Audit quality threatened by fee pressure June 14, 2012 PRESSURE to reduce fees poses a threat to the quality of British auditing, a leading member of the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) said yesterday, as the body issued its annual reports on the performance of the country’s four largest accountancy firms. Paul George, the organisation’s executive director of conduct, told City A.M.: “Commercial pressures run the [...]
Firms pledge school links May 20, 2012 BUSINESSES are backing a campaign to get more young people into work, it was announced today. Firms including Marks and Spencer, Deloitte and Nestle are joining the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development to build links with schools and colleges, and provide more opportunities for vocational education and training. “We also to move beyond constant [...]
Another banking scandal was the last thing the City needed August 6, 2012 JUST when it felt as if it couldn’t get any worse for the City, it is now Standard Chartered’s turn to be engulfed in a major scandal. The bank – which didn’t need a bailout and is hugely successful thanks to its emerging market focus – stands accused by US regulators of having deliberately ignored [...]
UBS celebrates with watches June 26, 2012 In these days of cutbacks and (relative) austerity among the world’s investment banks, it’s good to see that the Swiss-based UBS is trying to muster up a celebratory mood. UBS is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year, and in so doing has given each of its 65,000 employees worldwide a Swatch watch. The gesture has [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING July 9, 2012 FINANCIAL TIMES Morgan Stanley sheds staff as transactions fall Morgan Stanley will this week complete a round of job cuts that will ultimately see the company shed 100 sales and trading staff, underscoring what is expected to prove a dismal second quarter for Wall Street banks. The cuts are across Europe, the Middle East and [...]
CITY MOVES WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS June 24, 2012 Regard Sandie Foxall-Smith has been appointed chief executive of the care specialist group. She joins after four years as chief executive of St Peter’s Hospice in Bristol, and replaces co-founder and major shareholder John Farragher. Foxall-Smith has many years’ experience in the healthcare sector, and previously served as director of development at Circle Health and [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING July 15, 2012 FINANCIAL TIMES Europe’s banks face tougher demands The head of Europe’s top banking regulator has raised the bar for lenders’ capital requirements, insisting that the nine per cent capital ratio they had to hit as a “temporary buffer” by June is to become permanent. “The key thing will be capital conservation,” Mr Enria told the [...]
Are shareholder revolts over executive pay a coherent response to poor performance? June 14, 2012 YES Carol Arrowsmith The 2012 AGM season has witnessed high levels of shareholder activism, focused on the bellwether issue of executive pay. The UK tends not to regulate these issues, believing that companies should follow good practice or explain their position – “comply or explain”. This year we are seeing shareholders challenge some companies – [...]
Eurozone crisis pushes mergers and acquisitions to record low June 6, 2012 MERGER and acquisition (M&A) activity plummeted in the first quarter, official figures showed yesterday, as nervous firms slashed spending in the UK and abroad. UK firms spent just £0.7bn on acquisitions abroad in the first quarter, according to data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) – down 94 per cent from £12.6bn in the [...]
Confidence up despite a new GDP downturn April 29, 2012 CONSUMERS are increasingly confident and feel more secure in their jobs than they did three months ago, according to a study out today, despite the UK officially returning to recession in the last quarter. Deloitte’s consumer tracker shows a fragile picture and only a small improvement on the final quarter of 2011, but does expect [...]