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New Year honours short on bankers

Sandy Crombie, chief executive of Standard Life, receives a knighthood on Wednesday in a New Year honours list otherwise visibly lacking in City figures. The award reflects his success at the helm of the Scottish insurer, where he became group head in January 2004

Credit Suisse to get Aberdeen stake

Credit Suisse is poised to own 25 per cent of Aberdeen Asset Management after the Swiss bank agreed to sell the UK manager its traditional fund management business in a share-based deal worth about £200m. Bankers were scrambling to complete the deal by Wednesday in an effort to tidy year-end balance sheets, although people involved warned the timing could slip

Crisis wipes £65bn from pensions

The average pension scheme of FTSE 100 companies saw the value of its assets crash by 17 per cent in 2008, wiping a total of £65 billion from retirement funds, according to a study from Deloitte

Businesses scramble to reclaim VAT

Businesses are scrambling to reclaim millions of pounds of overpaid value added tax in the next three months, in response to one of the breaches of European law that exposed the Treasury to multi-billion-pound pay-outs this year

Experienced help to tighten corporate belts

With cost cutting now ensconced firmly at the top of most companies’ to-do list for 2009, few businesses should expect to sell more of their products to cash-strapped corporate clients.

CBI Scotland accuses Holyrood of ‘skin deep’ support for business

The Scottish Government's support for business often appears to be only skin deep, according to a controversial assessment by CBI Scotland. With businesses across the country braced for recession, the employers' organisation said ministers could do much more to help firms cope with tough times and ensure they are in shape for an eventual recovery

IMF argues for large stimulus packages

Across-the-board tax cuts or bail-outs of troubled industries such as the automotive sector are likely to waste government money while doing little to stimulate the global economy, the International Monetary Fund warned on Monday

Private equity groups face tough choices

For Philip Davidson, head of European restructuring at KPMG, the speed with which recession has hit Britain reminds him of “Looney Tunes” cartoon characters like Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote, according to the Financial TImes

Adams heads for administration

PricewaterhouseCoopers is set to be appointed as administrator for Adams, after the childrenswear chain became the latest retailer to fall victim to the consumer downturn. The Nuneaton-based chain operates 260 stores and concessions in the UK and supplies Boots, the health and beauty group, with children’s clothes under the Mini Mode brand.

Britons wary of upbeat forecasts – poll

Most Britons believe the recession will last for two years, according to a Financial Times/Harris poll, suggesting people are unconvinced by the government’s economic forecasts

Dire warning over 2009 job cuts

At least 600,000 jobs could go in the UK in 2009, according to a report by a personnel managers' professional body. The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development says even those who escape redundancy face pay freezes

Gloomy message on Scots economy

Next year will be "incredibly difficult" for Scotland's economy, a business group has predicted. The Scottish Council for Development and Industry said it was expected 2009 would be the first year of negative growth for almost three decades

Madoff investor warned its clients

One of the biggest investors in Bernard Madoff’s alleged $50 billion fraud explicitly warned its clients of the danger that his brokerage “could abscond with those assets”, but still attracted $2.75 billion, according to documents sent to investors

Record number of M&A deals cancelled in 2008

A record number of deals were cancelled in 2008, leading to a sharp fall in fees for investment bankers. The total volume of worldwide mergers and acquisitions reached $3,280 billion in the year to date, down 29 per cent from the full year 2007 as financing difficulties, volatility in valuations and widespread risk aversion saw deals pulled

Pension fund finances 'riskier'

Final salary pension schemes in the private sector have become riskier, according to the Pensions Regulator and the Pension Protection Fund (PPF)

Investors gloomy on 2009 profits

Investors are pessimistic about UK company earnings in 2009, according to new research from KPMG. Its report said analyst forecasts for earnings in most sectors are too high, and they expect profits to be 30 per cent lower than current analyst forecasts

IMF urges spending to spur growth

More spending by governments will be needed to stimulate worldwide economic growth, according to the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Dominique Strauss-Kahn said he feared measures announced by the Group of 20 nations last month would not be enough

Bank 'did not understand crisis'

The Bank of England did not understand the severity of economic problems before the current financial crisis, according to its deputy governor. Sir John Gieve told the BBC that the Bank knew "crazy borrowing" was taking place and the price of houses and other assets was rising unsustainably

IASB proposes P&L changes

Banks will have to provide details of their profits and losses from financial instruments under two measurement systems, according to proposed accounting changes that could come into effect for year-end accounts

Dunfermline’s champion quits mutual post

Graeme Dalziel CA, chief executive of Dunfermline Building Society, Scotland's biggest mutual, is to step down at the end of this month

IASB’s proposed Consolidation standard aims to shine a light onto “off balance sheet” vehicles

The international accounting standard-setter has unveiled proposals for a tighter regime covering “off-balance sheet” entities associated with some of the worst excesses of the financial markets.

