Retailers cheer as sales recover September 8, 2014 RETAIL sales picked up again in August, with the high street enjoying its strongest growth since January this year. Like-for-like sales rose by 1.3 per cent in August compared with same time last year and a 0.3 per cent dip in July, according to the latest data from KPMG and the British Retail Consortium (BRC). [...]
PPI scandal: Customer compensation cost big lenders £31bn in three years September 7, 2014 Britain’s five biggest banks have spent £31bn compensating customers for mis-selling and other bad behaviour over the past three years, KPMG analysts said today. Between them the giant lenders have given customers more than £20bn in payment protection insurance mis-selling alone, and have racked up the remainder on paying interest rate swap redress, as well [...]
London Report: Retailer data to reveal strength of UK recovery September 7, 2014 THE NEWLY-MERGED Dixons Carphone will report its maiden quarterly results tomorrow in a week containing a flurry of updates for retailers. Figures for the company, whose merger only completed a month ago, will be keenly watched by investors, who will be hoping the firm’s planned synergies are starting to take effect. Other retailers due to [...]
Two-thirds of London businesses are struggling to hire due to a shortage of skilled workers September 4, 2014 London’s businesses are calling out for skilled workers but 66 per cent have struggled to recruit the highly skilled workforce they need, according to research released yesterday by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) and professional services firm KPMG. As a result nearly half of London’s companies (45 per cent) now say that there is [...]
A third of new KPMG partners women – but chair wants more September 1, 2014 Consultancy giant KPMG yesterday announced 52 new partners, pushing the total number over 600 and improving the firm’s gender balance at senior levels. A third of the new promotions are women – in comparison to only 15 per cent of KPMG’s existing partners. The firm said that it made particular efforts to bring in more [...]
Geneva’s bank opacity is melting like Swiss chocolate – Bottom Line August 28, 2014 When historians come to write the history of Swiss banking in the 21st century, the mid-2010s are likely to be some of the better thumbed chapters. The release of results this week by Pictet, Lombard Odier and smaller rival Mirabaud has lifted the veil of secrecy on the traditionally discreet world of Swiss private banking. [...]
Why Quindell’s share price bombed today, even though profits rose threefold August 21, 2014 Over the past few months, insurance outsourcer Quindell – once the darling of the stock market – has been the reluctant protagonist in a soap opera with a plot involving a shadowy organisation run by a mysterious superhero intent waging war on business “bad guys”. Quindell’s woes began in April, when analyst Gotham City [...]
KPMG calls for moratorium on EU bank rules August 20, 2014 THE EUROPEAN Parliament is dealing with an unmanageable thicket of new red tape, and should stop planning any rules for the next three years in order to deal with the backlog, KPMG consultants argued in a report published today. Scrapping the planned financial transactions tax would be a good start, according to the report’s author Jeremy Anderson. [...]
City Moves for 20 August 2014 | Who’s switching jobs August 19, 2014 BDO The accountancy and business advisory firm has announced two appointments to its forensic accounting team. Gavin Williamson joins as a partner from Deloitte, where he specialised in complex, multi-jurisdictional fraud and corruption investigations. Cathie Cameron (pictured) joins as a director. She previously ran her own consulting business in the US, and has also held [...]
City Moves for 15 August 2014 | Who’s switching jobs August 14, 2014 KPMG Yael Selfin has been appointed as a director in the firm’s economics and disputes practice. She joins from Edymar, a boutique consultancy she created and led. She has also been a partner at Volterra, and held the position of head of macro consulting at PwC. Jersey Finance Robert Christensen has been appointed chairman of [...]