April 20th, 2013 Trust in UK financial regulation and auditing cannot be rebuilt unless John Griffith-Jones (pictured right) steps down as chairman of the Financial Conduct Authority, writes HBOS whistleblower Paul Moore, who is also calling for a public inquiry into KPMG’s pre-crash audits of the collapsed bank HBOS. The need for such an inquiry was reinforced on 11 April, [...]
January 4th, 2012 In this interview Pullitzer-prize-winning US financial journalist Jesse Eisinger comments on the balance sheet obfuscation still favoured by America’s banks and on why no chief executive of a US bank, or indeed any other senior banker (with the possible exception of a couple in Ireland and Iceland), has been prosecuted or jailed for [...]
By Ian Fraser Published: Qfinance Date: June 18th, 2012 I was surprised and exasperated to learn last week that chancellor George Osborne has rubber-stamped the appointment of John Griffith-Jones, the senior partner of KPMG, as chairman-designate of the Financial Conduct Authority, one of the two financial regulators that will take over from the soon-to-be-disbanded FSA. As [...]
April 16th, 2012 In this speech the economist and author John Kay examined how the financial sector continues to make — or claims to make — returns-on-equity which are way in excess of any reasonable estimate of cost of capital. Kay, a visiting professor at London School of Economics, examined various possible reasons but then focused on [...]
By Ian Fraser Published: Sunday Herald Date: September 11th, 2011 NBNK REFUTES CLAIM AS SPECULATION OVER BANKING DEAL GROWS BY IAN FRASER The possible sale of Clydesdale Bank to an untested London-based shell company, NBNK Investments, risks triggering a rash of home repossessions and corporate bankruptcies across Scotland, according to a leading European banking expert. [...]
By Ian Fraser Published: QFINANCE Date: July 11th, 2011 Accountancy has changed beyond recognition since the 1970s. At that time the accountancy professor Roy Sidebotham wrote: “There seems to be no limit to the optimism of businessmen… which the growing complexity of the market opens up. The first line of defence of investors and creditors is the [...]
June 26th, 2011 My work on the flawed nature of “mark-to-market” accounting and IFRS accounting standards has been included as supporting evidence in attempts by Steve Baker, the Conservative MP for Wycombe, to introduce to the UK parliament a private members bill that would transform how banks report their financial performance. Baker, a former Lehman [...]
January 16th, 2011 (edited September 16th, 2012) I have long seen BGC Partners’ David Buik as the “Sir Bufton Tufton” of the City: old-fashioned, possibly bigoted and out-of-touch with modern realities. These impressions were reinforced when I read Buik’s contribution to the bonuses debate, published by the Independent on Monday. Buik opened by shedding a [...]
December 21st, 2010 Today’s biggest financial news story was that the New York attorney-general is suing the accountancy firm Ernst & Young for fraud following its alleged role in the cooking the Lehman Brothers books in the years prior to the investment bank’s September 2008 demise. I’d like to focus here on the way in [...]
December 21st, 2010 In this remarkable interview, Stanford University’s professor Joseph A. Grundfest talks Charlie T. Munger, vice-chairman of Berkshire Hathaway. It might be an old interview (I think it dates from about December 2008) but it remains a truly remarkable piece and, in my view, it is a must watch. Munger puts his finger [...]