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Financial crisis deepens as US politicians vote down bail-out package

Stock markets around the world have seen big falls after the US House of Representatives voted down the $700bn (£380 billion) plan to restore confidence in the banking system.

New online tax forms could push up professional indemnity claims, insurance experts warn

The HMRC campaign to drive online tax return forms could increase accountants’ professional negligence claims, with a greater risk of filing incorrect figures.

Managing cash flow is the biggest concern for CFOs, survey says

As the UK’s economic difficulties deepen, a new report for recruitment firm Robert Half finds that access to credit and cash flow management are the issues causing chief financial officers the biggest headache.

Grant Thornton appoints Robert Hannah as managing partner in Scotland.

The firm’s new managing partner, Scotland, says his Grant Thornton has its sights set on doubling its current market-share.

One-third of FTSE 100 companies get online reporting wrong, survey finds

A study of online financial reporting by the UK’s 100 biggest listed companies has found that around a third produce nothing more than a static document online.

Islamic finance could be answer to funding Scotland’s capital infrastructure

Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond is to seek loan funding from the Middle Eastern state of Qatar to invest in infrastructure projects such as a new Forth Road Bridge, according to a report in Scotland on Sunday.

Bradford & Bingley nationalised after fears of collapse, while Fortis gets a state-funded rescue

Former building society Bradford & Bingley has been taken into public ownership after a slide in its share price and concerns over risk to savers.

US banking rescue deal agreed in principle

A package of measures to save America’s financial system from collapse has been backed by Republican and Democratic leaders.

Lean accounting could give profit advantage to UK manufacturers, study says

Only 14 per cent of UK manufacturing companies have adopted the principles of “lean accounting”, according to joint research undertaken by accountants and business advisers BDO Stoy Hayward LLP and industry magazine The Manufacturer.

HSBC and Bradford & Bingley announce staff cuts as banking crisis deepens

1,100 jobs are going from the investment banking division of HSBC as the crisis in the world’s money markets continues. Meanwhile, troubled mortgage lender Bradford & Bingley has laid off 370 staff and written down its US subprime assets to zero.

Pension Protection Fund levy pegged to £700m

The Pension Protection Fund has said its levy for 2009/10 will be increased in line with wage inflation, but no more, in order to reduce the burden on employers.

Entrepreneurs are playing a risky game by not planning eventual business exit

Almost three-quarters of UK entrepreneurs are risking the long-term success of their business by not giving adequate thought to how they will eventually exit the business, according to Deloitte.

Newsreader Moira Stuart makes her debut in self-assessment tax campaign

Moira Stuart was officially unveiled today as the new face of HM Revenue & Customs' (HMRC) Self Assessment advertising campaign.

London still in front as a financial centre, but lead is slipping

London and New York, the world’s top financial centres, have both seen their scores decline in the latest Global Financial Centres Index (GFCI).

OFT welcomes end of Scottish legal “mixed doubles” rule

The Faculty of Advocates has issued a ruling to revoke what has become known as the “mixed doubles” rule. The change means that advocates and solicitor advocates can appear in court acting for the same client.

Bank charges and lending restrictions could get worse for small businesses, warns business lobby group

The Forum of Private Business (FPB) is concerned at reports that high street banks are beginning to reduce credit facilities and increase overdraft charges at a time when small businesses are most in need of funding.

EDF set to seal takeover of British Energy

French energy giant EDF has agreed to buy British Energy, the firm which operates the UK's eight nuclear power plants, in a £12.5bn deal.

Nomura deal set to secure future of Lehman’s European operations

More than 2500 City jobs at stricken investment bank Lehman Brothers have been saved with the sale of its banking and equities businesses of Lehman Brothers to Nomura, the Asian-based investment bank.

UK slips to 16th place in “corruption index”

The UK has fallen from 12th to 16th place in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index, which measures how “clean” a country is seen to be in its dealings at home and abroad.

FBI probe into failed institutions

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is looking into four of the major financial institutions caught up in the current financial crisis, according to reports in the US media.

Chancellor says “urgent review” of banking regulation is needed

Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling told the Labour party conference yesterday that he had asked Lord Turner, newly appointed chairman of the Financial Services Authority, to review the UK’s banking regulation framework as a matter of urgency.

Occupancy and revenue continues fall in Scottish hotel sector

Scotland’s hotel sector is suffering more than the UK as whole in terms of falling occupancy numbers, PKF reports in the firm’s latest survey.

KPMG negotiates rescue package for Beanscene

Beanscene, the Scottish chain of coffee houses, has been bought from administrators in a deal that will secure around 130 jobs, the Herald reports.

