Financial news

• Time to end the auditing merry-go-round

  30-01-2018 19:54 via theguardian.com
  There’s too few firms at the top of accountancy - the competition authority must investigateHow did BT react when “improper practices” and “financial irregularities” were discovered in its Italian division last year? It did what you’d expect: it dumped its auditor, PwC, and hired a new outfit. But that new firm was KPMG, which was remarkable in its own way. KPMG was already under investigation by the Financial Reporting Council for its work at Rolls-Royce foll
  
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• Interest-only borrowers risk losing homes, warns watchdog

  30-01-2018 19:17
  Regulator says many of 1.67m mortgage holders face large shortfall with some ignoring problemThe City regulator has sounded an alarm about the “significant numbers” of people with interest-only mortgages who may be in danger of losing their homes.The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said many interest-only borrowers could face a shortfall in terms of what they owed, and some were avoiding talking to their mortgage lender because they “didn’t want to confront their situat
  
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• University staff are right to be striking | Letters

  30-01-2018 19:13
  There is no justification for this pension attack – USS’s finances are strong, argue 153 university academicsUniversity employers have provoked the largest vote for industrial action ever seen in the higher education sector. They have done this by overseeing what they present as a financial crisis for the University Superannuation Scheme (USS), and by threatening enormous cuts to the pensions of hundreds of thousands of university staff. None of this is necessary. It is the resu
  
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• Donald Trump the pantomime villain | Brief letters

  30-01-2018 19:11
  Trump visit | Shunning plastic | Women in football | Cardiff airport | Serious letters | Saving tipsOn Saturday Cockermouth Amateur Dramatic Society staged their panto. When wicked Abanaza appeared in a Donald Trump mask, the audience erupted. There were many under-7s watching who knew exactly who he was, joining in the booing with gusto. If this small town reacts in this way then a visit from the president to the capital seems risky.
  Janet Mansfield
  Aspatria, Cumbria• Another reason to shu
  
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• Wall Street falls 1%; Europe outpaces UK and US with strongest GDP growth in a decade - live

  30-01-2018 18:25 via theguardian.com
  All the day’s economic and financial news, including new eurozone growth figuresLatest: Amazon, JP Morgan and Buffett pile into healthcareEurozone growth hits decade highEurozone grew by 2.5% in 2017; UK only managed 1.8%Spain keeps growing
  France sparkles with best growth since 2011Markets hit by correction fears 5.25pm GMT With falling bond prices and concerns that shares may be overvalued after their recent record run, stock markets suffered a severe sell-off.Investors have become nervo
  
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• UN urged to launch global effort to end offshore tax evasion

  30-01-2018 18:00 via theguardian.com
  Campaign group launches financial secrecy index and warns UK is still protecting overseas territoriesThe United Nations has been urged by the Tax Justice Network to coordinate a global effort to end offshore tax evasion and corruption, amid warnings that the UK is continuing to insulate its overseas territories from financial transparency.Commenting on the launch of the TJN’s Financial Secrecy Index 2018, which ranks countries on the size and secretiveness of their offshore sectors, its ch
  
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• Calls for more scrutiny of top accounting firms after Carillion collapse

  30-01-2018 16:36 via theguardian.com
  Head of industry’s watchdog says competition authorities should examine the sectorBritain’s four biggest accountancy companies are facing fresh scrutiny, with the head of the industry watchdog calling for the competition regulator to investigate their auditing activities following the collapse of Carillion.Stephen Haddrill, the chief executive of the Financial Reporting Council (FRC), told MPs at a joint select committee hearing on Tuesday that “there should be more competition
  
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• Amazon and Warren Buffett to create 'reasonable cost' healthcare company

  30-01-2018 16:31 via theguardian.com
  Business giants partner with JP Morgan to help employees find care‘The ballooning costs act as a hungry tapeworm on the US economy’Amazon is diving into healthcare, teaming up with Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway and the New York bank JP Morgan to create a company that helps their US employees find quality care “at a reasonable cost” and tackle the “hungry tapeworm on the American economy”.The business giants offered few details on Tuesday and said t
  
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• BP to install charging points for electric cars at UK petrol stations

  30-01-2018 16:07 via theguardian.com
  Further indication that oil firms are planning for growth of battery-powered vehicle marketBP will add rapid charging points for electric cars at its UK petrol stations within the next two months, in the latest sign of an oil giant adapting to the rapid growth of battery-powered cars. The British oil firm’s venture arm has invested $5m (£3.5m) in the US firm Freewire Technologies, which will provide motorbike-sized charging units at forecourts to top up cars in half an hour. Continue
  
