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The U.S. Treasury Department has identified about $17.5 billion in suspicious financial activity potentially connected to health care fraud, based on 5,702 Bank Secrecy Act reports filed between March 2025 and February 2026. Depository institutions submitted about 89% of the reports and accounted for nearly 87% of the suspicious activity amounts. FinCEN said the suspected schemes involved Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurers, with home health care businesses appearing in 20% of health care fraud-related reports. Hospice companies, mental health and addiction treatment providers, medical equipment businesses, and daycare providers were also frequently identified. Most subjects were based in the U.S., although a small proportion of reports indicated potential links to foreign entities, large fraud rings, or criminal networks. FinCEN said the intelligence could help law enforcement identify and disrupt schemes targeting taxpayer-funded health care programs.

 

AML Intelligence

HSBC chief financial officer Pam Kaur will step down in 2027 and will not seek re-election as a director at the bank’s annual general meeting. HSBC has begun searching for her successor and will consider both internal and external candidates. Ms. Kaur, appointed CFO in October 2024, became the first female finance chief in HSBC’s more than 160-year history and has played a key role in chief executive Georges Elhedery’s restructuring of the bank. After leaving her CFO and executive director positions, she will remain as an adviser to Mr. Elhedery on ongoing strategic projects. Her planned departure follows several other senior executive exits at HSBC, including insurance chief Edward Moncreiffe, former Europe and Americas banking head Gerry Keefe, and other senior banking and trading executives.

 

Bloomberg

Reuters

Wall Street Journal

Albertsons has named former eBay and Hewlett-Packard chief executive Meg Whitman to the newly created position of executive chair as the grocery retailer works to strengthen its performance amid declining sales and cautious consumer spending. Ms. Whitman will advise CEO Susan Morris on operational and strategic matters, including refining Albertsons’ long-term strategy, streamlining its operating structure around artificial intelligence technologies, and delivering a more consistent customer experience across stores and digital channels. The appointment comes after Albertsons announced plans in July to accelerate investments and operational changes following a reduction in its full-year earnings guidance and a forecast for lower identical sales.

 

Wall Street Journal

Inspire Brands has appointed Dunkin’ president Scott Murphy as interim chief executive while longtime CEO and co-founder Paul Brown takes temporary medical leave following an injury. Mr. Murphy, who also serves as Inspire’s chief brand officer, has said there will be no change to the company’s strategy or direction as it prepares for a potential IPO as early as the end of 2026, although the offering could move into early 2027. Backed by Roark Capital, Inspire operates more than 33,400 locations across brands including Dunkin’, Arby’s, Buffalo Wild Wings, Sonic, Jimmy John’s, and Baskin-Robbins, generating $33.4bn in global sales.

 

Wall Street Journal

Apple has launched its first foldable smartphone, the iPhone Duo, starting at $2,000, as new chief executive John Ternus oversees his first major product launch since succeeding Tim Cook. The Duo features a 5.9-inch cover display and a 7.6-inch inner screen that allows users to run two apps simultaneously, while Apple’s new A20 Pro chip provides improved performance and supports AI features. The device, which offers up to 2TB of storage and includes dual 48-megapixel rear cameras, will be available from October 23. Apple has also introduced the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max, priced from $1,200 and $1,300, respectively, both $100 more than last year’s models amid higher component costs. The phones feature longer battery life, upgraded cameras, and expanded AI capabilities, including a more personalized Siri. The wider product refresh includes the Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4, with enhanced heart-rate monitoring and AI-powered health features, as well as AirPods 5, which offer up to 50% better noise reduction than their predecessor.

 

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The Federal Reserve’s decision on whether to raise interest rates next week could hinge on Friday’s consumer price index report, as officials remain divided over whether borrowing costs are high enough to return inflation to the 2% target. Economists expect core prices to have risen 0.2% in August, with even a 0.1 percentage-point difference potentially influencing the outcome after three officials favored a rate increase in July. Investors now put the probability of an increase at around 60%, up from 35% before Chair Kevin Warsh’s Jackson Hole speech. Officials favoring higher rates remain concerned about elevated energy prices, new tariffs, and AI-related supply pressures, while others argue that continued disinflation would support keeping rates unchanged.

 

Wall Street Journal

A Capgemini Research Institute survey of 1,300 business and technology executives found that 59% of organizations consider full digital sovereignty unrealistic, prompting many to focus instead on resilience, control of critical capabilities, and reducing dependence on individual technology providers. Digital sovereignty has become a board-level priority for 44% of organizations, and nearly four in five are implementing or developing a strategy, with geopolitical disruption and operational resilience emerging as major drivers. However, significant obstacles remain. Capgemini found that 86% of organizations have substantial exposure to foreign or externally controlled supply chains, while only 14% have end-to-end visibility into their wider technology dependencies. More than a third said switching from a critical technology provider would take over 12 months, and one in 10 has no viable alternative. Organizations are therefore increasingly pursuing “resilient interdependence,” combining internal capabilities with external partnerships, while balancing greater sovereignty against cost, competitiveness, and innovation.

