Week in review: 16 - 20 June
In the news this week: Queen's honour for Richard Broadbent, Peter Wyman's views on the DTI ministerial reshuffle, a massive fine for Coopers & Lybrand and the mid-tier break ranks on audit cap liability.
saw news of a new European Union directive to come into power on 1 July forcing non-EU e-commerce companies to impose EU tax on all digital sales, making such products more expensive for people to buy.
It was also announced that Richard Broadbent, who is set to leave HM Customs & Excise for a job at Land Securities, has been honoured in the Queen’s birthday list.
Tuesday, Peter Wyman, former president of the ICAEW, said the appointment of a new minister to oversee corporate governance regulation was unlikely to result in a ‘violent swing in policy’.
And administrators revealed that more than 25,000 people have visited the website that will be used to auction off the assets of failed Formula One team Arrows.
On Wednesday we reported that Coopers & Lybrand, now part of Big Four firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, paid out £65m in settlement for its part in the scandal surrounding Barings Bank.
Thursday, Accountancy Age broke the story that in a move likely to open deep divisions in the UK accountancy industry: the biggest mid-tier firms have written to the ICAEW claiming a cap on auditors’ liability would be a ‘second-class’ policy.
And finally, the ACCA was on the brink of ending its two-year search for a chief executive officer, a move that would allow current CEO Anthea Rose to start her postponed retirement
Friday, a new study commissioned by the Department of Trade and Industry in the wake of the Higgs report on non-executive directors found that boardrooms lack diversity because companies appoint directors from a narrow pool of talent.
And the board of PeopleSoft recommended that the company’s shareholders reject the latest takeover bid from Oracle of $19.50 per share, saying the deal would not be in their best interests.