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U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) stated in a court filing on May 28 that the total refunds for invalid tariffs processed through its CAPE portal have been revised up to approximately $85 billion. As of May 22, about $20.6 billion in interest-bearing refunds had been completed and transferred to the Treasury, but a large number of importers are still awaiting processing. CBP also corrected its previous overestimation of refund amounts for liquidated entries and disclosed the main reasons for application rejections.
PwC doubles its CPA exam bonus for new hires to $10,000, effective June 1, aiming to encourage early exam passage and bolster the talent pipeline. This follows EY, as the industry addresses talent shortages by adjusting incentives and licensing requirements.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang publicly urged Supermicro to strengthen export compliance controls after Taiwan detained three individuals over false declarations of AI servers. Supermicro responded that an industry-wide solution is needed and emphasized its own compliance framework. The incident follows the indictment of Supermicro's co-founder and others for smuggling chips to China, with attention also on the company's internal control remediation and CFO hiring issues.
A survey released Tuesday by The Conference Board showed the consumer confidence index fell 0.7 points to 93.1 in May, as rising prices for goods such as gasoline led two-thirds of households to cut spending. A University of Michigan survey also showed consumer sentiment at a historic low.
Peloton Interactive appoints Siddharth Thacker, current CFO of Rent the Runway, as Chief Financial Officer, effective June 22. Thacker will succeed interim CFO Saqib Baig and help the company achieve its $100 million cost-saving goal.
Palo Alto Networks reports that the Iran-linked hacking group Screening Serpens uses highly personalized spear-phishing emails and remote access trojans to conduct espionage activities against critical industries in the US, Israel, and the UAE. The group has escalated operations since the outbreak of the US-Israel conflict, with six new RATs discovered, belonging to two malware families: MiniUpdate and MiniJunk V2.
A global survey by IT company GoTo reveals growing workplace dependence on AI, but highlights issues of skill degradation, trust crises, and accountability. 39% of employees (46% for Gen Z) say AI reliance has weakened their skills, 60% feel pressure to use AI, and 83% worry about being blamed for AI mistakes. The report recommends that companies provide effective training and policies to balance productivity with employee capability development.
Continuation vehicles (CVs) were once viewed as "lemons" in the private equity space—attractive on the surface but fraught with underlying issues. However, marked by EQT's acquisition of Coller Capital, the rise of institutional secondary investors has completely changed this landscape. Through specialized due diligence and independent valuations, institutions like Coller have effectively resolved information asymmetry and adverse selection problems, turning CVs from a refuge for distressed assets into a legitimate tool for long-term holding of high-quality assets. In 2024, the secondaries market reached $162 billion in volume, with GP-led CV transactions totaling approximately $75 billion, and in the first half of 2025, CVs accounted for 19% of PE asset sales.
Neil Dhar, Senior Vice President of IBM Consulting Americas, said in an interview with CFO Dive that many enterprises struggle to achieve substantial returns on AI investments, mainly because senior leadership is not deeply involved, business processes are not restructured first, and numerous siloed pilot projects lack ROI. He emphasized that CFOs should act as asset stewards, ensuring an AI investment return rate of 2.5 to 3 times, and support external communications with auditable data.
This article explores the financial infrastructure challenges faced by mid-market CFOs during rapid business growth. Through case studies of Sylvia Brafman Mental Health Center, Humble House Foods, and Four Points RV Resorts, it demonstrates how transitioning from manual processes to a unified financial platform improves efficiency, saves costs, and supports strategic decision-making.