Deloitte, McDonald's and Klarna: Top 5 Stories of the Week

Deloitte: North American CFOs Cite AI Cost Concerns

According to Deloitte’s third-quarter 2026 CFO Signals Survey, finance leaders are being asked to approve increasingly significant investments while managing costs that can be volatile and challenging to control, as enterprises continue to scale AI technologies.

The report highlights that many companies could benefit from greater real-time visibility, advanced AI-specific controls and rapid-response capabilities to manage spending effectively when these technologies become fully integrated. 

According to the report, the challenge facing CFOs is not about fund allocation; it’s about establishing cost governance and scaling AI responsibly.

Deloitte’s 2026 CFO Signals Survey polls 200 CFOs from North American organisations, with each company turning over revenues of at least US$1bn per quarter. 

The report’s findings align with the Deloitte Finance Trends 2027 research, which found that many global finance leaders are taking on expanded responsibilities for AI trust, capital allocation and cost management. 

With leaders named in the Finance Trends 2027 report anticipating greater cost and complexity through 2027, finance organisations may need to re-evaluate their approach to AI cost governance.

McDonald’s CFO Signals Shift Away From World Cup Sponsorship

McDonald’s is preparing to close a major chapter in its global marketing and sponsorship strategy. 

FIFA has confirmed that the fast-food company’s existing agreement will expire at the end of 2026, ending a relationship that began in 1994.

The decision follows concerns from McDonald’s that its campaign around the FIFA World Cup 2026 did not deliver the returns it anticipated. 

CFO Ian Borden said much of the company’s Q2 performance could “largely be attributed” to the campaign.

“While the campaign provided a lift to the business and generated excellent system excitement, the campaign underperformed versus our expectations,” Ian explained.

Before the announcement, Ian said during a Q2 earnings call that McDonald’s was “taking actions in the near term” to address the underperformance.

Klarna CFO Niclas Neglén: Transaction Margin, AI and Growth

Klarna's transaction margin dollars rose 42% to US$446m in the second quarter of 2026, well ahead of revenue growth of 27% to US$1.04bn. 

The Stockholm-founded payments company also posted net income of US$9m, against a US$53m loss in Q2 a year earlier. 

Behind those figures is Niclas Neglén, CFO at Klarna since 2021, who took the neobank to the New York Stock Exchange in September 2025. 

In August 2026 Klarna said Niclas would leave in early 2027, and in September Adyen named him its next CFO. 

His final months are focused on margin quality, capital efficiency and a new accounting model for longer-term loans.

BNP Paribas Sees US$15.39bn in Revenue for Q3 2026

BNP Paribas saw net income up 13.5%, reaching €3.46bn (US$3.85bn) in Q3 2026, surpassing the €3.04bn recorded in the same period last year, beating analyst predictions.

The growth was largely helped by strong performance in BNP Paribas's investment banking segment. In this segment, pre-tax income amounted to €1bn (US$1.11bn), up 26.4% compared with Q3 2025.

In its wealth management segment, the bank achieved solid net inflows, driven by positive momentum across commercial and personal banking in its Europe and APAC regions.

Pre-tax income in the segment was significantly higher than last year, supported by a high level of transactional activity in Asia, strong recurring fees and solid deposit revenues.

The firm also announced a €1.3bn (US$1.46bn) share buyback programme, scheduled to launch in November 2026.

Overall, revenue was up 9.5% year-on-year to €13.76bn (US$15.39bn), slightly above analyst expectations.

Chris Johnston at Celonis on Modernising Data for CFOs

What can CFOs expect from data? 

The answer seems obvious. Actionable insights come in many forms. As raw numbers, data can be the answer that sometimes executives aren’t even looking for. In ESG strategy, numbers reflect an ongoing tale of crisis that panics consumers. Some companies have turned to greenwashing, although data can also be the reason businesses are less inclined to take this approach. 

Behind every decision, a set of numbers have been working in the background as the basis, the driving force and sometimes even the reason not to. “Knowing the business” has been a central theme to the success of several CFOs, and what better way to know the business than study the numbers? 

Knowing the numbers positions any leader to make an informed decision about the (hopefully incoming) success of the business. So exists a divide in attaining that knowledge, which comes in the form of reactive and predictive reporting. 

Reactive reporting is closing the books when all is said and done; using hard facts as the last line of data. 

Predictive reporting uses data from the past to predict the future; anything from statistical models to past results. AI can be used to help model prospective results. 

Modernisation has quickly become a synonym for the use of AI in financial operations. 

How are banking chiefs reacting, is the real question. Chris Johnston, Head of Global Banking at Celonis, speaks to Finance Chief about how the CFO is using reporting and digitalisation in the next era of modern finance.