Today’s chief financial oficers (CFO) must clearly understand the credit union’s strategic plan and provide feedback on the business model, according to “Portrait of a Modern CFO,” a white paper by the CUNA CFO Council.

Key issues and emerging priorities for them include:

• Increasing regulatory requirements that demand CFOs pay close attention to compliance;
   
• Technological advances, such as big data tools, that allow the reconfiguration of finance processes and provide new business insights;
   
• Risk management approaches that lead CFOs to play an active role in determining organizational risk; and
   
• Public relations and stakeholder management, as CFOs increasingly have a public profile and responsibility to represent the corporate brand.