The future of the CFO has already begun.

The first part of the study begins by questioning their main tribulations. Top of the list is the legislation that marks out the limits of their duties, followed by information, which is a three-prodded issue: how to receive it, how to anticipate it and how to discriminate regarding its importance. In addition, the well-structured completeness of the analysis favours cross-referencing of the results of the surveys, with the consequent narrowing of the angle until more concrete inferences are found; for example, we discover that, if independent companies pay special attention to delinquency, multinationals prefer to focus on supplier management and on matters concerning technological resources.

The barometer also affects issues surrounding the psychology of the CFO. More than half of them (58.96%) believe they are in “a stable situation”, although as many as 29.19% see themselves as “in progress” and barely 11.84% claim they feel “stagnant”. In any case, CFOs are well aware of their significance on their company's organisational chart: no fewer than 55.78% consider themselves second in rank. A large part of those consulted (62.09%) consider their role to be of a “strategic nature”, but the distinction by the sector in which they operate provides interesting nuances: while the financial directors of service and construction companies specify that what is expected of them is “strategic vision”, those specialised in commerce ascribe themselves a “more technical” role. Regarding the image they project in their respective companies, 60.16% of CFOs believe they are seen by others as “a department that provides them with tools and makes their work easier” and 39.8% think that they are perceived rather as the “department that controls spending”.

In any case, financial directors are highly aware of how fast the times in which they are living move, to the point that 51.38% predict “major changes” in their duties in the mid term. The digital challenge is emerging as a key catalyst of new things for 69.09%, although they recognise acknowledge that their involvement in the gradual imposition of this trend is more intense the larger the companies are: 50% in the smallest and 80% in the largest.

The report connects here with its second and perhaps most thought-provoking half. “The CFO of the Future” appears as a kind of aspirational model, the formation of which has, in fact, already begun: CFOs, the study says, “were already working on improving flexibility within the company and within the department”. And, if the natural structure of finance departments were not enough, the coronavirus crisis has forced us to “try out new formats”. In this context, the trend of remote working has ended up being accepted “culturally”, although, given that the financial department had already been leading the change in this regard for years, remote working has not changed its “way of working”.

The relationship with the bank acquires special importance here, something that Bankinter can attest to. Considered the most solvent bank in Spain by the European Banking Authority, as well as one of the ones with the greatest penetration in our business fabric, it can boast of the remarkable esteem in which it is held by the CFOs in our country. According to the study, they believe that the duties of both the banks and the administration have managed to integrate well, culminating a process that had already been carried out “more than five years earlier”. CFOs also mention “the great work on digital transformation” done by banks in recent times, which “has meant that, at a time of integration and mergers, operations have not been affected”. But this valuable balance requires that the chief financial officer's relationship with the banks be “enduring and based on trust”.

But the CFO does not only have to deal with banks. According to the report, they will have to collaborate with other “departments that they didn't use to work with” broadening their relationships “and tending towards transversality”. They must also increase their involvement in the “evaluation of technological tools for the entire company” and they will assume a vital role in “internationalisation”. They will have to deal with different capacities and new challenge in management, the result of a greater incidence of concepts such as “data mining” or “reporting”, and they will continue advancing, automating and improving processes. The current trend of creating “own equipment for designing digital processes” will continue, in an optimisation dynamic that seems essential because “decisions are made very fast” and they have a “greater impact”, which requires even more continuous training. The coronavirus, ultimately, has changed the dimension of the short and long term, calling for a “more complex, 360º vision”, with the consequent need to update “data and information analysis, new alternative financing methods, international taxation, and international markets and currencies”.

Definitively, the “CFO Front Line Report” concludes that the financial department has gone from being “a necessary evil in companies” to “a partner, an ally in the strategy”, who “contributes accuracy”.