Firms accused of poor ethics plans: report December 11, 2011 FTSE 100 companies have been accused of failing to provide investors with clear measures of how they maintain robust ethical standards in a study conducted by the Chartered Institute of Internal Auditors. The Institute has raised concerns that investors and shareholders are left with inadequate information about the methods companies are employing to protect themselves [...]
FTSE 350 chairmen are failing to inspire a governance culture December 11, 2011 ONLY 10 per cent of chairmen provide any meaningful insights into how they implement an appropriate governance culture throughout their organisation, according to Grant Thornton’s FTSE 350 corporate governance review. The report also revealed that only 43 per cent of chairmen use their annual report statement to refer to the company’s governance practice. Simon Lowe, [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS December 11, 2011 KPMG KPMG has appointed Paul Sawdon as UK head of its internal audit practice. Sawdon has been a partner at KPMG for the past ten years, where he has worked on a variety of audit projects, including developing the firm’s extended assurance proposition. He takes over from David Defroand, who leaves to devote himself to [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS December 11, 2011 HAYS Shore Capital rates the recruitment group as a “hold” with a target price of 63p, but makes downgrades to its estimates, seeing exposure to Europe and high Australian conversion rates as negative pressures. The broker lowers its earnings per share forecasts for 2012, 2013 and 2014 by 4 per cent, 16.7 per cent and [...]
FTSE sees big intra-day swings on varied reports December 11, 2011 WE continue to experience big intra-day swings in equity markets. Last week, the FTSE 100 broke above resistance at 5,600 (the 61.8 per cent Fibonacci Retracement of this year’s May-to-August sell-off) on three separate occasions. It went on to briefly test resistance at its 200-day moving average around 5,630 although it fell back sharply from [...]
WALL STREET WEEK AHEAD December 11, 2011 ON top of Eurozone debt troubles, Wall Street now has to worry about sagging sales from Europe as a recession in the region seems more likely. Warnings from companies such as chemical maker DuPont and chip maker Texas Instruments suggest the crisis may already be taking its toll on corporate America. While holiday shopping has [...]
To save the euro and end the liquidity crisis Germany needs to leave the Eurozone December 11, 2011 THE crisis in the Eurozone is widely portrayed as being about solvency and the need for fiscal balance and austerity, but in fact these are longer term issues – the immediate crisis is one of liquidity. Solvent countries can’t roll over their existing stock of debt, as the available liquidity behind the largest economy in [...]
Cameron must persist with EU reform strategy December 11, 2011 NOW that the dust is beginning to settle on last week’s tumultuous EU summit, where Prime Minister David Cameron blocked a change in the EU treaty, we can start to assess the consequences of his decision. So, what could the summit outcome actually mean for UK financial services? Despite the clamour in much of the [...]
Rolls Building will rule the world undisputed December 11, 2011 IT WILL take some time for the full implications of last week’s EU Summit to become clear. For my part, I will spend much of today in discussion with UK-based EU ambassadors at the Polish presidency’s conference on financial stability and growth, which takes place at the Mansion House. My recent discussions with leading practitioners [...]
RAPID RESPONSES December 11, 2011 Trick of treaty I feel like I’m missing something. Many people are obsessing over the latest Eurozone summit, but as far as I can tell Sarkozy and Merkel have proposed nothing that would make the slightest difference to the Eurozone’s immediate problems. The Sarkozy-Merkel plan is a confidence trick (albeit with a few growth-destroying tax [...]
