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BDO’s 2025 Audit Innovation Survey reveals that advanced technologies, particularly artificial intelligence (AI), are now widely integrated into audit practices, enhancing quality, efficiency, and trust. The majority of finance leaders report increased reliance on technology for key functions such as risk detection, fraud prevention, and predictive analytics, with 81% expressing greater trust in firms using such tools and 97% willing to pay more for tech-driven audits. However, confidence in data governance has dropped, with only 46% rating it as “mature”, and concerns about cybersecurity, data privacy, and AI-related inaccuracies remain high. Regulatory uncertainty and integration challenges continue to hinder full adoption, highlighting the need for better governance frameworks and investment in upskilling audit professionals.

 

Business Wire

Make Cloud Spend Meaningful

Cloud costs are rising faster than most finance teams can explain. Traditional FinOps focuses on dashboards and savings targets, but it often misses the bigger question: why is the money being spent in the first place? Intent-aware FinOps reframes cost control around business value. It pushes CFOs to examine architectural promises – speed, resilience, security – and ensure every pound spent backs a defined outcome.

This playbook breaks the approach into four practical pillars. No jargon. No theory. Just the real habits used by high-performing teams to close the gap between cloud usage and business intent. Expect guidance on how to interrogate spend drivers, expose misaligned investments, and turn optimisation work into a strategic lever rather than a cost-cutting exercise.

For CFOs wrestling with cloud unpredictability, Intent-aware FinOps offers a route to clarity, stronger governance, and better forecasting.

Download the FinOps playbook

 

Two-thirds of U.S. consumers feel anxious after making purchases, according to Narvar's 2025 State of Post-Purchase report. Frustrations over returns, theft, and delivery failures are causing 40% of consumers to abandon their carts. Anisa Kumar, chief executive of Narvar, said: "Retailers that treat post-purchase as a strategic extension of their brand will be best positioned to build loyalty." The report highlights that 90% of shoppers check return policies before buying, and 76% won't return after a poor experience.

 

Forbes

Amazon has raised $15bn in its first U.S. dollar bond offering in three years, with the proceeds to be used on capital expenditures, debt repayments, acquisitions, and share buybacks. Amazon has been spending more on artificial intelligence, with its expenditures expected to total $125bn this year.

 

Bloomberg

Reuters

Wall StreetJournal

The board of the California Public Employment Retirement System (Calpers) has approved the adoption of a "total portfolio approach," making it the first U.S. public pension fund to fully embrace the strategy. The total portfolio approach views and manages portfolio assets under a single objective, in contrast to strategic asset allocation, in which separate asset classes are siloed and managed separately. “The overall objectives are to ensure that the system is sustainable and . . . improves the likelihood that we generate somewhat higher returns and improve the funded ratio,” said Stephen Gilmore, Calpers’ chief investment officer. “

 

Chief Investment Officer

Financial Times

Pensions & Investments

A California judge has said that more than 6,000 Black workers at Tesla's flagship assembly plant In Fremont cannot sue over alleged racial harassment as a class. The ruling by California Superior Court Judge Peter Borkon reverses an earlier decision. Borkon said the 2017 lawsuit could not move forward as a class action because many of the 200 workers who were chosen at random to testify ahead of a trial scheduled for next year were unwilling to do so. “Either together with other victims, or separately, these courageous Black workers will overcome Tesla’s endless delays and continue fighting to hold the company accountable,” Lawrence Organ, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said.

 

Reuters

Tech Times

A California state court has heard opening statements in a closely watched case over claims Johnson & Johnson’s talc powder causes ovarian cancer. Attorneys for the two plaintiffs in the current case told a Los Angeles Superior Court jury on Thursday about their clients, a woman suffering from ovarian cancer and a man whose wife died from the disease. Johnson & Johnson attorney Allison Brown, a Philadelphia partner at Kirkland & Ellis, said “snippets of documents” shown by the plaintiffs don't show the full picture. The current trial is expected to last roughly four weeks and be immediately followed by additional trials.

 

CVN News

Law

Chicago has reached an $18m settlement with DoorDash over allegations of deceptive practices during the COVID-19 pandemic. The city accused DoorDash of listing restaurants on its platform without their consent and failing to disclose full service costs to customers. Mayor Brandon Johnson said: “This settlement demonstrates Chicago's commitment to standing up for workers and small businesses.” As part of the settlement, DoorDash will provide $4m in credits to eligible users, $3.25m to restaurants listed without consent, and $500,000 to drivers affected by past pay practices. Additionally, DoorDash will pay $4.5m to cover legal fees. The company maintains that the settlement does not imply wrongdoing.