Fresh guidance proposed on auditing financial instruments

APB yesterday opened consultation on proposed changes to its guidance on auditing financial instruments.

President-elect Obama names Mary Schapiro as next SEC chief

Mary Schapiro has been named as the next chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, America’s most powerful financial regulator.

UK businesses cut back on investment

Investment by British businesses outside the manufacturing sector fell significantly in the third quarter of 2008, according to UK government statistics, but manufacturing investment increased.

SEC under pressure over crisis detection

In an extraordinary admission, the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission is blaming his own agency for missing numerous chances to detect what could be the world’s biggest fraud

Biggest Madoff loser eyes legal move on PwC

The fund believed to be the biggest single loser in Bernard Madoff’s alleged $50 billion “Ponzi” scheme is considering suing PwC, its own accountants, for failing to detect the fraud, as victims start looking for deep-pocketed sources of compensation for their losses

Woolworths to close stores after Christmas

The shutters will come down on all Woolworths’ 807 stores by January 5 after Deloitte, administrator to the collapsed variety retailer, failed to find a buyer

KPMG 2008 revenues grow 14.5 per cent to US$22.7 billion

KPMG has announced that member firm combined revenues increased to US$22.69 billion for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2008, versus US$19.81 billion for the prior fiscal year, reflecting double-digit growth across all of KPMG’s service lines

SEC chief admits to failures in Madoff case

The Securities and Exchange Commission is to examine its own ”multiple failures” to investigate thoroughly past allegations of wrongdoing by Bernard Madoff, who is accused of perpetrating an alleged $50 billion fraud.

Fed slashes rates to near zero

The Federal Reserve moved deeper into uncharted waters on Tuesday, heralding further unconventional measures to support the economy as it slashed interest rates from 1 per cent to virtually zero

Law firms enjoy another record year but face the major challenges

The UK’s Top 100 law firms enjoyed another year of record results in 2008, breaking away from the other firms in terms of financial performance, and are better positioned than many in the sector to weather the current economic turmoil, according to the latest annual survey of the financial performance of law firms by PricewaterhouseCoopers

APB ramps up calls for 'going concern' perspective

The Auditing Practices Board is backing calls for companies and auditors to consider the impacts of going concern disclosures and opinions on annual reports

Madoff fall-out spreads worldwide

The fallout from Bernard Madoff’s alleged $50 billion fraud spread through the global financial system on Monday as more banks revealed exposures to his firm and the beleaguered hedge fund industry braced for withdrawals from worried clients

Accountants plan China recruiting drive

Professional services firms are planning to recruit several thousand staff in greater China in stark contrast to the wave of redundancies engulfing the wider financial services sector

Darling to write off £100m in pension blunder

Alistair Darling said he would write off decades of pension overpayments to thousands of retired nurses, servicemen, and civil servants as details emerged of an administrative blunder worth about £100m

FRC consults on its priorities and funding

The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has published for consultation a paper setting out its proposed priorities and its funding proposals for 2009/10. Responses are requested by 13 March 2009

UK house prices 'to fall by 30 per cent'

The head of Barclays bank has predicted that economic gloom will deepen, with property prices falling by up to 30 per cent

CBI calls for an independent commission and review of retirement ages

The government must come clean to taxpayers about the ballooning cost of public sector pensions, which are running up a trillion pound tab, warns the CBI. The employers' group is calling for an independent commission to examine the financial rules, costs, and levels of taxpayer subsidy that underpin public sector pensions

Middle classes put spending on hold

The highest-earning British households are increasingly holding back from spending because of fears that they will struggle to borrow more in the future, according to Bank of England research

Corporate Christmas gifts could come under tighter scrutiny thanks to new law

New legislation could sound the death knell for corporate Christmas gifts, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers Forensic Services

