Grant Thornton fined £3m for ‘numerous’ audit failures July 8, 2020 Grant Thornton has been fined £3m for “firm-wide failures” to comply with ethical standards between 2014 and 2017, as regulatory scrutiny increases on the Big Four. The auditor failed to meet ethical standards between 2014 and 2017, the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) said today. And the accounting giant also failed to ensure its audit of [...]
Munich prosecutors arrest head of Wirecard’s Dubai unit July 6, 2020 Munich prosecutors have arrested the head of a Dubai-based subsidiary of Wirecard on suspicion of aggravated fraud. Oliver Bellenhaus is the second senior Wirecard employee to be arrested after the former chief executive Markus Braun last month, who has since been released on bail. The firm Bellenhaus ran, CardSystems Middle East, was the largest individual [...]
‘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 [...]
Audit shows Wirecard’s core business ‘has been lossmaking for years’ July 6, 2020 Wirecard’s core business in Europe and America has reportedly been lossmaking for years, raising questions about the economic health of parts of the firm not directly affected by the accounting fraud. The German firm filed for insolvency after an accounting scandal which saw €1.9bn missing from its balance sheet. Former chief executive Markus Braun was [...]
Eddie Stobart reports jump in losses as it recovers from difficult year July 6, 2020 Annual losses at logistics group Eddie Stobart have jumped significantly, following a £169m charge in December as a result of an accounting blunder. Losses before tax rose to £238.9m for the 12 months to the end of November 2019, up from £22.3m a year earlier. Exceptional costs were reported of £200.2m, up from £5.1m, to [...]
Intu boss quits after landlord falls into administration July 3, 2020 The boss of Intu has stepped down a week after the UK’s biggest shopping centre owner went into administration having failed to agree a last minute deal with lenders. Administrator KPMG told staff that Matthew Roberts, who took over the top job last year after nine years as the firm’s finance chief, had quit, Sky [...]
EU court rules against Blackrock in VAT exemption case July 2, 2020 Blackrock’s UK arm is not exempt from paying value added tax (VAT) on part of a service from an outside supplier to help manage its funds, an EU court ruled today. The world’s biggest asset manager had argued that between 2010 and 2013 it should not have to pay VAT on all the services given, [...]
Accenture to cut up to 900 UK jobs as coronavirus bites July 1, 2020 Consultancy firm Accenture is planning to axe up to 900 jobs in the UK as the firm tries to cut costs to deal with the coronavirus crisis and an uncertain future. Accenture is a US firm headquartered in New York, but it employs more than 10,000 people in the UK. The job cuts are part [...]
Hammerson collects just 16 per cent of third-quarter UK rent July 1, 2020 Retail property giant Hammerson said it had received only 16 per cent of the rents it is owed in the UK so far this quarter, as the coronavirus pandemic weighs heavily on the sector. As of 29 June, the shopping centre operator said it had collected 73 per cent of UK rents for the first [...]