The £600 million audit market faces a major shake-up after watchdogs ordered that the sector be subjected to a full-blown investigation by the Competition Commission... more
On property: Achillea Kallakis appeared at Southwark Crown Court on Tuesday. Here, the 43-year old property investor is standing trial, accused of defrauding Allied Irish Bank of £56 million... more
With great fanfare, Google launched its apparent Facebook-killer, Google+, this summer. So far the verdict among even the nerdiest social media nuts is: we're not sure what to do with it... more
A once sceptical business community is now realising what a massive opportunity the Games presents. Chris Blackhurst finds the mood among the capital's most high-profile firms to be one of feverish excitement... more
An influential House of Lords committee has accused UK auditors of either failing to spot mounting dangers in the banks or, if they did so, failing to alert regulators ahead of the banking crisis ... more
With Goldman and Facebook keeping schtum, it's down to the commentators to try to fathom how on earth Goldman thought it could keep the fundraiser under wraps... more
One of Morgan Stanley’s top bankers is moving from New York to London in a clear sign that the City is winning its campaign to prevent a clampdown on the industry by politicians... more
The call by Mike Bear, the new Lord Mayor, for the City to donate more to charity has provoked a response — but not entirely of the sort he must have had in mind... more
Much gnashing of teeth at Old Mutual and Nedbank over the decision by HSBC to pull out of its £5 billion purchase of Nedbank, South Africa’s fourth-largest bank, which belongs to Old Mutual... more
When a travel firm hits trouble, its peers in the industry are committed to rescue and bring home the stranded customers. The fund management industry offers no such mutual protection for its clients stranded when a firm collapses
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Comment: The official business of the board meeting of British Widgets plc has just ended. Talk, naturally, turns to the hottest subject in the City at the moment...... more
Amid accusations of moral bankruptcy and fraud, the top investment bank claims it is ‘just making money’. A fatal bunker mentality or is there a clever exit strategy?... more
City Comment: For Goldman Sachs today, read Arthur Andersen in the aftermath of the collapse of Enron in 2003. Will the aftershocks of the fraud allegations bring about its fall?... more
The West End's hottest young playwright is a commuter-belt blonde with a penchant for lying and an appetite for danger. We love Lucy Prebble, says Hermione Eyre... more
Move over Mendes, watch out Nunn, Rupert Goold's production of Enron is the critical hit of the summer, and his Kubrick-inspired take on Shakespeare thrills modern audiences... more
A Miami judge last night upped the ante in the bitter fight over the Obama administration’s demands on UBS to reveal private details of customers suspected of evading taxes ... more
If Britain’s financial services industry is indeed under threat from the European Union’s “badly designed new controls which would needlessly undermine London’s competitive advantage”, as shadow chancellor George Osborne alleged in a speech this week, then really Britain has only itself to blame ... more
Accounting: Defunct accountant Arthur Andersen has been found guilty of waving through false accounting at its former audit client, Durex condoms company SSL... more
Construction: Quarrying group Ennstone is attempting to dig itself out of a hole in the new year by bringing in an insolvency accountant as its new executive chairman... more
ICELANDIC tremors among the power-hungry politicos at Barnet council, which, as readers of City Spy will recall, managed to blow a stonking £28 million of taxpayers’ money in Glitnir and Landsbanki.... more
City Spy is sure most of the 5000 or so Lehman Brothers employees wondering where their next
all-expenses-paid lunch is coming from, will spare a thought for ousted US chief executive Joe Gregory... more
Finance: Clive Cowdery has announced he will float his financial services restructuring firm Resolution on the stock market this year, raising at least £1billion to fund new takeovers and deals... more
Bob Wigley of Merrill Lynch is one of the new meritocrats running the business world. Now he's helping Boris Johnson defend London's role as the centre of global finance
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Ian Livingston has been fondly called a bean-counter-turned-entrepreneur, but as he sets out his ambitious ideas for BT, it is clear that his retail credentials are solid... more
Afternoon:
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