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• Pie in the sky ideas – how Greggs became king of the publicity stunt

  30-01-2018 16:01 via theguardian.com
  The bakery chain learned to roll with it and embraced its position as butt of the joke. The result? Wall-to-wall media coverageCould there be anything more heartwarming than a candlelit Valentine’s Day dinner at Greggs? And could there be anything more heartwarming to a PR agency than acres of news coverage and social-media chatter about the high-street pastry-pusher’s announcement? It was only a few weeks ago when news sites were writing about Greggs’ advent calendar, the publ
  
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• Only a third of rail commuters think fares are value for money

  30-01-2018 15:29 via theguardian.com
  Southern is worst-rated operator in Transport Focus survey of passengersOnly one in three commuters believes their rail fare is value for money, according to the passenger watchdog’s national survey. Transport Focus, whose national rail passenger survey asked 27,000 passengers to rate aspects of their journeys in the autumn, said that the value for money scores reflected “patchy reliability” of train services.Continue reading...
  
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• UK mortgage lending falls to lowest level since January 2015

  30-01-2018 14:53 via theguardian.com
  Report shows some London sellers are discounting their prices by as much as 10%Mortgage lending dropped in December to a near three-year low as appetite fell among buyers for expensive homes in London and the south-east.The Bank of England said mortgages for house purchases were the weakest since January 2015 at 61,039, down by almost 6%, and remortgaging approvals fell by 14% to 46,475. Continue reading...
  
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• VW suspends media chief amid scandal over fumes tests on monkeys

  30-01-2018 13:55 via theguardian.com
  Move follows report carmaker used animals to demonstrate diesel emissions technologyThe carmaker Volkswagen has suspended its head of external relations and sustainability after admitting that he had known about experiments in which monkeys were locked in small chambers and exposed to diesel exhaust.
  Thomas Steg, a former government spokesman who worked for German chancellor Angela Merkel and her predecessor, Gerhard Schröder, is the first person to be relieved of his duties as VW said it w
  
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• VW suspends media chief amid scandal over fume tests on monkeys

  30-01-2018 13:55 via theguardian.com
  Move follows report carmaker used animals to demonstrate diesel emissions technologyThe carmaker Volkswagen has suspended its head of external relations and sustainability after admitting that he had known about experiments in which monkeys were locked in small chambers and exposed to diesel exhaust.
  Thomas Steg, a former government spokesman who worked for German chancellor Angela Merkel and her predecessor, Gerhard Schröder, is the first person to be relieved of his duties as VW said it w
  
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• UK electricity use falls – as rest of EU rises

  30-01-2018 13:29 via theguardian.com
  Slowing economy, mild weather and energy-efficient appliances among possible reasons for declineThe UK was the only country in the EU to reduce its electricity consumption last year, with power use growing or stable across the rest of the bloc’s 28 member states.Britain’s appetite for power has been waning for more than a decade as industrial activity declined and businesses and households opted for more energy efficient lighting and appliances. Continue reading...
  
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• Ryanair reaches 'historic' deal with UK pilots' union

  30-01-2018 12:47 via theguardian.com
  Airline’s agreement with Balpa follows years of hostility towards organised labour Ryanair has agreed that the Balpa union will now represent all its British pilots in talks, sealing a historic turnaround by an airline whose chief executive once said he would rather cut off his own hands than recognise a union. The British Airline Pilots’ Association said it had signed a voluntary trade union recognition agreement that meant its reps will negotiate pay, hours, rostering and holidays
  
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• Pound v US dollar: GBP tumbles as leaked paper supports 'Project Fear' Brexit

  30-01-2018 11:24 via feedproxy.google.com
  THE pound extended its decline against the US dollar this morning amid a leaked government paper looking at all plausible Brexit scenarios.
  
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• Bitcoin price BOOST: Investor reveals the ONE thing cryptocurrencies are missing

  30-01-2018 10:51 via feedproxy.google.com
  BITCOIN and the cryptocurrency mania has been met with scepticism by institutional investors and big banks but an investor has revealed the one thing which will win over cryptocurrency critics.
  
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• Bitcoin price: cryptocurrency fears at boiling point as South Korea implements TRADING BAN

  30-01-2018 10:32 via feedproxy.google.com
  BITCOIN's price has fallen again into $10k territory as the South Korean Government began to implement a ban on all anonymous traders in an attempt to crackdown on crypto criminal activity.
  
