BT and Rolls-Royce investigations: Auditors are not there to find fraud, says accounting body boss July 13, 2017 Accounting investigations into audit sign-offs of two British stalwarts are not a sign the profession is in crisis, a senior figure at the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) said today. But Vernon Soare, the ICAEW’s chief operating officer, admitted there is an “expectation gap” over the role of the auditor. KPMG [...]
RBS’ mis-selling fine is certain to highlight American hypocrisy, Worldpay’s bid invitation and no rush for the new Ofcom chair July 7, 2017 It was hard to suppress a laugh last week at the sanctimonious angst of corporate America at the fine doled out by Brussels over Google’s anti-competitive behaviour by favouring its shopping service over those of rivals. Those Europeans, came the wailing from across the Atlantic, are extracting money from flagship US companies with little justification. [...]
Virtual reality rocket: Sector set to swell with Brits owning 16m headsets within five years June 14, 2017 The UK virtual reality sector is set to grow at an annual rate of 76 per cent in coming years, making it the fastest growing UK entertainment and media market. A report by PwC released today estimated the entertainment and media sector will be a £72bn market in the UK by 2021. It is forecast [...]
Job cuts? No, artificial intelligence and automation will usher in a new wave of roles, IT bosses say June 12, 2017 Widespread job losses will not be a natural consequence of greater use of artificial intelligence (AI) by UK businesses, research released today by telecoms giant BT suggested. In fact, a third of those polled by BT felt AI and automation said the so-called “Fourth Industrial Revolution”, would have the opposite effect: to create more jobs. [...]
Editor’s Notes: Tory immigration policy will harm the City and our economy, Corbyn’s deleted Chavez past and City AM founders included in Change Makers series May 26, 2017 Back when George Osborne was chancellor and Theresa May was home secretary, the pair would argue over the wisdom of seeking dramatic reductions in net migration. May was obsessed with the idea, and clearly still is, whereas Osborne was instinctively more comfortable with the view that immigration was nothing to worry about and the benefits [...]
It looks like BT is ramping up its experiments with blockchain technology, patent filings reveal April 19, 2017 BT is ramping up its work on blockchain technology, with several patents related to the distributed ledger technology filed in recent months. The FTSE 100 telecoms firm which also provides IT services to high profile clients globally, such as Nationwide Bank, has filed at least six patents since the start of the year in relation [...]
Small businesses owed over £40bn in late payments, as Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn slams larger firms for not playing fair April 11, 2017 More than half (52 per cent) of Britain’s smallest businesses are owed £44.6bn in late payments between them, research out today warns, just as Jeremy Corbyn has vowed to declare “war” on larger firms who make late payments to their suppliers. The survey by Zurich of more than 1,000 small-and-medium sized business owners discovered more [...]
Three reasons why Amazon’s $50m deal with the NFL is the most significant moment yet for sport’s live streaming revolution April 6, 2017 We read news on our phones, binge-watch TV shows on our laptop and stream our music from the internet. Live sport on TV is yet to be disrupted in a similar manner, but Amazon’s $50m deal to live stream 10 Thursday night NFL games — a significant increase on the $10m Twitter paid for the [...]
From Google to the Palace of Westminster: Here’s how much energy organisations get through in a year March 22, 2017 The Palace of Westminster’s annual energy consumption could power around 4,000 UK homes for a year. And that’s small fry compared to Google, which could power every home in the capital for five months, according to GoCompare Energy. The comparison site has conducted research on the annual energy usage of organisations like the Palace of [...]
Q&A: Why are brands like Marks and Spencer pulling their advertising from Google? March 20, 2017 A newspaper investigation uncovered examples of several high profile brands being advertised against extremist content such as videos of a preacher banned from Britain and from white extremist David Duke insulting Jewish people. The BBC, Channel 4, The Guardian as well as the Financial Conduct Authority, Transport for London and the Royal Navy, advertising for [...]