Accounting watchdog scrutinising KPMG over HBOS failures December 17, 2015 The accounting industry regulator, the Financial Reporting Council (FRC), is reviewing whether to investigate big four accountant KPMG over its role in the collapse of HBOS. The bank was given a clean bill of health in an audit by KPMG shortly before needing to bailed out by the government and Lloyds TSB in 2008. The [...]
Top MPs ask for assurance on the sale of Northern Rock assets December 16, 2015 A group of senior MPs has asked for more details on what the sale of assets of Northern Rock mean to those with mortgages from the failed bank. A US private equity group, Cerberus Capital Management, bought the government’s £13bn portfolio of Northern Rock mortgages in November. Andrew Tyrie MP, chairman of the Treasury Select [...]
Oil price stable following Fed interest rate hike December 16, 2015 The price of oil was stable following the expected US Federal Reserve decision to raise interest rates by 0.25 percentage points. Fed chair Janet Yellen said: “I have been surprised by the further downward movement in oil prices. Oil prices need to stabilise for inflation to move up.” The oil price has been falling since Saudi [...]
Barclays sells index assets to Bloomberg December 16, 2015 Barclays has offloaded some of its analytics and index assets to financial data firm Bloomberg for £520m, as part of plans to focus on its core business. Barclays Chief Executive Jes Staley said the deal was further evidence of the work the bank is doing to manage down its noncore assets. The deal includes benchmark [...]
MPs pile pressure on the accounting watchdog and KPMG over HBOS failures December 15, 2015 An influential group of MPs have renewed calls for the accounting industry watchdog to investigate KPMG’s role in the collapse of HBOS. Steve Baker MP, a member of the Treasury select committee, called the auditing of banks by accountancy firms around 2008 “the great uncovered scandal of the financial crisis”. In last month’s report into [...]
Government advisers back calls for an investigation into ex-HBOS directors December 14, 2015 Two independent government advisers have backed calls for ex-HBOS directors to be investigated by the regulator. Last month the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Bank of England’s Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) released a report into why HBOS failed. Iain Cornish and Stuart Bernau told the Treasury Select Committee they supported the conclusions that Andrew [...]
HSBC and Citibank are struggling to meet new regulations on banks based outside of the European Economic Area December 14, 2015 High street banks in the UK that are based outside of the European Economic Area are rushing to comply with new regulations that could leave senior bankers based abroad to be held accountable for failings in branches. From March 2016 managers at banks such as Citibank based in the US could be made to be [...]
TalkTalk style cyber attacks on firms could be set to worsen next year December 14, 2015 Hackers will increasingly use distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks to knock websites offline and dodge cyber security, businesses are being warned. Experts predict that business is likely to see an increase in the use of DDoS attacks being used as a smokescreen to distract IT teams. Labelled “dark DDoS”, this technique was reportedly used by [...]
London to grow quicker than other UK regions until 2018 December 10, 2015 London is still expected to be the fastest growing region in the UK over the next few years, according to a report out today from accounting giant EY. The capital is expected to rack up an average forecast Gross Value Added (GVA) of three per cent a year to 2018. This year London GVA is [...]
Londoners opt to stay home following Paris attacks December 10, 2015 Concerns about potential attacks on London have supposedly kept Londoners from dining out in November, according to industry sales barometer, the Coffer Peach Business Tracker. Pubs and restaurants recorded a 1.5 per cent decline in like-for-like sales in the capital, with chain restaurants feeling the biggest impact. In October sales were up 3.5 per cent [...]