Fears over US bank rescue plan hit stock markets worldwide

Share prices in the US, Europe and slumped all through yesterday amid fears that the US government’s proposed $700 billion bank rescue plan could be rejected by Congress.

Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley set to drop their investment bank status

It was announced on Sunday that the last two major investment banks on Wall Street are to become regulated banks. Their move into the mainstream banking sector marks the end of an era for the US financial sector.

Battle over Bank of Scotland’s fate turns political

Politicians have been arguing over how to fight for the survival of the Bank of Scotland as an alternative to the Lloyds TSB takeover is mooted.

US president defends taxpayer bail-out for banks

George W.Bush has argued that the proposed rescue plan for the US banking sector, which would entail the US Treasury taking over many of the bad debts that have bedevilled the financial institutions, is essential for America’s economic wellbeing.

Alitalia faces flights being grounded if no rescue bid can be found

The Italian airline Alitalia faces having its flights grounded within a matter of days if a final appeal for a rescue is unsuccessful.

Government to push Lloyds-HBOS deal through

Lloyds TSB said on Thursday it expected annual savings of “significantly in excess of £1 billion” from its £12.2 billion takeover of HBOS by 2011, but said it had yet to decide on how many job losses would be involved among the combined bank’s 140,000 staff

FSA bans short-selling of banks

UK regulators on Friday revealed a list of 29 financial companies it was seeking to protect from short selling as part of the latest efforts by the authorities to combat the global financial crisis

SEC weighs ban on short selling

US securities regulators were on Thursday night considering a ban on short selling as part of a group of new initiatives to restore calm to the stricken financial markets, people familiar with the situation said

Bank of England economist warns of continuing pain

Homeowners and consumers face months of pain as the downturn in the housing market deepens and price rises for food and energy squeeze incomes, the chief economist of the Bank of England warned yesterday

Lloyds TSB seals £12bn HBOS rescue

Lloyds TSB on Wednesday night agreed a £12 billion rescue takeover of HBOS after the Government brokered a deal to save the country’s largest mortgage lender from a crisis of confidence

Drama on the mound: the final 24 hours of a Scots institution

It was the day that saw the beginning of the end for Scotland's oldest bank. Perched high on The Mound in Edinburgh, the HBOS global headquarters, a building synonymous with financial stability, was the centre of feverish market speculation

Panic grips credit markets

The panic in world credit markets reached historic intensity on Wednesday, prompting a flight to safety of the kind not seen since the Second World War

Overview: AIG rescue fails to calm nerves

Wall Street was rocked by a desperate scramble for cash and low-risk investments on Wednesday, with gold surging, the dollar sliding and yields on ultra short-dated US debt falling towards zero, as the Federal Reserve’s rescue deal for AIG offered only partial relief to the markets

US to take control of AIG

The US Federal Reserve announced that it will lend AIG up to $85 billion in emergency funds in return for a government stake of 79.9 per cent and effective control of the company - an extraordinary step meant to stave off a collapse of the giant insurer that plays a crucial role in the global financial system

HBOS falls on wholesale funding concerns

Shares in HBOS fell 22 per cent on Tuesday amid concerns about its reliance on wholesale funding after Lehman Brothers’ collapse

UK inflation rises to 4.7%

The economy needs a period of sustained weakness to squeeze out remaining inflationary pressures, Mervyn King, governor of the Bank of England, said on Tuesday in a letter to Chancellor Alistair Darling

Accounting experts push fair value rules

There will be no let-up in the use of fair market values for banks’ holdings, even in illiquid markets, according to international accounting rulemakers. The stance came in a draft paper published on Tuesday by an expert panel convened by the International Accounting Standards Board

Overview: Financial markets rocked by Lehman crisis

The dramatic collapse of Lehman Brothers, AIG’s appeal for aid and the forced sale of Merrill Lynch sent shockwaves across financial markets on Monday. The S&P 500 closed at its lowest level in nearly three years and recorded its biggest one-day fall for seven years as investors fled from risky assets

Downgrades deepen AIG woes

AIG, the troubled insurer that sits at the heart of the financial system, on Monday had its key credit ratings cut, potentially triggering billions of dollars of collateral payments on its many derivatives trades

Shocked City braced for more hits

Lehman Brothers’ travails sent shockwaves through Britain’s banking sector on Monday as investors braced for the possibility of further bank collapses

PwC says Lehman work 'more complex than Enron'

PricewaterhouseCoopers administrators brought in to deal with the collapse of the investment bank in the UK say there are billions of pounds of complex derivative contracts to unravel

