Reform is an “urgent priority”, says accountancy body chief The accounting industry is urging the government to prioritise reform of the sector following the appointment of Kwasi Kwarteng as business secretary. Michael Izza, chief executive of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW), said Kwarteng needed to make reform of corporate governance […]
Read More
Convergence of ESG and non-ESG funds beckons The overwhelming majority (99%) of European institutional investors expect a convergence between ESG and non-ESG products by 2022 – and 77% of them plan to stop purchasing non-ESG products in the same year. But while asset managers agree there will be a convergence, just 14% plan to stop […]
Read More
Can the FRC rescue its reputation? It has become one of the most disparaged – and lampooned – regulatory institutions of this century. The Financial Reporting Council’s (FRC) oversight of the audit profession has been dubbed everything from ramshackle to timid, to lacking in any real pace or direction. The poor auditing practices of the […]
Read More
The regulator found PwC had engaged in ‘improper professional conduct’ by performing prohibited non-audit services and breaching the independence rules in connection with 15 SEC-registered audit clients.
PwC partner Brandon Sprankle, who has been with the firm for over 20 years, has also been charged for causing the firm’s independence violations.
Read More
Big Four fail in one in five audits The world’s four biggest accounting firms have been exposed for botching at least 20% of their audits following an inspection by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB). In the most recent annual inspections of the Big Four, inspectors discovered Deloitte botched 20% of audits examined, PricewaterhouseCoopers […]
Read MoreThe government investigator charged with examining the collapse of the three Icelandic banks, Ólafur Þór Hauksson, has confirmed that 22 policemen and six French and Norwegian accountants have raided the offices of KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in Reykjavik, seizing documents and computer data as part of an investigation into alleged criminal activity. Although the targets are the […]
Read MoreThe Accountancy and Actuarial Discipline Board (AADB) has announced that it will investigating PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and its staff in relation to its role as auditor to struggling sub-prime lender Cattles Plc. As previously reported on Manifest-I, Cattles has sacked six directors since March, when it discovered a £700m accounting discrepancy at its Welcome Financial Services […]
Read More