In June the Telegraph announced:
Top auditor John Griffith-Jones will head the UK's new Financial Conduct Authority from next year.
Mr Griffith-Jones currently chairs the UK operations of KPMG, one of the world's "Big Four" auditing firms.
Today we learned that Ian Barlow is toi be the new Chair of H M Revenue & Customs. As HMRC say:
Until March 2010, Ian spent 37 years with KPMG, latterly as Senior Partner, London, working at Board level with international clients in many industry sectors.
And we've also learned that Sir Mike Rake is to lead the review of Barclays' business practices in a new role as deputy chair. Of Sir Mike it's been said:
From May 2002 to September 2007 Rake was Chairman of KPMG International. Prior to his appointment as Chairman of KPMG International he was Chairman of KPMG in Europe and Senior Partner of KPMG in the United Kingdom.
That means Rake was international chair of KPMG when in 2005 it agreed to pay $456 million in fines in the US fir criminal violations of the law. The other two were senior partners.
This was not their only debacle. Very recently they were chastised for their audit of HBOS before it failed - of which they gave no warning when the Lords thought they should have done otherwise.
There are many more such episodes.
And yet we put trust in KPMG.
Why, oh why, oh why?
Disclosure - I trained at KPMG - and left in 1983.
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Hi, either you are right and it is jobs for the boys, or these are great examples of converting poachers into gamekeepers. We will only be able to tell by the results achieved by John Griffith-Jones, Sir Mike Rake and Ian Barlow. Their reputations are now on the line.
Oink, oink!
It’s not a question of trust is it, Richard, it’s part of a long running and ongoing process of corporate capture, which has implictly become part of the institutional and governmental system of this country, and, as you well know from your blogs about the OECD (for example), wider global institutional bodies.
I think it became increasingly evident through the years of the New Labour government (and Bush in the US) that this was the quid pro quo for corporate and financial elites agreeing – or agreeing not to continue to mobilise to block – any form (of even light touch) regulation. In short, it was a nod and wink agreement that where there are bodies such as HMRC – or the FSA, etc – who could make life difficult for corporate, financial and political elites the chances of that happening would be all but extinguished by giving ultimate control of those organisations to agents of the said elites. Ultimately it allows politicians such as Blair, Cameron, Clegg, Osborne, and now, sadly, Cable, to claim to be taking action – and pointing at examples – while safe in the knowledge that what they’ve set up can always be bent to the requirements of those who really control the political agenda.
Of course, the irony of this situation today is that just as we hit a point at which the corruption and cost of this kind of ‘cultural’ and systemic arrangement is exposed in banking it continues to thrive and expand in other sectors – the events at HMRC being simply the latest example. In fact I’d argue that Barclays and Diamond is currently acting as a nice little smokescreen for events at HMRC that potentially have far greater significance for the future in terms of support for tax avoidance and evasion (while Osborne and co are free to claim the reverse).That said, it may well be that Diamond is about to shine a light on this type of collusion between politicians, institutions of the state and corporates elites. Perhaps he will do the citizens of this country a favour after all.
Was it Lord Boothby who relied for his economic and financial advice on the Kray brothers?
Seems the UK has decided not to be taken over by the vampire squid (goldman sachs) like the EU/US and has decided it wants to be overlorded/ruled by KPMG instead.
I foresee conflict.
Forest sale just cancelled.
On the other hand, or maybe the one hiding behind a back, maybe the BOE is about to fall to a squid invasion:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/goldman-path-complete-world-domination-mark-carney-his-way-head-bank-england
But Mr Griffith-Jones went to Eton. So he must be a good egg. Mustn’t he?