High street hopes for Boxing Day boost as spending expected to hit £4.75bn December 26, 2018 High street retailers will have their fingers crossed for a festive boost as shoppers take to the streets for the Boxing Day sales, while online sales are expected to rise 20 per cent year-on-year. British consumers are set to spend £4.75bn today, with £3.71bn of that expected to come from physical sales, according to research [...]
Audit sector faces huge shake-up as new reports make radical recommendations December 18, 2018 The stage has been set for a radical shake-up of the UK’s audit sector, following the release of two highly-anticipated reports. Britain’s audit watchdog, the Financial Reporting Council (FRC), should be scrapped and replaced with a new statutory body, Sir John Kingman’s review of the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has said. Meanwhile, the Competition and Markets [...]
Report into audit sector commissioned by John McDonnell calls for break-up of Big Four December 14, 2018 A report into the audit sector commissioned by shadow chancellor John McDonnell has called for the break-up of the Big Four audit firms. The report, published today, recommended that the audit business of accounting firms must be legally separate from everything else and says it should be a criminal offence for auditors to perform non-audit [...]
Competition and Markets Authority to recommend market share cap for Big Four audit firms December 13, 2018 The UK's top four audit firms are facing a market share cap to encourage competition from smaller companies as the sector comes under increased scrutiny following a number of high profile corporate collapses. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is expected to recommend a limit on the number of large listed companies that the so-called Big [...]
South Korea launches raid on Samsung subsidiary amid fraud probe December 13, 2018 South Korean prosecutors investigating alleged accounting fraud yesterday raided the offices of Samsung’s biopharma unit and its two auditors, KPMG and Deloitte. The Financial Services Commission, which last month suspended trading in Samsung Biologics shares, claims the company intentionally breached accounting rules before listing in 2016. Biologics, which denies wrongdoing, said today that investigators had [...]
City Moves for 13 December – who’s switching jobs at AK Jensen, City of London Group and Eversheds Sutherland? December 13, 2018 Who’s switching jobs? AK Jensen AK Jensen Group (AKJ), the financial services specialist serving institutional and hedge fund clients globally, today named Sher Malhi as its new Chief Financial Officer Sher joins AKJ at an exciting time, as the group expands from its hedge fund origins into the digital assets domain. Sher brings a wealth [...]
EY and PwC reveal that both dismissed five partners over inappropriate behaviour December 11, 2018 The final two Big Four financial services firms have disclosed the number of partners that have left the companies following allegations of inappropriate behaviour. PwC fired five partners for inappropriate behaviour including harassment or bullying over the last three years. EY revealed that five partners had left the company over a four year period, becoming [...]
Decade-long £413bn national infrastructure plan needs more private sector investment, says KPMG December 11, 2018 The government’s 10-year infrastructure plan which commits £413bn of spending over the coming decade needs to do more to drive private sector investment, according to KPMG. The National Infrastructure and Construction Pipeline, announced last month, “looks to be gaining ground”, the accounting firm said, but still lagged behind targets set by the United Nations. The [...]
And BDO makes five? Don’t count on it, says firm’s global chief December 11, 2018 The global boss of professional services firm BDO had said it has no ambitions to join the ranks of the Big Four, as it aims for dominance of the mid-market across its operations. The firm, Britain’s sixth-largest auditor, revealed its global fee income hit $8.99bn (£7.16bn) for the past year – a 10.7 per cent [...]
Seven KPMG partners left the firm over inappropriate behaviour including bullying and sexual harassment within four-year period December 10, 2018 A total of seven KPMG partners have left the financial services firm over the last four years following accusations of inappropriate behaviour, including sexual harassment and bullying. The revelation comes after it was reported that fellow ‘Big Four’ firm Deloitte fired 20 partners for similar behaviour over the same period and as workplace culture faces [...]