 

CXO Today

Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon is leaving the artificial intelligence (AI) industry over concerns that companies are racing to develop self-improving systems that could become uncontrollable. Coxon, who previously worked at OpenAI, said competitive pressures make safety trade-offs inevitable even at companies committed to responsible development. “We’re on track for a lot of the most aggressive of these scenarios,” he warned. His departure follows similar concerns from researchers and executives at Anthropic and OpenAI, including calls for coordinated industry slowdowns and government intervention. More than 1,000 AI researchers have backed mechanisms to slow development if necessary, while lawmakers have proposed tighter controls. Coxon argues that developing systems capable of outperforming humans across many tasks cannot be done responsibly without stronger external safeguards.

 

Wall Street Journal

The Port of Los Angeles handled a record 2.9m TEUs from June through August, surpassing its previous three-month high set during the COVID-19 shipping boom, as retailers accelerated holiday imports to get ahead of new U.S. tariffs and higher fuel costs linked to the Iran war. August volume reached 955,907 TEUs, while port officials said June was likely the peak, although holiday merchandise will continue arriving over the coming months. Despite tariffs, inflation, and elevated fuel prices, retail groups said consumer demand remains resilient, providing grounds for optimism ahead of the crucial holiday shopping season.

 

Bloomberg

Reuters

Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming entry-level finance jobs by automating routine tasks such as reconciliations, journal entries, and basic reporting, leading companies to hire fewer junior employees and place greater emphasis on judgment, pattern recognition, and business acumen. However, this shift risks removing the work through which junior employees traditionally developed those skills, with a BCG study finding that half of C-suite leaders are already seeing “de-skilling” in their organizations. BCG’s James Tucker argues that finance chiefs should respond by concentrating remaining judgment-based work among smaller groups of junior employees, increasing apprenticeship-style development, and exposing them directly to business decisions. Rotations into areas such as pricing, operations, and strategy could also help ensure that future finance leaders develop the practical experience and commercial judgment that increasingly automated finance functions still require.

 

Fortune

Global fintech investment rose 43% to $103bn in the first half of 2026 compared with the second half of 2025, putting the sector on track for its strongest investment year in four years. Investment in the Americas climbed 85% to $86.9bn, even as global deal volume fell from 2,500 to 2,100 transactions. Much of the increase was driven by three major U.S. deals totaling $46.2bn, including Global Payments’ $24.3bn acquisition of Worldpay. KPMG said the rise in capital deployment and resurgence in exits suggest improving investor confidence, particularly in scalable platforms, digital assets, and artificial intelligence. Looking ahead, it expects payments, technology infrastructure, wealth and asset management, stablecoins, and digital assets to be key areas of fintech investment.

 

CFO

Richemont has appointed chair Johann Rupert’s 39-year-old son Anton Rupert as non-executive co-deputy chair, marking what the founder described as an “important step” in the luxury group’s long-term succession planning. Anton, a non-executive director since 2017, will oversee Richemont’s creative and commercial direction alongside co-deputy chair Bram Schot, who retains responsibility for corporate governance. The move brings Richemont into focus alongside other family-controlled luxury businesses grappling with generational leadership transitions, including LVMH, Kering, and L’Oréal. Johann Rupert, 76, controls more than 50% of Richemont’s voting rights through a family trust despite owning about 10% of its equity, and said close family involvement has underpinned the group’s continuity.

 

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Wall Street Journal

U.S. security agencies have accused six Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) companies of conducting industrial-scale “distillation,” a technique that uses outputs from established AI systems to help train newer models. The agencies said Chinese developers conducted millions of exchanges with U.S. models, including Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, and Grok, helping narrow China’s AI capabilities gap with the U.S. While distillation itself is widely used and is not necessarily considered theft, U.S. officials allege that Chinese companies used deceptive accounts and proxy services to access models at scale and evade restrictions. The U.S. is considering responses including sanctions and trade restrictions, although some technology companies have cautioned against broad measures that could restrict legitimate AI innovation.

 

Wall Street Journal

Sharon Osbourne has filed to remove longtime accountant Colin Newman as an executor of her late husband Ozzy Osbourne’s estimated $100m estate, according to a report by the Sun. Her niece, Georgina Maszlin, and assistant, Melinda Varga, are also seeking Newman’s removal. The reason for the request, and whether Newman is contesting it, remains unknown. Newman had served as the couple’s accountant since before their 1982 marriage and was previously a director of Ozzy Osbourne’s company, Monowise Ltd., before stepping down in April.

 

Accounting Today