London’s startup community is thriving off of the full scale of investors’ tolerance for risk March 17, 2022 Last month London celebrated yet another fintech triumph. PrimaryBid, a young company that provides retail investors with fair access to public markets, secured an impressive $190m of venture funding. The size of this Series C financing round, and the involvement of internationally renowned investors provided yet more validation that world-beating start-ups are increasingly being created [...]
Big Four auditors EY, KPMG, Deloitte and PwC face SEC probe over conflicts-of-interest March 16, 2022 The US watchdog tasked with regulating financial markets has launched an investigation into potential conflicts of interest in the Big Four accountancy companies. The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has set up a probe into whether the Big Four’s businesses selling consulting and non-audit services undermine their ability to provide objective and independent audits, [...]
UK firms to launch price hike spree as Bank of England prepares to lift rates again March 14, 2022 A record proportion of UK firms are preparing to hike prices in a further sign of the scale of inflationary pressures sweeping throughout the economy, reveals a closely watched survey released today. The fresh figures provide further incentives for the Bank of England to hike interest rates for the third meeting in a row when [...]
Office for National Statistics throws men’s suits out of inflation calculation basket and adds meat-free sausages March 14, 2022 The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has added meat-free sausages, sports bras and anti-bac wipes to the basket of goods its statisticians use to calculate price hikes. In its annual shake up of the basket, the ONS added 19 items to its Consumer Prices Index and threw out 15 items. Products to be added include [...]
Seizing companies’ assets would take Russia back to Bolshevik revolution, Putin ally says March 12, 2022 Russian mining billionaire Vladimir Potanin has warned Putin against seizing control of assets owned by the foreign firms that have exited Russia, after arguing that doing so would drag Russia back to the time of the Bolshevik revolution. Multi-billionaire mining magnate Potanin, who in 2018 appeared on the US Treasury’s list of 210 individuals with [...]
Wages continue to surge amid tightening jobs market March 10, 2022 Strong competition for workers amid a tight jobs market is accelerating starting pay at near record highs, reveals a fresh survey published today. A shortage of available workers is driving businesses to hike pay to out muscle competitors from poaching top talent, according to research from the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) and KPMG. Starting [...]
UK accountancy watchdog fines KPMG £1.25m over audit of bar chain Revolution March 8, 2022 Britain’s accountancy watchdog today fined KPMG £1.25m over its audit of bar chain company Revolution. The UK’s Financial Reporting Council (FRC) fined Big Four accountancy giant KPMG £1.25m and former-KPMG director Michael Neil Frankish £50,000, over failures in the audit of Revolution Bars Group’s accounts for the financial year 2015/16. The fines come after FRC [...]
International Women’s Day: ‘Empower women to have more confidence in having a voice and stepping up’ March 8, 2022 Samantha Frost CA, Director at Think Consulting and Think Wellbeing, discusses gender bias in the workplace, shifting attitudes towards career breaks, the power of mentoring and the pressure that’s placed on women to act as role models. Why did you decide to become a CA? A lot of us who studied economics at university didn’t [...]
Pandemic spending habits settle to ‘new normal’ after online shopping boom March 8, 2022 Pandemic spending habits have “settled into a new normal” with people returning to bricks and mortar stores to ‘try before you buy’ last month. Total retail sales were up 4.9 per cent in February, compared to the same month in 2020, according to the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and KPMG retail sales monitor. Sales continued [...]
Deloitte becomes last of the Big Four to exit Russia March 7, 2022 Accountancy and audit heavyweight Deloitte has become the last of the Big Four to pull out of Russia, following its invasion of Ukraine – joining EY earlier today. PwC and KPMG announced similar moves last night, citing the Russian government’s actions in Ukraine. Deloitte confirmed last week that it was reviewing its “business and presence [...]