ACCOUNTING

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A torrent of public comments has poured into the SEC’s servers the past three months—including many from the accounting world—on its proposed switch from mandatory quarterly reporting for public companies to giving them the option to report just twice a year.

The SEC’s website displayed about 225,000 public comments on the semiannual reporting rule as of August 6, and accounting professionals are in the thick of the discussion.

The messages from state CPA societies and accounting industry groups range from mildly supportive to firmly opposed.

For the most part, those professional associations acknowledged the proposal would offer more flexibility, but warned that fewer financial updates would weaken transparency for investors and potentially create larger financial risks for organizations, CFO Brew found when digging through the comment letters.

One such letter, sent by members of the Texas Society of Certified Public Accountants’ Professional Standards Committee, offers “qualified support” to the proposal because “we expect that preparers will be in favor of the optionality provided.” However, the TXCPA committee warned the rule “is inconsistent with the goal of timely reporting of financial information” and could lead to less comparability and consistency for investors.

One accounting group said semiannual reporting could weaken audit quality.—AZ

      

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CFOVILLE

Andy Miedler

Edward Jones CFO Andy Miedler began in equity research with the financial services firm in 2002. Twenty three years later, last summer, he added head of digital, data and emerging segments to his title.

After nearly a quarter century with the St. Louis-based company, Miedler said he’s worked in just about every kind of role: from a stock analyst covering technology, to investment risk management, and ascending to CFO in 2021. Regarding the recent addition to his title, Miedler said he and his team are having conversations around, “What are the future digital needs of our clients, so that we show up equally in a digital manner as we do in our traditional, face-to-face manner?”

“But also [it is about] bridging the CFO world with the digital world. It is all the things, from an AI and data enablement, to ensure that we are allowing and creating the tools and the systems to remove the administrative work for our branch teams, so they can spend as much time as possible in front of their clients, because that’s where the value is,” Miedler added.

Miedler talked with CFO Brew about how he went from tax consulting to CFO, the role mentorship has played in his multi-decade career, and what the financial services client of the future looks like.

You started your career in corporate tax consulting. Was the office of the CFO always the goal?

It’s interesting to think about how it came to fruition, because it’s not something that I said, “Gosh,” 25 years ago, “This is the role, and I’m going to do everything to orchestrate my career around this,” but when I look back, it’s the movements and the changes in roles that allow me to have the perspective to see across the firm in a broad way…It provided the background and it provided a different experience for me to keep growing from.

Helped by mentors, Miedler says his career moved “at a different rate.”—DL

      

GROWTH STRATEGIES

Illustration: Shannon May, Photos: Unsplash, Adobe Stock

The auto industry is no stranger to the battery game. Now it’s developing chemistry with a new and fast-growing sector: energy storage systems (ESS).

The ESS market is an appealing one for automakers for numerous reasons. They recently took multibillion-dollar writedowns on EV losses after consumer demand fell following the loss of federal EV tax credits. At the same time, the AI data center boom has caused electricity demand to skyrocket—bringing added relevance to technology that allows users to capture and store energy for later, especially with growth in renewables. US energy-storage demand is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 38% through 2030, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing Morgan Stanley.

Automakers need only look at one of their rivals to see the revenue opportunities energy storage can offer: It’s Tesla’s fastest-growing and most-profitable business segment. Tesla’s revenue from storage and energy generation rose 26.5% to $12.8 billion last year, TechCrunch reported. And Wall Street analysts estimate the unit will generate $18.3 billion in revenue this year, about a fifth of the company’s total revenue, with nearly 30% gross margins, according to Reuters.

General Motors and Ford have both recently laid out plans to capitalize on these trends by entering the grid-scale energy storage market.

Revenue Brew reports on how GM and Ford are pivoting.—JG

      

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market forces

Francis Scialabba

Today’s top finance reads.

Stat: $517 million. That’s how much US corporations have spent in the 2026 US House and Senate races in the 15 months leading up to the end of the first quarter. (Reuters)

Quote: “All we’re trying to do is get people to focus on the fundamentals and not trade the headlines during a quiet period in a thin market, so we are trying to keep the market in equilibrium.”—US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, on increased Treasury security buybacks (Bloomberg)

Read: Several partners at longstanding law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges are jumping ship amid a slew of lateral moves in the industry this year. (the Wall Street Journal)

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Quiz

Amelia Kinsinger

The week’s biggest CFO Brew stories—now in quiz form. Test yourself on the latest headlines in accounting, financial trends, risk management, and more in a quick, competitive challenge built for finance leaders. Challenge your coworkers and see how your score stacks up!