CFO Confidence Climbs to Four-Year High as Risk Appetite Swells

North American financial executives’ confidence in economic and business conditions hit its highest point in four years, according to Deloitte survey results.

Nearly 60% of chief financial officers surveyed by the Big Four accounting and advisory firm said now is a good time to take on greater business risks like mergers and acquisitions or major capital expenditures, up from 36% last quarter. Deloitte’s fourth quarter CFO Signals report, released Wednesday, polled 200 CFOs from the US, Canada, and Mexico who work at companies with at least $1 billion in revenue.

Despite greater optimism about current and future economic ...