City Moves for 23 December 2015 | Who’s switching jobs December 22, 2015 KPMG David Ferbrache has joined KPMG as a technical director to enhance the capabilities of the firm’s growing cyber security practice. Prior to working for KPMG, David was the head of cyber & space at the Ministry of Defence. He will lead the development of future cyber security services and advise KPMG’s key clients on [...]
On demand beauty service Milk Beauty raises more than £225,000 on Seedrs crowdfund December 22, 2015 Hackney-based Milk Beauty, the start-up which comes to your home or office to provide beauty treatments on demand, has raised £225,983 in the first 10 days of its crowdfunding campaign on Seedrs. Milk has reached 75 per cent of its investment target of £300,000, for which it is offering an 18.76 per cent stake in [...]
Fintech firm Transferwise in early stage talks to team up with banks in the UK December 21, 2015 London fintech firm Transferwise is set to partner up with the banks it has previously accused of “scamming” customers. The money transfer firm has announced it is in early stage talks with up to 20 banks around the world, including established and challenger banks in the UK, to embed its services in their online banking [...]
Accountant KPMG posts a rise in revenue as profits take a hit December 18, 2015 Big four accountant KPMG has announced a growth in revenue by 2.6 per cent to £1.96bn for the year ended 30 September. However, overall profits before tax were down seven per cent from £414m to £383m. KPMG blamed the fall on high investment, spending a total of £196m through out the year. Profits from the advisory [...]
High street retailers preparing themselves for a pre-Christmas spending rush December 18, 2015 High street retailers are bracing themselves for a pre-Christmas spending boom, with shoppers tipped to splurge around £4.7bn in stores over the next four days, allaying fears that November’s Black Friday bonanza and the rise of online shopping would keep customers away. Brits will splash out around £5.9bn on last-minute presents and food over the four days starting tomorrow [...]
Accounting watchdog scrutinising KPMG over HBOS failures December 17, 2015 The accounting industry regulator, the Financial Reporting Council (FRC), is reviewing whether to investigate big four accountant KPMG over its role in the collapse of HBOS. The bank was given a clean bill of health in an audit by KPMG shortly before needing to bailed out by the government and Lloyds TSB in 2008. The [...]
UK retail sales smash expectations in November as the Black Friday effect hits December 17, 2015 UK retail sales performed better than expected last month, partly driven by sales on Black Friday. Retail sales grew five per cent compared with last November, and grew 1.7 per cent from October, the Office for National Statistics reported this morning. James Knightly, a senior global economist at ING, said sales had been expected to rise just [...]
MPs pile pressure on the accounting watchdog and KPMG over HBOS failures December 15, 2015 An influential group of MPs have renewed calls for the accounting industry watchdog to investigate KPMG’s role in the collapse of HBOS. Steve Baker MP, a member of the Treasury select committee, called the auditing of banks by accountancy firms around 2008 “the great uncovered scandal of the financial crisis”. In last month’s report into [...]
Forget a fintech bubble: 2016 will be the year this booming market finally gets serious December 14, 2015 In 2015, global fintech investment will top $20bn, up from $12bn in 2014. There are wide-ranging estimates of the number of fintech players around the world today, but some say it’s surpassed 10,000. In China, there are over 2,000 marketplace platforms alone. The big banks are clambering over one another to invest in (or play [...]
Fintech 100: UK dominates KPMG’s global list of top fintech firms of 2015 with Transferwise, Funding Circle and Atom Bank December 14, 2015 As if you needed more proof that the UK fintech scene is booming… The UK is dominating a list of top fintech firms, with more emerging firms than any other country in the world, according to KPMG’s “Fintech 100”. The list of the leading fintech firms of 2015 is made up of 50 established firms [...]