City Moves: Who’s switching jobs in the Square Mile this week? June 2, 2021 City A.M.‘s Millie Turner provides a roundup of the most important hires and job moves across the City, every Wednesday afternoon. Email citymoves@cityam.com to be featured. Brown Advisory expands London office with senior hires Investment management firm Brown Advisory has bolstered its London office this week with two senior hires as its collection of assets hits $15bn. [...]
Deutshe Bank mulls ditching EY as auditor following Wirecard scandal May 28, 2021 Deutshe Bank is inviting firms to compete for its 2020 audit just two years after hiring EY to replace KPMG, in a move that could see EY ditched in favour of another company. The chair of Germany’s biggest lender Paul Achleitner told shareholders that the company wants “to keep all its options open” when it [...]
Challengers turn their backs on ‘shared audits’ of the largest companies May 27, 2021 So-called ‘challenger’ audit firms BDO and Grant Thornton are reportedly considering not pitching for shared audits of FTSE 100 companies, in a move that could jeopardise the government’s plans to water down Big Four dominance. The two challengers are instead considering focusing on increasing the number of FTSE 250 companies they audit on a solo [...]
Audit watchdog admits it was not up to the job amid major company collapse May 27, 2021 The boss of the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has admitted the audit regulator was asleep at the wheel following large scale business collapses that shook confidence in the sector. Sir Jon Thompson, chief executive of the FRC, said he agreed with criticism of the regulator following the collapse of Carillion and Patisserie Valerie. Speaking to [...]
An increase in Professional Services M&A May 26, 2021 In recent years, there has been a noticeable increase in M&A and corporate transactions involving professional services firms, for instance law firms, accountancy practices and consultancy businesses. This has been driven by a number of factors, including the growing revenues and earnings in certain sub-sectors of professional services; the increasing appetite of certain private equity [...]
Public sector borrowing shows first year-on-year fall since start of pandemic May 25, 2021 Public sector borrowing is estimated to have been £31.7bn in April, £15.6bn less than in the same month last year when public finances first fell the full impact of the pandemic. The fall in borrowing in April compared with a year earlier is the first annual decline since the start of the pandemic, but last month’s borrowing remains huge [...]
EY staff to work two days a week from home post pandemic May 24, 2021 EY has today confirmed that the majority of its staff will work from home for two days a week for good, the latest big business to eschew a return to the traditional office life. The Big Four firm’s 17,500 staff will spend three days a week in the office or at client sites, with the [...]
Has lockdown triggered a City brain-drain? May 20, 2021 The explosion in home-working due to lockdown is shifting the focus away from a London-centric view of careers, with regional firms benefiting from a growing desire to shun the commute. Lockdown is prompting a shift away from City jobs to opportunities at smaller, regional practices with talent-hungry boutique firms stretching to match Square Mile-level salary [...]
Childcare and chores leave professional women burned out during pandemic May 19, 2021 Female professionals in the UK have suffered a huge hit to their work-life balance during the pandemic, with many feeling burned out after juggling childcare, housework and heavy workloads for the last year. Research by Deloitte quizzed 5,000 women in 10 countries, including 500 white-collar women in the UK, and found the pandemic and subsequent [...]
ABI director general to take up partner role at KPMG May 19, 2021 Huw Evans, director general at the Association of British Insurers (ABI), will join KPMG as a partner next January in the Big Four firm’s insurance and long-term savings division. Evans had been director general at the ABI for more than six years, during which he represented the insurance industry through Brexit, Solvency II implementation, pension [...]