‘Utterly inadequate’: Experts slam watchdog’s Big Four audit split July 6, 2020 The audit watchdog’s move to force the Big Four accountancy firms to ring-fence their audit units has been condemned as a “cosmetic exercise” by industry experts. The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) today announced that the Big Four — PwC, Deloitte, KPMG and EY — must separate their audit and non-audit businesses by 2024 to ensure [...]
Watchdog orders Big Four to separate auditing units by 2024 July 6, 2020 The Big Four accounting firms — PwC, Deloitte, KPMG and EY — must separate their audit units from the rest of their businesses by 2024, the audit watchdog said this morning. The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) is asking the companies to agree to operational separation by June 2024 to ensure their audits “do not rely [...]
Sadiq Khan slams Johnson’s New Deal for ‘failing to grasp’ scale of economic crisis June 30, 2020 Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has slammed Boris Johnson’s pledge to pump £5bn into British infrastructure, saying the government has “fundamentally failed to grasp” the scale of the economic challenges facing the UK. In a major speech this morning, the Prime Minister set out government plans to inject billions into a new infrastructure project to [...]
New frontiers: technology and dispute resolution June 30, 2020 One of the cornerstones of dispute resolution is that it should be conducted efficiently and cost effectively. Given the increasing pressure on lawyers to adhere to this, together with the increased volume of disputes, lawyers in this field have had to leverage legal technology to achieve case efficiencies, as well as grapple with disputes that [...]
Germany to shake up accounting industry following Wirecard collapse June 28, 2020 Germany is set to overhaul its accounting industry as part of measures to soften the fallout from the collapse of payments fintech Wirecard last week. Wirecard, which premiered on Germany’s main Dax index with a €24bn (£21.8bn) valuation just two years ago, filed for insolvency last week after auditors found a €1.9bn black hole in [...]
Government mulls financial support for UK’s ailing theatres June 24, 2020 The UK government is in talks to support the performing arts industry, Downing Street confirmed today, amid growing concerns the sector is nearing collapse as a result of the coronavirus crisis. Number 10 today said it was working with senior figures from the theatre industry on a rescue package, as the Prime Minister’s announcement yesterday [...]
Accounting watchdog investigates London Capital & Finance audits June 24, 2020 The accounting watchdog has launched three investigations into audits of collapsed mini-bond seller London Capital & Finance (LCF). The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) will investigate audits of the investment firm carried out by Oliver Clive & Co., PwC, and EY. LCF went into administration in January 2019, leaving 11,600 investors facing losses of up to [...]
How do you solve a problem like Wirecard? June 19, 2020 It’s been a wild ride for Wirecard. When the German payments firm premiered on the prestigious blue-chip Dax index just two years ago, shares were priced at €200 apiece. Today, prices hit as low as €20 per share, forcing out chief executive Markus Braun and leaving the future of the digital payments firm in question. [...]
Former FRC chairman Simon Dingemans joins Carlyle June 15, 2020 The former chairman of the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) who stepped down last month has taken a new role at private equity firm Carlyle. Simon Dingemans, who left the accounting watchdog in May, will join Carlyle as a managing director in charge of UK buyouts, first reported by the Financial Times. He will also reportedly [...]
The City View: The future of capital markets, with William Wright – founder of New Financial June 9, 2020 In this episode Christian is joined by William Wright, founder of the capital markets think-tank, New Financial, which works to promote bigger and better capital markets. Subscribe to The City View Podcast: Apple / Google / Spotify / RSS It also strives to explain the role and purpose of capital markets, and to focus the industry on how it can best serve [...]