Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) traditionally owned the accounting & book keeping functions in banks. The key task before CFOs was the preparation of financial reports & statements. Over time, they have been called upon to own the finance function in banks. Amid global financial crisis (GFC) in 2007- 2008 a new trend in western countries tended to involve CFOs in typical tasks relating to strategy setting, risk management, legal & regulatory compliance etc. These add-on responsibilities of CFOs have since crystallised and are further evolving due to fierce competition, disruptive innovations and new regulations brought in as part of post GFC reforms. While the CFO may now have a say in ICAAP in general and capital allocation including risk appetite setting in particular, digitisation of financial data, and digitalisation of financial controls he would need to coordinate with the risk function, technology function and compliance function in banks. Potential overlaps might exist.

This Program will review the traditional functions of CFO and then discuss the evolving role of CFOs. While several sessions will deal with the traditional but intricate technical issues the CFOs need to understand and handle such as those relating to audit, taxation and legal & regulatory compliance, some sessions would seek to explore more nuanced, complex and multidisciplinary aspects of CFO function surrounding balance sheet optimisation, application of advance technologies in the matters of financial controls, preparation of financial statements, risk appetite statements etc. 

Outline of the program

1.         Overview of CFO function and CFO’s role

2.         Organising the Finance Function and Building a CFO Team : Insourcing and Outsourcing

3.         Financial Statements: Transparency, Disclosures and Corporate Governance

4.         Statutory Audit: Legal, Regulatory and Governance issues

5.         Corporate strategy setting and ICAAP including allocation of capital, Risk Appetite setting, cost cutting measures

6.         Issues and complexities in taxation

7.         Valuation, profitability and  talking to investors,

8.         Digitalisation of Financial Services and Digital CFO

9.         Advanced Technologies, Financial Controls & Reporting : The Future of Finance Function

10.     CFO’s role in enterprise risk management