IASB could adopt 'fast track' approach

In an effort to quickly respond to future financial crises, the International Accounting Standards Board could adopt fast track procedures, according to its chairman Sir David Tweedie

HBOS shareholders to vote on deal

HBOS shareholders are to meet in Birmingham later today to vote on the takeover deal with Lloyds TSB. Ahead of the meeting, Halifax Bank of Scotland said it was operating in "increasingly difficult market conditions" and bad debts were rising

Sutherland to quit as Melrose Resources FD

Munro Sutherland CA is leaving Melrose Resources to join a private oil and gas company, according to the Scotsman. A former finance director of Cairn Energy, Sutherland has been head of finance at Melrose for more than a decade

Detroit reels as $14 billion rescue fails

The high profile effort to agree legislation to lend $14 billion to the US auto industry collapsed on Thursday night, leading the Bush administration to hold open the possibility that it would seek funds from its financial rescue plan instead

RBS offers free financial guidance

The Royal Bank of Scotland will make a further bid to rebuild the shattered trust of consumers in the banking industry on Friday by offering the public free financial guidance from every branch

Financial services group tells FSA to focus on right issues

"Intrusive" regulation by the Financial Services Authority is still too often focused on the wrong issues, according to the head of the Financial Services Practitioner Panel, a group of senior City figures

Woolworths closure sale to start

Bargain hunters are expected to flock to Woolworths branches as a store closure sale starts at all its 815 outlets across the country. Its administrator Deloitte has said that some shops could close for good by the end of the year

Legal challenge to HBOS/Lloyds TSB merger rejected

A legal challenge against the decision to waive competition law to allow the planned merger of HBOS and Lloyds TSB has been rejected, paving the way for shareholders to approve the plan this Friday

Auditors call for common EU standards

European audit regulators should move towards common standards on the work auditors may perform for their clients, according to a leading accountant

Finance chiefs pessimistic on outlook

Confidence in the economic outlook among chief financial officers around the world has collapsed in the past three months, according to a survey that found the majority expected the recession to last at least another year

UK contraction speeding up

The economy is contracting at a much faster pace than appeared likely just a few weeks ago, one of Britain’s leading economic forecasters said on Tuesday, after official figures showed industrial output in October fell at its fastest rate for nearly six years

Managers show a lack of confidence in chiefs

Top managers at the UK’s 350 largest companies are pessimistic about their chief executive’s ability to lead them through the current downturn, a survey by Hay Group consultants has found

Pensions lifeboat risks being swamped

Britain’s corporate pension funds are facing mounting shortfalls that are growing so rapidly that they now threaten to swamp the government-created lifeboat designed to guarantee the retirement funds of millions of workers

PwC criticised for bending consultancy rules

PwC has been criticised by the Financial Reporting Council for using loopholes to sell lucrative consulting services to its audit clients – a practice discouraged since the Enron scandal

Recruitment 'to hit 15-year low'

Recruitment levels over the next few months are expected to fall to their lowest for 15 years, a survey of employers has suggested. Employment agency Manpower said its poll of 2,100 UK firms revealed bosses planned to cut the number of staff they took on compared with last year

Retail sales 'fall still further'

Total UK retail sales have fallen in consecutive months for the first time in at least 13 years, a closely-watched survey has said. Sales in November were down 0.4 per cent from a year earlier, said the latest British Retail Consortium-KPMG retail survey

Company crashes set to hit record next year

Record numbers of companies will go bankrupt next year with 200,000 insolvencies in Europe alone and “an explosion” of failed businesses in the US, according to the world’s largest credit insurer

FSA turns to US for lessons on insolvency

Staff from the Financial Services Authority will be flown to New York this week to examine why the US insolvency regime worked better than the British one in the aftermath of the Lehman Brothers collapse

HSBC to double mortgage lending

HSBC has bucked the trend for banks to pull out of the shrinking mortgage market by announcing plans to make £15 billion ($22 billion) of loans to UK homeowners next year – double the equivalent amount it lent last year

US companies launch ethical standards push

Some of the largest companies in the US, including General Electric, Wal-Mart and PepsiCo, are expected to launch a drive to improve ethical standards in business in an attempt to stem the decline in corporate America’s public standing

