Of the 120 banks surveyed in December 2011 for the Ernst & Young Bank Barometer 2012 (not including the two major banks), just 15% (prior year: 52%) consider their current business development to be positive. 62% (40%) report a somewhat positive trend, while just under a quarter admit that business is developing negatively. Private and [...]
The insurance industry is now facing a far more demanding customers as shown by a combination of increased expectations from them and accessible technology, according to Ernst & Young’s Global Insurance Customer Survey. The survey also highlights that those suppliers who fail to make a rapid move to a more consumer-friendly business model risk being [...]
The Swiss M&A market showed a strong fourth quarter in 2011 in terms of number of transactions as well as disclosed deal volume, which grew by over 150% compared to the previous quarter. Jürg Stucker, Head of M&A at Ernst & Young Switzerland, explains: “With 216 announced M&A transactions, the number of deals in the [...]
Globally, businesses are now looking at the ‘Next 4 Billion’ nations for growth, especially given the slowdown in growth in mature economies. This group, which includes India, China, Indonesia parts of Africa and Latin America, is where over 4 billion of the world’s 7 billion reside. In these markets businesses have traditionally focused on the [...]
Coming quickly on the heels of the promising UK new car sales figures last week, UK car production rose 15.6 percent in January 2012 on the back of strong demand for cars made in the UK and exports to developing economies such as China, a KPMG partner said. “This raises hopes that 2012 could be [...]
In a punitive move against Lloyds Banking Group for mis-selling payment protection insurance (PPI), high-ranking company officials will suffer from the loss of bonuses amounting to £2m. This has been confirmed by Lloyds Banking, which will cut the bonuses paid to 13 executives, including the former chief executive Eric Daniels who will lose £580,000 after [...]
A dramatic rise in the number of consumers making claims for mis-sold payment protection insurance (PPI) is likely over the next year, new figures from the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) reveal. In its recently released Plan and Budget: 2012/13, the FSCS assumes it will receive around 16,500 claims for mis-sold PPI from failed firms [...]
Commenting on the decision from the Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee to maintain the Bank Rate at 0.5% and increase the size of the Asset Purchase Programme by £50 billion to £325 billion, KPMG Chief Economist, Andrew Smith, said: “While expected, today’s announcement underlines how worried the MPC is. Not deterred by slightly stronger [...]
The Deloitte Consumer Spending Index (Index) continued downward in January and consumer spending will face additional economic headwinds in 2012, according to Deloitte. The Index tracks consumer cash flow as an indicator of future consumer spending. “A sharp fall in real home prices primarily contributed to the decline in the Index,” explained Carl Steidtmann, Deloitte’s [...]
Companies should expect increases in external environmental costs which today are often not shown on financial statements. Businesses and policymakers must take joint strategic decisions and act now. New research from KPMG International has identified 10 “megaforces” that will significantly affect corporate growth globally over the next two decades. This is according to global accounting [...]
The latest statistics from the Insolvency Service show a broadly flat quarter on quarter picture with insolvencies rising just 0.4 percent from the third to the fourth quarter last year. The year on year comparison shows a 7.2 percent rise in corporate insolvencies and a 12.4 percent for company voluntary arrangements (CVAs). Hotel, restaurant and [...]
A total of 28,973 people went into bankruptcy, entered into an Individual Voluntary Arrangement (‘IVA’) or a Debt Relief Order (‘DRO’) between October and December 2011, according to the fourth quarter figures for 2011, released by the Insolvency Service. This was an overall decrease of 5.6 per cent compared to the same quarter in 2010. [...]
As major urban areas strain to adequately support rapidly growing populations, the need for infrastructure is at an all-time high, a development so pivotal that it is pressuring the engineering and construction industry to step up as never before to meet the challenge, and putting their efficiency and risk management processes to the test, according [...]
UK retail sales values were down 0.3% on a like-for-like basis from January 2011, when sales had risen 2.3%, picking up after December 2010’s snow disruption. On a total basis, sales were up 2.1%, against a 4.2% increase in January 2011. On both measures it was the second-worst January, after January 2010, since the survey [...]
Global aerospace and defence (A&D) merger and acquisition (M&A) value reached a record level in 2011, according to Mission Control, a quarterly analysis of M&A activity in the global A&D sector by PwC. Aggregate deal value reached $43.7 billion supported by 341 deals in 2011, compared to total deal value of $21.9 billion and 332 [...]
John Leech, head of KPMG’s automotive practice comments on the monthly Markit/CIPS UK manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI). The data shows that UK manufacturing PMI rose to 52.1 in January and eurozone’s manufacturing sector contracted for the sixth month in a row in January: “The latest PMI reveals that the continuing eurozone crisis is draining [...]
While many employees and retirees hope to stretch their 401(k) plans well beyond their original purpose, 84 percent of polled executives responsible for such plans say only some or very few employees will be financially prepared for retirement, a new Deloitte survey reveals. Predictably, 401(k) plan sponsors view – as a top goal for the [...]
‘Banana Skins’ poll identifies top threats to banks. The risk of another global recession and a renewed banking crisis is high according to a new survey of the dangers currently facing the world’s banking industry. The CSFI’s annual Banking Banana Skins survey, produced in association with PwC, puts macro-economic risk at the top of the [...]
The healthcare sector is well positioned to see an increase in mergers and acquisitions (M&As) globally due to its perceived benefit as a safe haven both in the near and long-term future, according to PwC in its first edition of Global Healthcare Deals Quarterly. In the inaugural issue, PwC states that the healthcare industry will [...]
The unique convergence of five emerging technology forces – analytics, mobility, social, cloud and cyber security – provide the opportunity for businesses to accelerate performance in 2012, according to Deloitte’s 3rd annual Tech Trends report Elevate IT for Digital Business. “It’s an uncommon time to have so many emerging forces – all rapidly evolving, technology-centric [...]
