CFOs want out fast

Sallie Krawcheck of Citigroup and Alvaro De Molina of Bank of America are hardly the only CFOs who wanted out. Last year, 12 Fortune 50 CFOs opted to quit, and few would be surprised if the trend held for 2007. The issue is how much Sarbanes-Oxley had to do with it. By one account, because of Sarbox, CFOs now spend about one-third of their time on IT systems, paperwork, and board issues (often questions). What's lost is the "big picture" focus that often paved the way for CFOs to ascend to CEO. At the same, shareholder issues--which often are related somehow to Sarbox--have become more vexing. So the bottom line is that the job is now much more task and process oriented, with a lot of risk and little reward, in the words of De Molina. Some companies are adding chief accounting officers to ease the burden, which is a good move. Adding a chief compliance officer might also be wise. Both should report to the CFO.

For more:
- here's a Fortune article

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