City minister calls for ‘responsible capitalism’ in financial services sector March 16, 2021 The UK’s financial services sector should move toward a more “responsible” form of capitalism that takes into account a broader ranger of interests and not just shareholders, according to City minister John Glen. Glen wrote today that the Square Mile was “ideally placed to showcase this responsible capitalism” through, but that firms should “reject some [...]
‘Priority’ BEIS audit reform report now over a month late March 9, 2021 The keenly awaited BEIS report on audit reform is now more than a month late to be published, despite business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng insisting audit reform was a “priority” for his department. City A.M. understands that the report, which is thought to be extensive, was due out on 8 February, but a month later is [...]
Blacklist audit firms for fraud failures, urges Pirc April 19, 2021 Large audit firms that are deemed not to be working hard enough to root out corporate fraud will be blacklisted in this year’s annual shareholder meetings by Pirc. Pirc has urged investors have not to reappoint PwC, KPMG, EY or Grant Thornton because it believes they have not done enough to improve their fraud detection [...]
Watchdog slams Grant Thornton over ‘unacceptable’ public sector audits October 30, 2020 The accounting watchdog has criticised Grant Thornton over its ‘unacceptable” record on public sector audits, after five out of six of the firm’s local audits were found to fall below the expected standard. The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) singled out Grant Thornton and Mazars for criticism following a review of 15 major audits of health [...]
Goldman Sachs taps Mazars for European audit in blow for Big Four May 20, 2019 Goldman Sachs has appointed Mazars to audit its London-based European operations, making it the first large bank in the UK to shun the Big Four. Read more: Big Four could force judicial review into proposed audit reforms The US investment bank has selected the Paris-headquartered auditor, which is the eighth-largest in the UK by fee [...]
Regulators remind auditors to pay attention to Covid measures on corporate reporting January 27, 2021 The FCA and the FRC have issued a joint statement to remind auditors of the coronavirus-led rule changes around corporate reporting for listed companies. Now is the busiest time for auditors, when, under normal circumstances, many listed companies would publish their end of year results. But 2021 is proving especially challenging for auditors, with England’s [...]
BEIS audit reform proposals expected to be made public in the new year November 13, 2020 Reforms to the audit sector outlined by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) are expected in the new year, with full implementation expected in 2023. Mazars head of audit Bob Neate told industry magazine Accountancy Age he expected BEIS to deliver around 110 recommendations drawn from three major reports into auditing. The [...]
Sarbanes-Oxley-style audit reform ‘to cost business more than £430m a year’ March 18, 2021 Businesses face paying hundreds of millions of pounds more every year under plans to reform the audit sector and crack down on shoddy practices at the UK’s largest firms. More than £430m could be added to businesses costs as a result of the proposals, according to analyses carried out by the Financial Times. This morning [...]
Deloitte fined for pension scheme audit failures November 6, 2020 Big Four firm Deloitte has been fined £362,500 for failures relating to the audit of a former client’s defined benefit (DB) pension scheme and the carrying value of the company’s intangible assets. The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) described the former client as one of the largest local and regional multimedia organisations in the UK responsible [...]
UK audit shakeup: Big Four face FTSE client caps, new watchdog and a clampdown on directors March 18, 2021 Big Four dominance in the UK audit market may be diluted under new plans announced today that would see stricter regulation of the sector and executives at major firms. The government hopes the proposals, published in a consultation today by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), will lead to greater transparency in [...]