Watchdog mulls investigation for EY and Deloitte over Southeastern audits October 3, 2021 The accountancy watchdog is debating whether to launch a probe into the auditors of the Southeastern train line after the company last week admitted to hiding £25m owed to the state. The Financial Reporting Council is looking into whether audit giants EY and Deloitte have a case to answer, sources told the Sunday Telegraph. Last [...]
Can Bitcoin style validation solve financial statement fraud? September 30, 2021 Jason Meyers, inventor of Auditchain Protocol addresses the question of how a Bitcoin-style validation could solve financial statement fraud.
‘Severe reprimand’ for Patisserie Valerie audit: Grant Thornton failed and was incompetent, says watchdog September 27, 2021 Red flags were missed while auditing the collapsed cake chain Patisserie Valerie, and auditors failed to question management properly. Overall, it showed a serious lack of competence, according to regulators this morning. The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) made its findings against accounting giant Grant Thornton and auditor David Newstead, handing them fines of £2.3m and [...]
Bonus backlash: John Lewis workers angered by awards for senior staff September 23, 2021 Retail group John Lewis Partnership has angered employees after senior managers received awards while a wider partnership bonus was denied for the first time. Almost 4,000 special contribution awards were made last year, it was first reported by The Financial Times, including to 16 managers, out of an 79,000-strong workforce. A wider percentage award was [...]
FRC calls for businesses to better report longer-term viability for investors September 22, 2021 The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has called for businesses to better report their longer-term viability and liquidity to investors – particularly during times of economic uncertainty. It forms part of the financial watchdog’s findings in a review of companies’ viability and concern disclosures amid the Covid-19 pandemic, which has pushed heightened levels of market [...]
Build 250,000 homes for key workers, urges think tank September 16, 2021 The government should ring fence land to build 50,000 homes each year for key workers on the frontline of dealing with the Covid crisis. The Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) has called on the government to use land to build affordable homes for key workers to help them get on the property ladder. Properties built [...]
BDO hires record number of new trainees to its audit team September 15, 2021 Accounting firm BDO has announced that it has hired over 450 new trainees into its audit team this year, as the so-called ‘challenger’ firm bolsters its auditing arm. BDO said it had brought on more than 600 new trainees across departments since the start of 2021 – more than it has ever done before. Most [...]
James Barbour CA on the seven essential elements for corporate reform September 14, 2021 From the outset of the calls for audit reform, ICAS has advocated a holistic review of corporate governance, reporting and audit (“the corporate ecosystem”). This article first appeared in ICAS’ CA magazine. We therefore see the recent consultation by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), “Restoring trust in audit and corporate governance”, as [...]
EY to spend $2bn on improving audits after Wirecard scandal September 9, 2021 EY will invest around $2bn (£1.4bn) over three years to improve the quality of its audits after the high-profile collapse of payments company Wirecard, according to the Financial Times who first reported the news. The funding is part of a larger, and record, $10bn investment plan, announced by EY yesterday, to finance staff training and [...]
KPMG boss intervenes in dispute with FRC over poor auditing standards September 7, 2021 The global head of KPMG has written to the UK’s Financial Reporting Council (FRC) over the its threats to publish further criticism of the auditor’s repeated failings, the Financial Times first reported. Bill Thomas, KPMG’s global chair and chief executive, entered the increasingly public dispute between the big four auditor and the FRC, after executives [...]