‘Bond market tantrum risks’: Gilt traders brace for Labour leftward pivot as Starmer future uncertain
Finance regulator gains powers March 27, 2012 ■ The government is speeding up plans to streamline the Financial Reporting Council (FRC), giving the cumbersome auditing and corporate governance watchdog a bigger stick to rein in rule-breakers and help shape European Union laws. The FRC covers a range of supervisory activities from punishing auditors for rule breaches and checking up on accountants and [...]
What was in Osborne’s red box: our quick summary March 22, 2012 THE ECONOMY/PUBLIC FINANCES The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) forecasts that UK GDP will grow by around 0.8 per cent this year, the same rate as in 2011, up from its earlier forecast of 0.7 per cent. The beneficial effects of falling inflation are expected to be offset by uncertainty over the Eurozone and tighter [...]
Taxing homes more isn’t the answer March 4, 2012 HERE is my factoid of the day: Italians have just replaced Russians as the top foreign buyers of prime central London properties, ending years of oligarch dominance, according to Knight Frank. The only reason the Greeks aren’t ranked higher is that there are too few of them. Analysts interested in predicting financial crises and unrest [...]
RESPONSES TO THE KAY REVIEW INTO SHORT-TERMISM February 29, 2012 STEPHEN HADDRILL FINANCIAL REPORTING COUNCIL Quarterly reporting adds little by way of new information and can be easily manipulated, but it does provide a regular short-term trading opportunity, and, given the continuing requirement on companies for timely disclosure of market sensitive information, we support its abolition. SIR TERRY LEAHY FORMER TESCO CHIEF EXECUTIVE Sir Terry [...]
Our corporate reporting is broken: but new research says that it can be fixed February 21, 2012 Pressure mounts for substantial changes to company reports, as a survey uncovers ambiguous attitudes SOME debates, it seems, go unresolved for years despite their importance. The future of corporate reporting is one such issue. It is now more than five years since the leaders of the biggest six accounting firms declared that the reporting system [...]
We need better communication, not extra rules February 16, 2012 BRITAIN’S comply-or-explain system of corporate governance has come in for some stick in Brussels since the banking crisis. Sometimes dubbed self-regulation, it is seen as unreliable, and a number of senior officials have indicated their preference for codes to be replaced by more prescriptive regulation. Yet the facts tell a different story. Systematic research by [...]
FRC to look into tougher comply or explain policy February 14, 2012 THE FINANCIAL Reporting Council (FRC) has issued research suggesting companies should provide greater detail when they choose to exempt themselves from corporate governance procedures. The regulator, which has responsibility for promoting the UK Corporate Governance Code, will now consider the proposals as part of an ongoing process to revise its guidelines. The research noted that [...]
Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya… Is it time to intervene in Syria? February 8, 2012 YES MICHAEL WEISS THE question is not whether or not the West ought to intervene in Syria but when it will. For 11 months, President Assad’s regime has rejected all offers for substantive reform, while massacring upwards of 7,000 civilians, displacing tens of thousands more and running a network of arbitrary detention facilities rivalling Saddamist [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING February 7, 2012 FINANCIAL TIMES BOMBARDIER JOBS BELIEVED SAFE Workers at the UK’s last train maker are expected to hear this week that their jobs are safe, ending months of uncertainty about the future of the factory in Derby. Its owner, Bombardier, put the future of the site under review in the middle of last year, after the [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS February 5, 2012 Mastercard UK The global payment processing network has appointed Marion King as president of its UK and Ireland business. King was previously CEO of VocaLink, a payments service provider to banks, corporations and governments. Prior to this she worked at Reuters for 14 years, holding a series of senior roles, most recently as managing director [...]