Wall Street crisis deepens as Lehman files for bankruptcy

Wall Street was in turmoil on Monday after Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy protection and Merrill Lynch agreed a $50 billion takeover by Bank of America

Plans to safeguard banks could hurt City

Proposals to safeguard failing banks could undermine confidence in the City and raise the cost of capital to British banks, according to the Association of British Insurers

Fraud bills climb 22% as get-tough moves fail to bite

A survey of nearly 900 international companies found they lost an average of $8.2m to fraud during the past three years, with 85 per cent of them reporting at least one serious incident in the period

CBI latest to warn of recession

The CBI has become the latest organisation to predict that the UK will fall into recession this year. The business group estimates that the economy will shrink by 0.2 per cent between July and September, and then by a future 0.1 per cent from October to December

Taxpayers face bill over energy initiative

Gordon Brown’s promise to raise £910m from energy companies to fund a national home-insulation drive will cost the industry substantially less than the headline figure because the cost can be knocked off their tax bill

Clyde Blowers to acquire four companies from US giant Textron in $1 billion deal

Clyde Blowers, the East Kilbride-based group owned by Scottish entrepreneur Jim McColl and whose executive director is Alex Stewart CA, has reached a definitive agreement to acquire an entire business unit from American Fortune 500 company Textron

Britons expect prices to keep rising

Expectations of rising prices are becoming more entrenched amid growing public scepticism that policymakers are committed to combating inflation, according to the latest attitudes survey from the Bank of England

Corporate recovery will be top earner for Tenon

Insolvency and corporate recovery services are due to become the biggest part of accountancy firm Tenon's business as recession hits its client base of small and medium-sized businesses, according to the head of the practice in Scotland

Salmond brings in top financier to run public investment trust

Scotland’s First Minister Alex Salmond has turned to one of the country’s leading financiers, Sir Angus Grossart, to strike a better deal for the taxpayer in the building of public buildings such as schools and hospitals

Wall Street tax avoidance ‘gimmicks’ rebuked

Leading Wall Street banks have been using complex derivatives ‘gimmicks’ to help hedge funds and other offshore clients avoid billions of dollars in taxes owed to the government, US congressional investigators say

Brussels adds to gloom with recession warning

Shadows lengthened over the British economy after the European Commission revised its economic forecast, becoming the second international body to predict gross domestic product will contract in the second half of 2008

Trade gap narrows but oil deficit hits high

Britain’s goods trade gap with the rest of the world narrowed slightly in July but the deficit on oil hit a record high, official data yesterday revealed

Equities suffer as Lehman shares fall 45 per cent

US stocks suffered their worst fall of the year as a 45 per cent drop in Lehman Brothers shares renewed fears about the health of the global financial system

UK economic output 'now falling'

The output of the UK economy fell 0.2 per cent between June and August, a think tank has calculated, the latest sign that a recession may be imminent

French Duncan making most of economic downturn

French Duncan, the Glasgow-based accountant and business advisory firm, yesterday predicted a 35 per cent surge in revenues this year - much of which will be achieved thanks to the credit crunch, according to the the company's managing partner

PKF boosts profits as downturn attracts business

PKF, the top 10 accountancy firm in charge of salvaging budget airline Zoom, has seen pre-tax profit surge 11 per cent to £21m as it beefs up its corporate recovery team to cope with the economic downturn

PwC’s Blin has doubts on Scotland weathering storm

Scottish executive chairman of PricewaterhouseCoopers Frank Blin has cautioned against expectations of a resilient economic performance in Scotland compared with the rest of the UK

Corporate tax rates continue to fall worldwide, says KPMG

Corporate tax rates across the world have continued their decline, with the average dropping 0.9 per cent to 25.9 per cent from last year’s 26.8 per cent, according to KPMG’s Global Corporate and Indirect Tax Rate survey 2008

London and NY tie in finance ranking

London’s efforts to challenge New York as the leading financial centre will receive a boost on Tuesday with a new study by the World Economic Forum showing that the UK ranks alongside the US as the world’s most developed financial system

Jobs outlook weakest for nine years

The outlook for the UK jobs market is the weakest for almost a decade with employers freezing new recruitment as business confidence plummets

US takes control of Fannie and Freddie

The US Government on Sunday seized control of the troubled Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgage groups in what could become the world’s biggest financial bail-out

Tax rich at higher rate, says TUC

People taking home more than £100,000 a year should pay higher tax rates, the Trades Union Congress has suggested

Rises in directors' pay 'slowing'

The economic slowdown is taking its toll on executive pay, although the ‘elite’ of the business world still command a premium, according to a new report by Deloitte

