Big Four investigate their own clients on behalf of software giants November 23, 2018 The UK's top four accounting firms have been accused of a conflict of interest by investigating their own clients' use of software on behalf of technology firms. The so-called Big Four – PwC, KPMG, EY and Deloitte – carry out software audits on their clients on behalf of vendors such as Microsoft, SAP and IBM to see if firms [...]
Fresh funding for regtech startup Steeleye led by venture capital firm brings total raised to £5.7m November 22, 2018 Compliance technology startup Steeleye has announced the completion of a £5.7m seed fundraising led by venture capital firm Illuminate Financial. A £2.9m fundraising extension by Illuminate rounded off the money which will help the firm launched in October last year expand its products in the regulatory tech space. Clients employ Steeleye to comply with a [...]
October deficit reaches three-year high despite Hammond’s promise to end austerity November 21, 2018 The UK recorded a much larger than predicted deficit for October, according to official data released today, the same month in which the government signalled an end to austerity measures. Public borrowing rose to £8.8bn last month, up from £7.2bn in October last year, amounting to the largest October deficit for three years, according to [...]
City Moves for 20 November – who’s switching jobs at Bibby Financial Services, Raymond James and Plenitude? November 20, 2018 Who’s switching jobs? Bibby Financial Services Bibby Financial Services (BFS) has appointed Paul Lomas as global human resources director to develop and implement the business’s global HR operating model in line with its global growth strategy. Joining BFS from Oxford University Press, where he held the role of Group HR director, Paul has over 30 years’ [...]
Asset managers back Big Four audit firms in competition watchdog consultation November 15, 2018 Investment management firms have called on the competition watchdog to ensure the quality of audit is not affected as it probes the dominance of the so-called Big Four firms. In a response to the Competition and Markets Authority Standard Life said the division of the dominant audit firms – PwC, Deloitte, KPMG and EY – [...]
PwC offers muted support for audit market caps and increased oversight November 15, 2018 Britain’s biggest auditor has offered equivocal backing to a range of sector reforms, including a cap on market share for firms and more independent oversight of audit appointments. PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), the largest of Britain’s Big Four auditors, told the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) a limit on the number of top firms any single auditor [...]
Here are the six (yes, six) reviews the audit sector is currently facing November 14, 2018 As 2018 continues to be the annus horribilis of audit, bean counters are finding that sector reviews are, as the saying goes, like buses. With news this week that MPs are going to launch their own super-inquiry, the sector now faces six reviews. If that seems like more than you’ve got to grips with, here’s a [...]
The pressure is on to fix the broken audit market November 14, 2018 Accountancy may be “an art, not a science”, but there needs to be less “Jackson Pollock”. That’s according to the Labour MP Rachel Reeves, chair of the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Select Committee, who has made it her mission to fix the broken audit market. The Big Four firms (PwC, Deloitte, EY, and KPMG) are [...]
City Moves for 14 November – who’s switching jobs at KPMG, Iwoca and NCP? November 14, 2018 Who’s on the move today? KPMG KPMG has hired Jennifer Cooper as International Tax Director for the firm’s growing international tax team in London. Jennifer previously worked at professional services firm EY. In recent years she was based in both the UK and Silicon Valley, specialising in helping US-headquartered multinationals understand the changing UK tax [...]
The six big ideas that could fix auditing November 13, 2018 With nearly all the major expected responses to the Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) probe into the audit sector released or leaked, consensus on how to fix the scandal-hit sector is scattered – and there’s no silver bullet. Here are six suggestions the CMA has been sent by auditors, industry bodies, stakeholder groups and academics [...]