perhaps even as quickly as over the course of a single work shift, according to a new study.Previous research has found a correlation between job demand...

By Matthew Heller • Sept. 11, 2014

Wilmington Trust Concealed Problem Construction Loans: SEC

Wilmington Trust Company has agreed to pay $18.5 million to settle U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charges of accounting and disclosure fraud for hiding mounting problems in its commercial real estate portfolio.Wilmington Trust is now part of M&T Bank. In announcing the settlement Thu...

By Matthew Heller • Sept. 11, 2014

The Case of the Vanishing Assets

Accountants still sometimes talk about assets as “something you can drop on the floor.” If you can drop it on the floor it is solid, with shape and form. Therefore it can be measured and weighed. Further, it is either made or bought, so there is a known cost attached to it.Roger Sinclair Coming t...

By Roger Sinclair and Kevin Keller • Sept. 11, 2014

Job Openings Number Points to Labor Market Recovery

In a further indication that the labor market is continuing to recover, the U.S. Labor Department announced Wednesday that job openings in July stayed close to a more than 13-year high.The number of positions waiting to be filled fell by only 2,000 to 4.67 million in July from 4.68 million the mo...

By CFO Editorial Staff • Sept. 10, 2014

SEC Slaps Execs for Late Reporting of Stock Transactions

The SEC announced civil charges today against 28 officers, directors and major shareholders (including two CFOs and a controller) for violating federal securities laws requiring them to promptly report information about their holdings and transactions in company stock.In addition, six publicly-tr...

By Vincent Ryan • Sept. 10, 2014

Banks Give Apple a Break on Mobile Transaction Fees

Apple will be enjoying deep payment discounts from the big financial institutions with which it has partnered for its new Apple Pay mobile payment system, Bank Innovation reports.Apple officially unveiled Apple Pay at the launch Tuesday of its new iPhone 6 smartphone. With the mobile payment syst...

By CFO Editorial Staff • Sept. 10, 2014

Moody’s Spotlights Risky Leveraged Lending

The percentage of leveraged loans with weak or the weakest covenant protections has reached its highest level since the Great Recession, according to a report from Moody’s Investors Service.Last year, federal regulators warned that while leveraged lending declined during the financial crisis, vol...

By CFO Editorial Staff • Sept. 9, 2014

Treasury Keeps Up Rhetoric on Tax Inversions

Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew is getting close to deciding what regulatory action he will take to crack down on corporate tax-dodging inversion deals.U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew A decision will be made in the “very near future,” Lew said in a speech Monday at a Washington think-tank, accor...

By CFO Editorial Staff • Sept. 9, 2014

Fortune 100 Disclosing More About Audit Committees

Fortune 100 companies are becoming more transparent about their audit committees, going beyond the minimum disclosure requirements to, among other things, reveal more in their proxy statements about how they oversee external auditors.According to a new report from Ernst & Young, first reporte...

By CFO Editorial Staff • Sept. 9, 2014

What’s in Your Portfolio? Part II

In part one, we discussed the notion that while most portfolios of corporate programs and projects look pretty much the same, there are ways to construct a portfolio that “beats the market.” I gave three “beat the market” concepts, or tools — concentration, shorter life-cycle projects and leverag...

By John Parkinson • Sept. 8, 2014

Detroit’s Biggest Liability: Obsolete IT Systems

Think your company’s computer systems are a mess? Thank your lucky stars you are not working for the city of Detroit. In Detroit’s bankruptcy trial on Monday, the city’s chief information officer testified that Detroit’s information technology is eons behind what other cities are using, according...

By Vincent Ryan • Sept. 8, 2014

Only the Wealthy Gained During the Economic Recovery

The average income for most Americans, save for the very rich, either dropped or stagnated during the 2010-2013 economic recovery period, according to a Federal Reserve study, reports Bloomberg.The study, Changes in U.S. Family Finances from 2010 to 2013: Evidence from the Survey of Consumer Fina...

By Iris Dorbian • Sept. 5, 2014

Activists Urge SEC to Require Disclosure of Political Spending

Activists are accusing the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission of succumbing to partisan pressure rather than pass a rule that would force companies to reveal their political contributions, reports Reuters.The headquarters of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Gathering Thursday out...

By Iris Dorbian • Sept. 5, 2014

Credit Markets Need An Alternative to Libor — Fast

If the U.S. Federal Reserve doesn’t come up quickly with a practical alternative to Libor (London Interbank Offered Rate), then what could transpire, if the current system falls apart, would be a “horrible mess.”In remarks prepared for a New York University financial conference, Jerome Powell, Fe...

By Iris Dorbian • Sept. 5, 2014

Excel Tip: Avoid Other People’s Mistakes

Problem: A reader posed the following question: “I regularly get files from other people in my company. They arrive via Outlook or are download them from an Internet site. I worry that people aren’t smart enough to avoid getting vi­ruses or could maliciously slip something bad into the Workbook_O...

By Bill Jelen • Sept. 4, 2014

Swaps Collateral Rule Eases Impact on Nonfinancials

As an addendum to Wednesday’s vote on bank liquidity rules, federal regulators proposed lightening up on how much collateral commercial manufacturers and other nonfinancial firms should have to post when conducting over-the-counter swaps with banks.As set forth by the Federal Reserve, Federal Dep...

By Iris Dorbian • Sept. 4, 2014