KPMG’s McCorquodale relocates to Scotland

KPMG partner David McCorquodale has returned to Scotland after a six-year spell in London. McCorquodale will continue as European head of consumer and industrial markets in the firm’s corporate finance division, as well as looking for more Scottish deals

Scoop up every spoonful of oil, CBI advises

The UK Government must not impose an "arbitrary and unfair tax" on energy companies as household fuel bills surge but must invest alongside North Sea players to "scoop up every spoonful" of oil, the Confederation of British Industry's director-general declared last night

Banks reel as ECB redraws funding rules

Bank stocks in Europe and the UK fell sharply and the risk of owning their debt leapt on Thursday after the European Central Bank declared a crackdown on abuses of its bank liquidity operations. The Financial Times reports that Jean-Claude Trichet, ECB president, used his regular interest rate conference to announce rule changes more radical than had been expected. These will affect financial firms that have developed too great a dependence on cheap funding from the bank

Bank of England maintains bank rate at 5 per cent

The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee today voted to maintain the official bank rate paid on commercial bank reserves at 5.0 per cent

First Minister Salmond confirms council tax plan

The Scottish Government has set out its plans for the next year, including scrapping the council tax in favour of a local income tax of 3p in the pound

CAs honoured in Deals and Dealmakers awards

Several chartered accountants were winners in the 11th annual Scottish Business Insider Deals & Dealmakers Awards on Wednesday night

Women 'lose out' in race for top jobs

The number of women holding senior posts in business, politics, the law and the media has fallen compared with last year, a report suggests. Research by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) says that in 12 of 25 job categories studied, there were fewer women holding top posts

Consumer gloom hits sterling and shares

Gloom about Britain’s economic prospects deepened on Wednesday with fresh evidence that the woes of the financial sector were spreading further into the high street, sending the pound and the stock market lower

OECD slashes forecasts for UK and eurozone

Eurozone economies will ‘barely creep forward’ in the second half of this year, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development warned, with the outlook for growth in France slashed nearly in half.

Fastest decline in job vacancies for seven years

Demand for staff last month fell at the fastest rate for almost seven years as the outlook for jobs continued to falter, according to a survey of recruitment companies by KPMG and the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC)

Scottish economy 'should still grow'

The economy in Scotland should continue to expand this year despite ‘economic headwinds’, according to Martin Ellis, chief economist at the Bank of Scotland. He predicts growth through 2008 and into the start of 2009, but at a rate which is below the long-run trend

Credit crunch yet to hit future growth expectations: KPMG

KPMG’s Cash Counter reveals that city analysts expect that the FTSE 350 will generate over £301.9 billion in surplus cash from 2008 to 2010 - significantly up from the £198.6 billion forecast in January 2007 for the three years following that date

Stamp duty axed below £175,000

The Treasury is hoping to kick-start the housing market by suspending stamp duty on properties costing £175,000 or less for the next 12 months

Deloitte embarks on joint venture in the Middle East

Deloitte has announced a joint corporate finance venture between the UK and Middle East firms and, as a first step, is relocating six partners from the UK and other member firms to the region

FRC faces caution on ‘going concern’

Companies urged caution on the accounting watchdog on Monday after its proposals that directors should lay out clearly any significant doubts over whether the business was a going concern

US auditors renew calls for liability limits

US auditors have renewed calls to introduce legal limits to the liability they face and have warned that the risk they currently bear is the ‘single greatest threat’ to the industry’s survival

Law firm growth continues but sector slows

Fee income at the UK’s Top 100 law firms increased by 6.3 per cent in Q1 (the quarter ended 31 July 2008) compared with the same period last year, according to the latest figures from Deloitte

Commerzbank to buy Dresdner in €9 billion deal

Allianz has agreed to sell Dresdner Bank to Commerzbank in a deal that will re-shape the German banking industry

Threat of tax base shift by financial services

Rapid overseas expansion will encourage more financial services businesses to move their tax bases abroad, adding to the list of companies that have recently defected to more business-friendly regimes, advisers have warned

Report suggests analysts in denial

Some of the UK’s biggest companies are forecast to generate more than £301 billion of extra cash in the next two years, suggesting that many analysts in the City are still in denial about the impact of the credit crunch on earnings, according to research from KPMG

APB publishes revisions to Auditor’s Report on Financial Statements

The Auditing Practices Board (APB) has published an Exposure Draft of proposed revisions to ISA (UK and Ireland) 700 ‘The Auditor’s Report on Financial Statements’ in order to facilitate a more concise auditor’s report

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