 

Chicago Sun Times

Chicago Tribune

Dulux owner AkzoNobel will combine with paint and chemicals company Axalta to create a business with an enterprise value of $25bn. Amsterdam-listed Akzo and New York-listed Axalta said the "merger of equals" will create a global coatings company valued at approximately $25bn, generating $17bn in annual revenues. The combination will move to a single listing on the New York Stock Exchange following a transition period, with the deal expected to close in late 2026-early 2027, subject to shareholder and regulatory approval. 

 

NL Times

Financial Times

Reuters

Wall Street Journal

Alphabet chief executive Sundar Pichai has told the BBC that every company would be affected if the artificial intelligence (AI) bubble were to burst.  Pichai said the growth of artificial intelligence investment had been an "extraordinary moment", but there was some "irrationality" in the current AI boom. Asked whether Google would be immune to the impact of the AI bubble bursting, Pichai said the Alphabet-owned tech giant could weather that potential storm, but also warned: "I think no company is going to be immune, including us."  Pichai said Google's unique model of owning its own "full stack" of technologies - from semiconductors to YouTube data, to models and frontier science - meant it was in a better position than others to ride out any AI market turbulence.

 

BBC News

The SEC has decided to permit companies to exclude shareholder proposals from proxy materials, a move likely to limit shareholder activism. The SEC cited resource constraints and a high volume of filings as reasons for the decision. Sanford Lewis, director of Shareholder Rights Group, commented: "The SEC has essentially announced that it will not enforce its own rules." The policy shift follows the rescinding of guidance that facilitated shareholder proposals, potentially reshaping the current proxy season and making it more challenging for shareholders to advocate for changes.

 

Financial Times

Reuters

The SEC has ditched its focus on the oversight of companies offering crypto asset-related services for 2026, according to the regulator's annual statement. The SEC's Division of Examinations said it would focus on fiduciary duty, standards of conduct, and asset custody as well as new requirements for customer data privacy, among other subjects. The annual statement contained no standalone section explicitly focusing on crypto activity and the volatility of digital assets, Reuters notes.

 

Reuters

Many Americans are unintentionally losing investment gains when changing jobs because their small 401(k) balances are being moved into low-yield “safe harbor” IRAs without their active involvement. As job switching increases and automatic 401(k) enrollment becomes more common, millions of small accounts are being transferred into IRAs invested only in cash. These involuntary rollovers happen when former employees have between $1,000 and $7,000 in their 401(k). Employers are allowed to move these accounts after notifying the worker - though many people overlook or never receive the notice. Once transferred, the money often sits in accounts earning minimal interest while still being charged fees, so savings can stagnate or even shrink. An example is a worker whose balance decreased despite a strong stock-market year because her money sat in cash and incurred fees. The scale of the problem is growing: 1.7 million involuntary rollovers are expected this year, rising to 2.2m by 2030. Safe harbor IRAs currently hold about $28bn, and are projected to reach $43bn.

 

Wall Street Journal

Grant Thornton International is exploring strategic options for its Indian subsidiary, Grant Thornton Bharat, including selling a minority stake or merging with the firm’s U.S. or European operations. Vishesh Chandiok, chief executive of Grant Thornton Bharat, said the company may either join Grant Thornton’s global private-equity–backed platform or raise PE funding independently, with interest already shown by firms such as New Mountain Capital and Cinven. Grant Thornton Bharat is seeking a valuation above $2bn for any merger or stake sale and expects to remain the largest shareholder in a merged entity. 

 

Bloomberg

A new AidData report reveals the U.S. is now the largest recipient of Chinese official sector lending, receiving over $200bn across nearly 2,500 projects. While China previously focused on developing countries through its Belt and Road Initiative, it has shifted to higher-income nations, funding critical infrastructure and tech assets like semiconductors, clean energy, and data centres. “Much of the lending to wealthy countries is focused on critical infrastructure, critical minerals and the acquisition of high-tech assets,” said AidData's Brad Parks. By 2023, 76% of Chinese lending targeted upper-middle and high-income nations.

 

Reuters

Web infrastructure company Cloudflare said it is experiencing problems across its network on Tuesday, curtailing access to some popular websites. In a statement, the firm said it had seen "a spike in unusual traffic to one of Cloudflare's services" this morning, which had caused errors for traffic passing through its network. Impacted companies included social media platform X, ChatGPT, Shopify, Dropbox, Coinbase, and Moody's.

 

ABC News

BBC News

Los Angeles Times