The FT has reported that ten years after the creation of PricewaterhouseCoopers its new senior partner:
PwC, the professional services group, must become more agile if it wants to maintain and improve on its market-leading position, according to its new head, Ian Powell.
There is a problem with that. Whenever accountancy firms have been agile abuse has [...]
The FT has reported that:
Baugur, the Icelandic investment group that owns much of the British high street, could move to the UK in the wake of the conviction on book-keeping offences of executive chairman Jon Asgeir Johannesson.
Lawyers for Baugur, whose sprawling retail portfolio includes House of Fraser and Hamleys in the UK, are investigating whether [...]
The Executive Summary of Tax Havens: Creating Turmoil beings with a quotation:
We feel that this (lack of provision of an effective regulatory system) might be a grave omission, since it is notorious that this particular territory, in common with Bermuda, attracts all sorts of financial wizards, some of whose activities we can well believe should [...]
The Treasury Committee (TC) announced on 30 April 2008 that it had “decided to undertake an inquiry into Offshore Financial Centres, as part of its ongoing work into Financial Stability and Transparency” and asked for written evidence to be submitted .
Writing a 73,000 word submission was not on my agenda at the time. In fact, [...]
The Tax Justice Network submission to the Treasury Select Committee is entitled Tax Havens Creating Turmoil.
Sometimes a title is given to you. This one was when John Christensen took this photo in the Dublin Financial Services sector on June 9 this year:
There she is, the ‘yacht’ named ‘Turmoil’ registered in George Town, Cayman Islands in [...]
The Tax Justice Network warmly welcomes the Treasury Select Committee hearings on Offshore Financial Centres (OFCs) that start on 1 July 2008. In anticipation of those hearings TJN-UK has submitted evidence to the Committee and with its agreement is publishing that submission today.
Entitled ‘Tax Havens: Creating Turmoil’ the submission examines the harm that tax havens [...]
UBS is fighting for its survival, not just in the US, but quite possibly around the world following the exposure of the corporate corruption at the heart of its tax practise in the USA. But in the Observer today a senior UBS official is quoted as saying:
It does look bad. Everyone is pretty upset.
The Swiss [...]
The Jersey Evening Post has reported that:
Independence is well within Jersey’s grasp. In a document that goes further towards setting out a blueprint for independence than anything yet published, the Constitution Review Group found that there were no insurmountable reasons why the Island could not become totally self-governing. The group, which includes Sir Philip Bailhache, [...]
Deeply confusing and contradictory messages are coming out of the Channel Islands.
Guernsey has submitted its evidence to the Treasury Select Committee hearing on Offshore Financial Centres and says Guernsey is
* An effective regulatory regime that meets or exceeds international standards on financial regulation, anti-money laundering and controlling the financing of terrorism;* International co-operation on regulation [...]
I’ve had a first quick look at the World Wealth Report for 2008, published this week. The headlines are:
• 10.1 million individuals worldwide held at least US$1 million in financial assets, an increase of 6.0% over 2006• Global HNWI wealth totaled US$40.7 trillion, a 9.4% gain from 2006, with average HNWI wealth surpassing US$4 million [...]
