Watchdog opens probe into auditors of collapsed lender MFS Accountancy The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has launched an investigation into the conduct of three accountancy firms and individual accountants involved in auditing the accounts of collapsed mortgage lender, Market Financial Solutions. The accountancy watchdog said it has opened four probes into Magus Chartered Accountants, Berkeley Finch Limited, and Silver Levene (UK), and into a number [...]
P&O Ferries to be probed over possible audit failings Accountancy The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has opened a probe into the conduct of an accountant at P&O Ferries over the accuracy of information they provided to auditors. The FRC said it has opened the investigation to assess the financial information provided to the auditor of P&O Ferries Holdings Limited and its subsidiaries between December 2020 [...]
Directors of collapsed Carillion banned by accounting watchdog Accountancy A pair of Carillion finance directors in post shortly before its collapse have been fined and banned by the accounting industry watchdog, bringing the curtain down on eight years of regulatory probes into one of the most notorious corporate failures in British history. Richard Adam – who served as the now-extinct contracting company’s finance director [...]
‘Stewardship shouldn’t feel like box-ticking’ – FRC chief June 3, 2025 FRC chief executive exclusively shared with City PM his main focus of overhauling its key City code was "reducing the reporting burden"
FRC: We will take an axe to City stewardship code, says boss June 1, 2025 The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) plans to take the axe to a key City code that governs how shareholders should hold companies to account. The UK Stewardship Code was created following the 2008 financial crisis to address fears that shareholders had failed to adequately police risk-taking. Signatories are required to publicly report on their stewardship [...]
Big Four vs Watchdog: Giants rack up over £154m in fines April 16, 2025 The accountancy regulator has handed over £154m in fines to the Big Four firms over the last five years for audit failures
The rise of the regulators December 10, 2024 Regulators have expanded massively over the last 50 years, in terms of headcount, expenditure and scope. This has created a risk aversion ratchet which is hampering growth and damaging democracy – there is another way, says James Vitali Over the past fifty years, a silent revolution has taken place in the British constitution. While central [...]
Ex-BDO senior manager handed 20-year ban for falsifying documents November 14, 2024 The audit watchdog has banned a former senior manager of accountancy giant BDO for 20 years after she was found to have been creating false documents
Audit watchdog plans to ditch ‘environment’ focus in growth push November 11, 2024 The audit watchdog is planning to remove references to the “environment” and “society” from a code setting standards for City investors in a bid to simplify reporting processes and get behind the government’s push for growth, City PM can reveal. In a consultation document today, the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) will reveal plans to make a number [...]
How the accounting watchdog is looking to unleash the City November 11, 2024 As Richard Moriarty gripped the sides of a podium and spoke freely from a sheet of bullet points at the London Stock Exchange in September, a warmth was stirring among certain City executives in the room. The tie-less career regulator, boss of the audit watchdog, the Financial Reporting Council, laid out his plans to shake [...]
