The top finance priorities for CFOs and other finance leaders in the coming year, revealed in Proiviti’s 2024 Global Finance Trends Survey, highlight the evolving nature of the CFO’s role and responsibilities.

The survey reveals that concerns over security and privacy of date are at the pinnacle of finance leaders' priority lists this year, whereas they ranked No. 5 last year. According to the survey, 61% of the participants view the security and privacy of data as a high priority for finance organizations in the coming year. In publicly held companies, that number rises to 65%. 

The second highest priority for CFOs this year was financial planning and profitability analysis and reporting. Protiviti said that effective and technology-enabled financial planning and analysis (FP&A) is now a necessary element of almost all business units and organizational groups. The shift in this priority places a couple of demands on finance leaders, including CFOs, who must ensure that co-workers perform FP&A using appropriate controls, rigor and relevance. CFOs must also integrate new key performance indicators into their own FP&A activities, Protiviti reported.

The third highest priority was strategic planning. Routine reporting and closing activities ranked No. 4, and process improvement ranked No. 5.

Conversely, environmental, social and governance (ESG) metrics and measurement, which finance leaders ranked as their No. 1. priority last year, has fallen to No. 9 this year. The survey revealed that 59% of publicly held organizations reported a high level of preparedness for ESG reporting, compared with only 47% of private organizations. Protiviti said that reported levels of ESG reporting preparedness in the finance function are comparatively low for both public and private organizations, given the current regulatory landscape

The shifts revealed by the survey illustrate how the CFO’s role has changed over the years. For the most part, the survey participants were consistent about data security and privacy being "a top urgency.” 

Protiviti said that 10 years ago, the responses about security and privacy might have been baffling since data protection was seen as the chief information security officer (CISO)’s responsibility. 

Protiviti noted that finance groups in organizations have an increasing demand for financial and nonfinancial data, as well as structured and unstructured data. Together with the serious need to protect the companies’ data with “sophisticated controls, accuracy assurance, and compliance savvy,” this has expanded the CFO’s data governance responsibilities. 

Added to these responsibilities are new cybersecurity disclosure and reporting requirements. Cyber regulations and reporting requirements have grown exponentially worldwide. In the U.S., for instance, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has elevated data security and privacy to the top of the CFO’s agenda in the past year.

Publicly listed firms have begun filing 10-Ks and 8-K cybersecurity incident reports under the SEC’s amended Cybersecurity Disclosure Rule from last summer. Complying with these filing rules demands a thorough knowledge of cybersecurity, incident response and data governance, among other cyber areas.

Customers and vendors have also increased expectations for companies to keep their data private and secure, necessitating the CFO to take on a hands-on cybersecurity role.

With regard to ESG reporting, last year, over 50,000 firms in the European Union, together with thousands of organizations in the U.S. and other countries with E.U .operations started the multiyear compliance process under the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive. In March, the SEC also approved new rule on climate-related disclosures.

CFOs and finance organizations are also progressing in utilizing generative artificial intelligence (AI) applications and other AI tools. However, for now, only one in three finance organizations is already employing generative AI, which is mainly used to support process automation and financial forecasting. It is worth noting that 58% of organizations that use generative AI have made meaningful progress in optimizing their costs, Protiviti said.