Will Mark Carney’s corporate bond-buying help UK companies? August 11, 2016 Companies across the UK are bracing themselves for a shake-up to the way they raise cash on the corporate finance market as the Bank of England prepares to start buying private sector debt. Threadneedle Street will buy around £10bn of top-quality corporate bonds as part of its mission to help the UK avoid a recession [...]
Former Deloitte chief and private equity house plot challenger to big four accountancy firms August 9, 2016 A former Deloitte executive is teaming up with a private equity house to launch a challenger to the big four accountancy firms. John Connolly, who was chief executive of Deloitte UK, is said to be plotting a string of acquisitions to take on his former employer along with EY, PricewaterhouseCoopers and KPMG. He is working on [...]
Banking bazooka? CMA report great for fintech, costly for banks August 9, 2016 The competition watchdog has today handed fintech startups a bazooka for their mission of disrupting banks, with new rules for making data more open to improve customer choice. The so-called big four – HSBC, Lloyds, Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland – and other smaller high street banks will have to work together to create standards for sharing [...]
UK posts mighty trade deficit in month of EU referendum August 9, 2016 The UK trade deficit ballooned to a huge £5.1bn in June, far ahead of expectations and raising more questions about how the UK's exporters and importers will fare after the referendum. The figures, released this morning by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), also showed imports reached their highest ever level in a single month [...]
Online sales grew in July as store sales fell – despite desperate discount offers from retailers August 9, 2016 Online sales performed well in the past three months, but store sales declined as retailers struggled to lure shoppers onto the high street with discount deals. In the three months to July, the online sales of non-food products grew 11.1 per cent as compared to the same period last year, according to research by the British [...]
Should Philip Hammond call an early Autumn Statement? August 5, 2016 The mighty economic salvo unleashed by the Bank of England yesterday has heaped pressure onto the government to pull its weight in supporting the UK economy in the wake of the Brexit vote. Mark Carney, George Osborne, the Labour Party and a host of analysts and businesses called on the chancellor Philip Hammond to step up [...]
Bank rate cut: Property investment crowned winner while savers lose out August 5, 2016 The Bank of England launched a massive stimulus package yesterday in a bid to save Britain from recession. The Bank’s monetary policy committee (MPC) voted unanimously to slash interest rates to an all-time low of 0.25 per cent. Take a look at the winners and losers of the rate cut: WINNER: Property investment The cut to interest rates is [...]
This Big Four accountant has just reduced its recruitment process after millennials whined August 2, 2016 Say what you like about millennials, but they know how complain. Big Four accountant KPMG has just revealed plans to cut the length of its hiring process, after millennials whined. Apparently, millennials (those born after 1980) said the interview process for graduate roles, which at KPMG involved a first interview, an interview at an assessment centre [...]
Petrofac auditors find “no evidence” to support bribery allegations August 1, 2016 Petrofac said today that an independent investigation had found no evidence it was involved in a global scandal over bribery and corruption on the oil industry. The FTSE 250-listed firm called in lawyers and accountants after leaked documents suggested Monaco-based Unaoil paid bribes on behalf of oil companies including Petrofac to win contracts. "The independent investigation has thoroughly investigated [...]
Trading in Unicredit shares suspended as investors digest bank stress tests August 1, 2016 Shares in Italian bank Unicredit were suspended from trading this morning as the lender plunged by eight per cent following the publication of stress test results on Friday evening. Its counterpart Monte dei Paschi, which came bottom of the results but managed to secure new terms on a potential bailout, climbed four per cent in the [...]