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• Pound LIVE: Sterling loses Dollar gains as leaked paper supports 'Project Fear' Brexit

  30-01-2018 08:55 via feedproxy.google.com
  THE POUND has lost all of last week's gains on the Dollar as Tory infighting over a "clean" or "soft" Brexit scenario took another turn after a supposedly "leaked" paper strengthened the hand of those on the side of a chancellor Hammond.
  
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• How to buy Ripple in India: Guide to purchasing XRP on Indian cryptocurrency market

  30-01-2018 08:36 via feedproxy.google.com
  RIPPLE has taken the cryptocurrency market by storm over the past 12 months, growing by more than 35,000 percent last year. But how can you buy XRP in India?
  
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• Commuter students: locked out, left out and growing in number

  30-01-2018 08:29
  With soaring debt, and no maintenance grants, more than 50% of students at some universities now live at homeThey are locked out of lectures or reprimanded by staff for being late when public transport lets them down. They are excluded from freshers’ week functions ticketed in halls and, if they do go on a night out, they are constantly checking their phones for the last train.Commuter students, living with their families, are not having an easy time in a system geared to the residential e
  
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• Janet Yellen sets interest rates one last time. How will history rate her?

  30-01-2018 08:13 via theguardian.com
  The Fed chair has set the bar high for her successor, a tenure defined by five major achievementsJanet Yellen, the Federal Reserve chair, begins her final rate-setting meeting at the helm of the US central bank on Tuesday, before she is replaced by Donald Trump’s chosen successor, Jerome Powell. The first woman to lead the Fed arrived in February 2014 at a time when the money-printing machine of quantitative easing was whirring at full-tilt under her predecessor, Ben Bernanke. QE, which in
  
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• Why did O2 charge me £14 for 0845 calls?

  30-01-2018 08:11 via theguardian.com
  The network is unable to to get to the bottom of the mysterious ‘service calls’Having checked my mobile phone usage over Christmas, I was confused to find that on two different days in December I’d been charged an extra £14 by O2 for “service calls” to 0845 450 0130. Thinking that this was some sort of scam, I called O2, but it doesn’t seem to be able to get to the bottom of it – though the company has offered a refund of half the cost.Continue rea
  
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• Bitcoin price LIVE: Bitcoin continues to fall as Federal judges in NY plot regulation

  30-01-2018 08:11 via feedproxy.google.com
  BITCOIN'S price has fallen back down into $10k territory after another day of of hack fallout and regulatory uncertainty. There are also new noises emanating from New York over the legality of regulating digital currencies and treating them like stocks or bonds.
  
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• Fruit and vegetable cryptocurrency SCAMS INVESTORS and leaves behind the word ‘penis’

  30-01-2018 06:57 via feedproxy.google.com
  A CRYPTOCURRENCY start-up that was designed to radically alter the fruit and vegetable industry has scammed its investors by shutting down its website and social media accounts, leaving only the word “penis” behind when users log on, it has emerged.
  
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• Ripple value set to surge TODAY? Cryptocurrency could receive BOOST from leading exchange

  30-01-2018 05:54 via feedproxy.google.com
  RIPPLE’S value could surge today after being added to a “leading” cryptocurrency exchange platform that deals in the Middle East and North Africa as it joins the exclusive club of Bitcoin and Ethereum on the platform, it has emerged.
  
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• Bitcoin and Ethereum price COLLAPSES as crackdown spooks investors following £380M heist

  30-01-2018 05:24 via feedproxy.google.com
  THE price of Bitcoin stumbled after Japan became the latest Asian country to crackdown on cryptocurrency exchanges after nervous investors reeled following a £380million Coincheck heist, it has been revealed.
  
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• 'Largest ever' gold SURGE if North Korea and US NUCLEAR WAR breaks out, economist reveals

  30-01-2018 01:05 via feedproxy.google.com
  WAR between the US and North Korea could result in one of the largest ever surges in the price of gold, according to precious metals expert Jim Rickards.
  
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• Brexit would damage UK growth, says leaked cabinet report

  30-01-2018 01:04 via theguardian.com
  National income would be 8% lower if Britain left EU without a deal, according to official analysisBrexit would leave the UK worse off under three possible scenarios: a comprehensive free trade deal, single market access and no deal at all, according to a leaked government analysis of the economic impact of leaving the EU.
  The document was meant to be shown confidentially to cabinet ministers this week but was leaked in an embarrassing development for Theresa May and David Davis, the Brexit secr
  
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