Tough new laws could hit Big Four services fees

Auditing Practices Board issues a Consultation Paper on audit firms providing non-audit services to listed companies that they audit. "The aim of the APB Consultation Paper is to seek views, especially from investors, on whether there is support for the Treasury Select Committee’s view that investor confidence and trust in audit would be enhanced by a prohibition on audit firms conducting non-audit work for the same company.” Richard Fleck, Chairman of APB commented.

Chairman and Chief Executive relationship 'can be too close'

A too close relationship between chairman and chief executive can be a signal for excessive risk-taking in a company, a high-powered panel of Scottish accountants warned. Guy Jubb, head of corporate governance at Standard Life Investments, told a forum on risk management staged in Edinburgh by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland that boardroom culture had changed over the past five years, particularly in the financial sector.

OFT fines recruitment agencies for a collective boycott and price fixing cartel

The OFT has imposed fines totalling £39.27 million on six recruitment agencies for price-fixing and the collective boycott of another company in the supply of candidates to the construction industry.