Accountants back report by regulators June 30, 2010 ACCOUNTANTS say they are willing to consider whether the current audit model needs to evolve to meet changing market needs, following a recent report by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) saying that the profession had not been sceptical enough about the financial firms it audited in the run up to the banking crisis. The City [...]
Auditors must learn to articulate their value June 30, 2010 If there is to be a positive legacy of the financial crisis, it must be in the lessons that market participants have learned from extremely challenging times. Bank auditors have been no exception. The Financial Services Authority (FSA) and Financial Reporting Council have set out their thoughts on the auditors’ role and the contribution they [...]
DON’T SING JERUSALEM TOO SOON June 29, 2010 DICK TURPIN MANAGING DIRECTOR, ARTEMIS WHAT a relief. Saving £100m, three-quarters of the government’s 820 websites are to go. Whitehall is reluctant to name the doomed. But it is widely believed that www.lovechips.co.uk – run by the marketing department of the Potato Council – is unlikely to survive the cut. As in the body politic, [...]
Sack unethical bankers, says commission June 13, 2010 BANKERS that have behaved “unethically” should be struck off by a new professional standards board, according to an influential commission into the banking industry. The Future of Banking Commission released its long-awaited report yesterday, with a radical blueprint for the industry in the wake of the financial crisis. It recommends that a new body should [...]
Britain’s film industry warns deep cuts to tax relief incentives could affect GDP June 7, 2010 THE British film industry yesterday warned cuts to a government tax relief system designed to make producing movies in the country financially attractive, would be devastating for the sector. The UK Film Council has commissioned a report on the film sector and its importance to the British economy and presented it to the government in [...]
City shake-up to get more women in boardrooms May 28, 2010 A shake-up of City firms in which more women will be put in boardrooms, will be undertaken as part of a review of corporate governance. The Financial Reporting Council said it wanted to “explicitly” ensure hiring committees took gender and diversity into account. Only 12 per cent of FTSE 100 directors are women and seven [...]
Directors must be re-elected annually, says new FRC code May 27, 2010 THE CITY has widely welcomed new corporate governance rules set out by the Financial Reporting Council (FRC). Replacing the former Combined Code, the FRC is introducing the new UK Corporate Governance Code in a bid to make companies more accountable to their shareholders. Among the changes are recommendations that all directors at FTSE 350 companies [...]
Principles and not rules are the way to encourage business to be ethical May 26, 2010 TOMORROW, the Financial Reporting Council will announce the first part of its new code of conduct for corporate governance. It is a welcome step towards ensuring that businesses behave in a responsible way, but more is needed. It has been striking in recent times that the public and policymakers have blamed business’s failures on ethical [...]
HOW THE AGREEMENT AFFECTS THE CITY May 20, 2010 BANKING • The coalition has agreed to impose some kind of levy on the banking industry, although its exact form has yet to be decided. The Tories want to introduce a fee on banks’ wholesale funding, while the Liberal Democrats would prefer a tax on profits. • There is a vague commitment to tackle “unacceptable [...]
EU task force to examine German move May 20, 2010 EUROPEAN Union finance ministers will discuss Germany’s short-selling ban and coordination of such market-moving decisions in the EU on Friday, European Union president Herman Van Rompuy said yesterday. Germany did not consult on its decision late on Tuesday to introduce a ban on some short-selling of bonds, stocks and transactions in credit default swaps with [...]