‘Calm before the storm’: Rate of redundancies slows but worst is yet to come July 16, 2020 Fewer British employees were made redundant in June but economists warn unemployment is on course to rise. Around 650,000 people lost their jobs between March and June but the pace of decline slowed in June, with the bulk of job losses occurring around the onset of lockdown restrictions. June’s drop of just over 74,000 was [...]
Supermarket sector tops customer service list for pandemic performance July 15, 2020 The supermarket sector topped the list for customer service during the coronavirus crisis, according to the latest research, as grocers stepped up to the challenge to serve shoppers throughout the lockdown. The sector’s score increased four per cent compared to last year, according to analysis by KPMG. Financial services, which was the next best performing [...]
Third of UK audits fail accounting watchdog’s quality tests July 14, 2020 Britain’s accounting watchdog today said that a third of audits by the UK’s seven main accounting firms failed quality tests this year, amping up pressure for widescale reform in the sector. The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) said 29 of 88 audits carried out by Deloitte, PWC, EY, KPMG, BDO, Grant Thornton and Mazars this year [...]
Consumer spending surges as lockdown restrictions end July 14, 2020 Brits rushed back to the shops in June after lockdown restrictions ended, prompting the biggest jump in sales since May 2018 as consumers indulged in some much-needed retail therapy. According to new data from the British Retail Consortium, total sales rose 3.4 per cent in June in the first month of growth since lockdown measures [...]
New job retention bonus at heart of Rishi Sunak’s £30bn spending spree July 8, 2020 UK chancellor Rishi Sunak today put a new “job retention bonus” programme to encourage companies to bring back furloughed workers at the centre of a £30bn package aimed at kickstarting the economy. In his summer statement, Sunak said employers who take back furloughed workers until the end of January will receive a £1,000 payment for [...]
City reckons more ‘enormous’ stimulus to come from Rishi Sunak in autumn July 8, 2020 Chancellor Rishi Sunak today unveiled a package worth up to £30bn to boost the UK economy as the coronavirus lockdown is gradually eased, and promised it “will not be the last action”. At the centre of the stimulus is a “job retention bonus” worth up to £9bn that will pay companies to take back furloughed [...]
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 [...]