CFO RESPONSIBILITIES SHIFT AS CYBERSECURITY TAKES CENTER STAGE: Increased risk gives CFOs responsibilities and opportunities beyond their conventional roles.

This is the fourth in a series of informative monthly articles for North Carolina businesses from PNC in partnership with BUSINESS NORTH CAROLINA magazine.

Whether you're mid-career in a financial discipline, considering various branches of executive leadership, or a sitting CFO today, the changing CFO role affects you and your business. Ftere's a look at some of the most important developments.

PUTTING A NUMBER ON INCREASED RISK

According to a recent survey by the Association for Financial Professionals (AFP), 88% of corporate practitioners reported that their organizations had been a target of either an attempted or completed cyberattack in the past 18 months. Ninety percent report that the emphasis on cybersecurity at their organizations has increased in the last three years. Business email compromise scams and the rise in wire fraud are among the risks being addressed by treasury and finance leaders. [1]

EVOLVING OPPORTUNITIES

These risks present opportunities for today's chief financial officers (CFOs) beyond the traditional power of the purse. A McKinsey survey found that the average CFO today is the reporting authority for 4.5 business functions, including some unconventional departments like IT (38% of CFOs), board engagement (24% of CFOs) and physical security (13% of CFOs). [2] This gives CFOs a stake in operations well outside the traditional boundaries of moving money in a responsible fashion.

A CFO with vision can engage these nontraditional financial workforces in more broadly defined fraud prevention and risk management tasks, in line with the CFO's growing responsibilities for big-picture IT projects and strategic input. Evolving business models are amplifying and expanding the CFO's classic fraud prevention duties in nontraditional ways. Day-to-day operations that once required teams of trained professionals are being automated or consolidated in shared service centers, a shift that CFOs are keenly aware of.

CFOs are managing risk with long-term strategic perspective, including the cultivation of sustainable business practices. "CFOs are gradually becoming more involved in the management, measurement and reporting of sustainability efforts of their companies," writes Ian Hong of KPMG. [3]

EY Global Performance Improvement Finance Leader Tony Klimas notes, "Treasury and finance leaders implement proper controls, while ensuring that they complement their IT department's cybersecurity protocols, shared service or outsourced...

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