Square Mile lockdown: City firms plot staff’s return to work May 14, 2020 City banks and professional services firms are drawing up plans to send staff back to the office as the UK begins to ease its coronavirus lockdown. Earlier this week Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that people who can work from home should continue to do so, as he laid out guidance to make workplaces “Covid-secure”. [...]
UK GDP shrinks: Economists warn worst yet to come as lockdown persists May 13, 2020 The UK economy shrank by a record 5.8 per cent in March, thanks almost entirely to just over a week of coronavirus lockdown that began on the 23rd. In the first quarter as a whole GDP contracted by two per cent, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said today. This was its worst performance since [...]
‘We cannot afford another lockdown’: Italy’s cautious return to work May 11, 2020 Italy was the first European country to be hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic and it is now one of the first beginning to ease its draconian lockdown measures to lessen the economic damage of the crisis. Last Monday the country began cautiously moving out of its tough lockdown with factories, building sites and offices [...]
UK economy: Is the Bank of England’s 2021 rebound scenario too optimistic? May 7, 2020 The Bank of England today said the UK economy could suffer its worst economic crash in 300 years this year as the coronavirus lockdown batters the economy. Yet it said it is likely to bounce back relatively quickly. Despite the dire report it stopped short of launching more bond-buying or “quantitative easing” (QE) and left [...]
Regulator calls for early interventions in poor audits to help stop scandals May 6, 2020 The audit regulator today called for accountancy firms to flag poor quality audits sooner to help prevent corporate scandals. The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) said tools for spotting signs of poor quality audits should be used more effectively, following a major review of their use. Last year all of the UK’s leading accounting firms failed [...]
UK tech firms suffer worst quarter since financial crisis May 1, 2020 British tech firms have posted their worst quarterly performance since the global financial crisis as the Covid-19 crisis stunts growth, new figures have revealed. Business activity across the tech sector declined for the first time in almost eight years, according to the latest KPMG UK Tech Monitor index. The headline index dropped to 47.1 from [...]
TCI calls on Wirecard to remove chief executive Markus Braun April 29, 2020 The Children’s Investment fund has called on Wirecard’s supervisory board to remove chief executive Markus Braun after a KPMG audit was unable to verify its revenue. It piles further pressure on Wirecard chairman Thomas Eichelmann after KPMG said was unable to obtain all the information it requested from the firm, such as bank statements. In [...]
Coronavirus: UK retailers have worst month since 2008 April 28, 2020 UK retailers suffered the biggest fall in sales since the financial crisis in 2008 in the first two months of April as coronavirus lockdown measures battered the sector, a survey has shown. Every part of the retail sector was hit hard this month, according to the CBI’s distributive trades survey. Even grocers and specialist food [...]
Coronavirus pandemic ‘worse than financial crisis’ for UK retail sector April 28, 2020 The impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the high street has been worse than the aftermath of the financial crisis, experts said as UK retail health plunged to record lows. The retail health index by KPMG and Ipsos fell three points to 71 in the first quarter of the year – a new record low. [...]
Wirecard says KPMG could not obtain all data for audit April 28, 2020 Wirecard has said an independent audit by KPMG uncovered no need to restate earnings but added that all the data could not be obtained. Wirecard hired KPMG last October to conduct an independent audit, in a bid to address claims its finance team had tried to inflate its reported sales and profits. In a statement [...]