Directors seek ‘going concern’ legal advice

Company directors are seeking legal advice about their responsibility for the crucial “going concern” judgment in annual reports, as the looming recession brings the viability of many British businesses into question

BDO and PKF join ranks of job cutters

BDO Stoy Hayward and PKF have become the latest accounting firms to announce job cuts as the economic downturn begins to hit the professional services sector

Revenue office closures confirmed

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) is to close a total of 20 offices at locations across Scotland

Europe’s premier accountancy bodies move closer towards harmonisation of their qualifications

Nine of Europe’s premier accountancy Institutes, including the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS) and the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW), have taken a significant further step towards harmonising their qualifications for membership

Bank of England cuts rates to 2%

Signs that the economic downturn is gathering pace prompted the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee to cut interest rates on Thursday by a full percentage point to 2 per cent, the lowest level for more than three decades

Markets braced for big European rate cuts

Financial markets are braced for large interest rate cuts across Europe on Thursday amid mounting evidence of a sharp slowdown in the leading global economies

Brown throws homeowners mortgage lifeline

Homeowners facing the threat of repossession were on Wednesday offered a government lifeline in the form of a £1 billion scheme that will allow mortgage interest payments to be deferred for up to two years

Challenge to HBOS deal to go ahead

A last-ditch legal challenge to Lloyds TSB’s takeover of HBOS will be heard next week by the Competition Appeal Tribunal, just days before HBOS shareholders are due to vote on the contentious tie-up

Record number of companies at risk of default

A fresh sign in the deterioration of credit market conditions emerged on Wednesday when one of the most closely watched barometers of sentiment broke through an important threshold

Brown to push flexible working rights

Gordon Brown is to press ahead with plans for more part-time working rights for 4.5m staff, rejecting demands from business leaders that the measure be dropped when new laws are announced today in the Queen’s Speech

Consumers 'still credit hungry'

Cash-strapped consumers are prepared to overstretch themselves on credit and are failing to think through the consequences, according to a survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers

Demand for redundancy advice soars

The number of businesses and employees seeking online advice on redundancies, lay-offs and business restructuring has quadrupled since May as fears over job losses have spiralled, Acas, the advisory and conciliation service, reported on Tuesday

Photo and cleaning firm cuts jobs

Blair Nimmo and Tony Friar of KPMG Restructuring have been appointed as joint administrators of Bowie Castlebank Group, which includes Alexander Kennedy & Sons Ltd, on Tuesday, at the request of the company's directors

Tesco takes the fight to discount retailers

A new range of cheaper products has helped Tesco attract more shoppers to its supermarkets and compete more effectively with discount retailers as British consumers increasingly seek to save money on their weekly shopping bills

Credit Suisse cuts 650 jobs in UK

Troubled Swiss banking giant Credit Suisse has confirmed that it will cut 650 jobs from its UK workforce. The bank has struggled since the onset of the financial crisis and has been forced to write off assets worth billions owing to bad loans

New Star shares plunge amid bank talks

Shares in New Star Asset Management, one of the UK’s best-known fund managers, plunged nearly 43 per cent on Monday as analysts warned it had just days to negotiate a deal with its banks to avoid potentially devastating outflows of its funds

Aberdeen Asset Management outperforms

Aberdeen Asset Management on Monday showed that it had outperformed a struggling fund management sector by reporting slightly higher profits before exceptionals of £95.1m, up from £94.3m last year

RBS promises mortgage respite

The political and public campaign to force Britain's banks to do more to help customers weather the economic downturn will gain impetus today with a promise from the Royal Bank of Scotland to give at least six months' breathing space to homeowners who fall behind with mortgage payments.

Deloitte reports surge in graduate job applications

Professional services firm Deloitte has reported a 34 per cent rise in applications for graduate positions at its Scottish business, led by a 59 per cent hike at its Edinburgh office

Grant Thornton latest victim of economic downturn

Britain’s fifth largest accountancy firm, Grant Thornton, is to cut 225 jobs, including 60 partners, after blaming the economic downturn and last year's merger with rival business Robson Rhodes

Scottish Equity Partners named venture firm of the year

Scottish Equity Partners (SEP) has been named the UK’s top venture capital firm for the second year running. SEP received the accolade at the British Private Equity Awards run by Unquote, which celebrate excellence and innovation across the private equity sector

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