Companies See Higher-Than-Usual CFO Turnover in Uncertain Climate

The chief financial officers (CFOs) of a number of the largest companies in the U.S. have stepped down recently, a trend happening as America’s corporations face continued pressure from rising inflation.

As The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) noted in a report Sunday (Oct. 23), autumn often sees higher turnover among finance chiefs as companies seek new CFOs for the new year. However, recruiters tell the WSJ they are seeing more turnover than usual, something they anticipate will keep up through the final months of 2022.

“We’ve seen where there’s been pressure to perform,” Alyse Bodine, a partner at recruiting firm Heidrick & Struggles International Inc., told the WSJ. “And if the right leadership team is not in place to guide the company, then certainly we’re seeing a turnover in key leadership roles and new leadership coming in to guide the company.”

September saw the greatest number of monthly departures at S&P 500 companies since the start of the year, accounting for roughly 20% of the 71 CFO exits through the third quarter.

As PYMNTS reported, the last two weeks have seen the departures of Nordstrom CFO Anne Bramman, who will leave her job in December, and OpenSea finance chief Brian Roberts.

Read more: CFOs Lean Toward Short-Term Investments Amid Stock Market Volatility

This turnover is coming at a time when CFOs and treasurers are being forced to adopt strategies to help gird their companies against an uncertain macroeconomic landscape.

Speaking to PYMNTS recently, Anand Natarajan, executive director, TMT and FinTech cash management lead, transaction banking at the UK’s Standard Chartered Bank, said that rising interest rates, in particular, have led to substantial shifts in investment strategy.

“A lot of treasurers are [now] focusing on investing in instruments which are less than two months old. They’re not keen to lock in money for longer term [debt] when there’s an increased likelihood of rate hikes,” Natarajan told PYMNTS.

When it comes to risk management, he said that the dollar’s continued strength against other currencies has offered a safe haven for U.S. companies. That safety has allowed those companies to determine the best way to manage their positions across different currencies.

“Where possible [they try to] sweep [funds] into the U.S. dollar [as a way to] bring it into a market where regulations are less stringent in terms of the use of funds and increase the yield on the dollars that they have available,” Natarajan said, as a comparison to emerging markets where regulators are often more nuanced and difficult to interpret.