KPMG will halt non-audit work on FTSE 350 clients in wake of Carillion November 8, 2018 KPMG is set to become the first of the so-called Big Four to cease all non-audit work for FTSE 350 clients in the wake of Carillion. The auditor will stop providing all but some essential non-audit services for the 90 FTSE 350 customers whose accounts it audits, it has told 625 UK partners in a [...]
End Big Four dominance using French-style joint audits, watchdog told November 1, 2018 Regulators should consider introducing a French-style joint audit system to break the Big Four’s stranglehold on the top end of the market, the industry body said yesterday. Responding to a fast-moving review of Britain’s audit sector, the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) warned the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) of the [...]
Government to ban private finance initiatives for future public sector projects after Carillion collapse October 29, 2018 The government will abolish the use of private finance initiatives (PFI) to fund future projects, chancellor Philip Hammond announced today. The announcement in Hammond's Autumn Budget, the last before Brexit, comes after the collapse of construction giant Carillion put the controversial funding model in the spotlight. "We will honour existing contracts, but the days of the public [...]
Audit watchdog boss Stephen Haddrill set to step down amid probe October 28, 2018 The chief executive of the Financial Reporting Council (FRC), Stephen Haddrill, is reportedly preparing to step down amid a government probe into the watchdog’s operations. Haddrill is planning to leave within months, Sky News reported. He has led the FRC, which monitors and regulates the audit sector, since 2009. Citing an anonymous source, Sky said [...]
Audit re-appointments waved through by shareholders despite year of failures in sector October 25, 2018 Shareholders overwhelmingly vote to back the re-appointment of company auditors despite widespread controversies in the sector, new research shows. Analysis of annual general meeting votes in 2018 by outsourcing firm Equiniti has found that the average votes in favour of re-appointing an auditor ranged from 97.6 per cent to 99.5 per cent across the FTSE [...]
As Laing O’Rourke is late filing its figures, is it another major contractor we should be concerned about? October 24, 2018 Pinning down the finances of private companies can be a tricky task for City stakeholders. Public companies, however, are mandated to keep investors and other interested parties entertained with a steady stream of financial updates. When it comes to filing financial statements – the audited figures upon which financiers hang their hats – listed firms [...]
Santander chair on shortlist to lead new government-backed audit review October 22, 2018 The chair of Santander UK has been shortlisted to lead a new, government-backed review into the future of Britain’s audit sector, following a series of scandals. Baroness Vadera, a former investment banker and key ally of Gordon Brown, whom she served as a minister, was named by the Times as a candidate to lead the [...]
Auditors face fresh headache as shareholder adviser eyes industry October 18, 2018 The world’s largest adviser to shareholders is to ramp up its scrutiny of auditors, in a move that will pile further pressure on the UK’s embattled beancounters amid a series of industry controversies. Auditors will be facing another headache at their shareholder meetings next year after the Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) today unveiled plans to [...]
Pilfered pens and fudged expenses could foreshadow an ethics scandal October 18, 2018 Are UK employees the least ethical in Europe? The Institute of Business Ethics’ 2018 Ethics at Work Survey seems to indicate so. Brits appear to take a more lenient approach than the average European employee to questionable workplace practices. We asked employees about their attitudes to ethical issues in the workplace, ethical practices in their [...]
Outrage-induced regulation will not fix the broken audit market October 12, 2018 The audit market is broken. Don’t take my word for it – ask Rachel Reeves, the Labour MP who chairs the BEIS select committee, or Liberal Democrat leader Vince Cable, or even the Conservative business secretary Greg Clark, who last month ordered an inquiry into competition in the sector. With such cross-party concerns, it should not [...]