Britain’s pension deficits grew by £100bn in August alone September 1, 2016 Britain's companies were urged to think of plugging pension holes as “part of the furniture” of financial planning after new research showed that deficits grew by a staggering £100bn during August. The PwC Skyval index, which covers 6,000 British defined benefit pension schemes, revealed that aggregate deficits had widened to £710bn by the end of August. [...]
PwC pays largest ever uncontested fine to Financial Reporting Council over Cattles audit sign-off August 31, 2016 The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) today fined PwC £2.3m in relation to the 2007 audit of failed sub-prime lender Cattles. The fines are the highest ever imposed by the FRC for an uncontested disciplinary hearing and only surpassed by the £3m of penalties accepted on appeal by Deloitte in connection with the failure of MG Rover. Total fines of £3.5m were reduced [...]
Experts welcome Treasury proposals to allow tax-free draw-downs to fund financial advice August 31, 2016 With millions of workers being automatically enrolled into a workplace pension the Treasury launched a consultation to ensure that they are adequately advised in preparation for retirement. The launch follows an announcement by the government in the March 2016 Budget to consult on recommendations by the Financial Advice Market Review (FAMR). The FAMR proposals were to allow [...]
Govia and Abellio go head-to-head to deliver “better journeys” between London and Birmingham August 30, 2016 The owner of Southern Rail has made it onto the list of the final two bidders vying to run the London Midland franchise. Govia currently runs the network and will go head-to-head with Abellio, who recently won a nine-year contract to run the East Anglia franchise, one of the busiest commuter networks into London. Central [...]
European exchange-traded funds and products top $539bn in July August 30, 2016 Assets under management at Europe's exchange-traded funds and products were at all-time highs at the end of July after being boosted by strong inflows and market gains. Growing by $9.4bn (£7.2bn) in July, assets totalled $539bn and were spread across over two thousand different European-listed exchanged-traded funds (ETF) and products (ETP). ETFs are usually index-tracking instruments whose value is linked to the [...]
Southern Rail restores 119 of the 341 services cancelled in July August 30, 2016 After promising that customers will be automatically refunded for delays on the network, Southern Rail announced that it would also be reinstating 119 services. Read more: Southern rail to fork out hefty passenger payouts amid major disruption Southern cancelled 341 services on 11 July in an attempt to provide a more realistic service following unprecedented [...]
Financing is difficult but not unsurmountable say high-growth business leaders August 30, 2016 Britain's high-growth companies believe access to finance has sharply deteriorated since the Brexit vote but remain positive they can increase revenues over the next 12 months despite the economic challenges that lie ahead. Over 50 per cent of respondents to a survey by private equity investor ECI said gaining new finance was either "difficult" or "very difficult" – up [...]
Home insurance premiums remain stable despite flood fears and tax increases August 30, 2016 Insurance premiums have not spiked as was feared following the flooding that blighted parts of Britain earlier this year. The latest research shows that annual premiums have increased just 1.6 per cent for the year to July. Furthermore, these price changes include the increase in insurance premium tax in November 2015 from six to 9.5 per cent. In addition there [...]
Finance chiefs worried by prospect of losing foreign talent August 30, 2016 While the clock has not started ticking on Britain's exit from the European Union, workers are already on the look-out for jobs abroad according to Britain's finance chiefs. The top priority for the UK's finance directors is to ensure the freedom to hire EU nationals in the wake of the Brexit vote, a poll by the [...]
Deloitte expands business at record levels but warns of Brexit “challenges” August 30, 2016 Audit wins underpinned the fastest revenue growth for 10 years at big-four accountants Deloitte. Group revenue increased by 11.2 per cent for the year to May 2016 to £3.1bn with distributable profit up 2.5 per cent at £608m. Deloitte said that the Brexit vote would lead to a slowdown in Britain's economic growth and although it would "introduces new challenges". "We [...]
