Sadiq Khan raises ‘serious concerns’ over Crossrail’s transparency and governance in letter to spending watchdog November 21, 2018 London mayor Sadiq Khan has said he has "serious concerns" about the "transparency and effectiveness of Crossrail's governance" following the fallout from the delay to the £15.4bn project. In a letter to the National Audit Office (NAO), seen by City A.M., Khan said that while joint sponsors Transport for London (TfL) and the Department for Transport (DfT) [...]
Workers feel they are in the dark on impact of Brexit, says survey November 20, 2018 Only a minority of UK employees have been kept informed about the ramifications of Brexit in the workplace, according to KPMG research. In a survey of 4,000 workers commissioned by the professional services firm, 38 per cent of employees said bosses had explained the implications of Brexit at work, while only 39 per cent said their employer [...]
Asset managers back Big Four audit firms in competition watchdog consultation November 15, 2018 Investment management firms have called on the competition watchdog to ensure the quality of audit is not affected as it probes the dominance of the so-called Big Four firms. In a response to the Competition and Markets Authority Standard Life said the division of the dominant audit firms – PwC, Deloitte, KPMG and EY – [...]
PwC offers muted support for audit market caps and increased oversight November 15, 2018 Britain’s biggest auditor has offered equivocal backing to a range of sector reforms, including a cap on market share for firms and more independent oversight of audit appointments. PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), the largest of Britain’s Big Four auditors, told the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) a limit on the number of top firms any single auditor [...]
Here are the six (yes, six) reviews the audit sector is currently facing November 14, 2018 As 2018 continues to be the annus horribilis of audit, bean counters are finding that sector reviews are, as the saying goes, like buses. With news this week that MPs are going to launch their own super-inquiry, the sector now faces six reviews. If that seems like more than you’ve got to grips with, here’s a [...]
The pressure is on to fix the broken audit market November 14, 2018 Accountancy may be “an art, not a science”, but there needs to be less “Jackson Pollock”. That’s according to the Labour MP Rachel Reeves, chair of the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Select Committee, who has made it her mission to fix the broken audit market. The Big Four firms (PwC, Deloitte, EY, and KPMG) are [...]
Brexit worries prompt nearly a third of consumers to cut spending November 14, 2018 Nearly a third of British consumers have cut their spending because of Brexit, scrimping on luxuries and postponing investments amid doubt over the future of the UK’s relationship with the EU bloc. A survey of 4,015 Brits, conducted by professional services firm KPMG, found 31 per cent had already cut their spending. James Stewart, KPMG [...]
City Moves for 14 November – who’s switching jobs at KPMG, Iwoca and NCP? November 14, 2018 Who’s on the move today? KPMG KPMG has hired Jennifer Cooper as International Tax Director for the firm’s growing international tax team in London. Jennifer previously worked at professional services firm EY. In recent years she was based in both the UK and Silicon Valley, specialising in helping US-headquartered multinationals understand the changing UK tax [...]
The six big ideas that could fix auditing November 13, 2018 With nearly all the major expected responses to the Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) probe into the audit sector released or leaked, consensus on how to fix the scandal-hit sector is scattered – and there’s no silver bullet. Here are six suggestions the CMA has been sent by auditors, industry bodies, stakeholder groups and academics [...]
Grant Thornton breaks ranks with call for independent audit appointment body, as BDO backs market caps November 13, 2018 Grant Thornton, the UK’s fifth-largest audit firm, has broken ranks with other mid-tier accountants by calling for the introduction of an independent body to appoint auditors to top listed firms. The firm told the competition watchdog that caps on market share would not work, putting it at odds with close competitors such as BDO, which [...]