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PwC, Deloitte, KPMG and EY should ring fence auditing in Britain as a separate business by June 2024, their regulator said on Monday in one of the most sweeping changes to the sector globally to improve audit quality. Corporate failures at builder Carillion and retailer BHS led to three government-backed reviews that recommended a shake-up of auditing, but the government has yet to introduce legislation to mandate change, partly due to Brexit and, more recently, the COVID-19 pandemic. The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) had already begun seeking voluntary changes to ...

The Bank of Japan is expected to roughly maintain its view the economy will gradually recover later this year from the virus-led downturn, sources familiar with its thinking told Reuters, even as fears of a second wave of infections cloud the outlook. The central bank’s views, from its quarterly report due next week, will heighten the chances it will keep monetary policy steady at a review on July 14-15, after having ramped up stimulus in March and April. But the BOJ’s report is expected to warn that risks to the ...

The Baltic Exchange’s main sea freight index rose on Monday helped by stronger rates for panamax and supramax vessels which more than offset a decline in capesize demand. The Baltic dry index, which tracks rates for ships ferrying dry bulk commodities and reflects rates for capesize, panamax and supramax vessels, climbed 62 points, or 3.3%, to 1,956, its highest since late September 2019. The panamax index rose 4.6%, or 60 points, to 1,376. Average daily earnings for panamaxes, which usually carry coal or grain cargoes of about 60,000 tonnes to ...

The tenth WPSP-IAPH COVID19 Port Economic Impact Barometer published today reveals an important development for ports located in countries where lockdown restrictions are being eased. This report accumulates results from ninety ports predominantly located in Europe and the Americas, with some representation from Africa and the Far East. More ports than in any of the past surveys reported a return to ‘business as normal’ as regards the number of cargo vessels calls. Nonetheless, while cargo vessels beyond containerships increasingly arrive at the same numbers as the year before, the container ...

Oman has signed an exploration and production sharing agreement with Swedish firm Tethys Oil for its onshore block 58, the company said July 5. The block is located in the southern part of the sultanate adjacent to Tethys Oil’s operated exploration licence block 49. Tethys Oil will be the operator of the block, through its wholly owned subsidiary Tethys Oil Qatbeet Ltd., and hold a 100% license interest. Block 58 was one of six offered in Oman’s 2019 upstream tenders, and the other licenses are yet to be awarded. The ...

Highlighting The Bahamas’ reputation as a premier register, the Bahamas Maritime Authority (BMA) is delighted to once again be ranked the top non-European ship register and in the top three of all registries in the recently released Paris MoU White List rankings on port state inspection performance. The Bahamas has consistently ranked highly on the Paris MoU White List and this demonstrates The Bahamas continued commitment to excellence of service across its fleet. This ranking further illustrates the quality of Bahamas flagged vessels and the dedication of its ship owners, ...

The Trump administration Monday disclosed the names of more than 650,000 businesses that received loans under the Paycheck Protection Program — information officials say will show the emergency fund helped firms across the economy weather the pandemic. The data dump will name borrowers receiving loans of more than $150,000. In all, about 4.9 million small businesses have taken out the forgivable loans, totaling about $521 billion as of June 30, according to the Small Business Administration. Ahead of the data release, the administration Monday released a new analysis concluding the ...

The Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) is ranked 6th on the white list of the Paris Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) Current Flag Performance List 2019. The Paris MoU’s “white, grey, and black (WGB) lists are based on the total number of inspections and detentions over a 3-year rolling period for flags with at least 30 inspections in the period.” This high accolade follows the top rankings the RMI has already received from the United States Coast Guard and Tokyo MoU earlier this year. The RMI’s 2019 rankings by all ...

There’s a lot of talk these days about the return of “irrational exuberance” — the frothy stock market seen in the internet-stock bubble of the late 1990s. But a close look at the data suggests things are nowhere near that heated. That doesn’t mean the stock market won’t fall in coming months, of course. But if it does, it will be for reasons other than speculative excesses rivaling those of two decades ago. The term “irrational exuberance” traces to a now-famous speech in December 1996 by Alan Greenspan, then chairman ...

The Panama Ship Registry completed the first semester of the year with positive numbers, despite the worldwide crisis of the Covid -19 pandemic, which hit several sectors of the global economy. That keeps Panama leading in this aspect. During this first semester of the year (2020), more than 469 ships have been registered in Panama, representing an increase of 13.6 million of gross tonnage (approx.) of growth for our fleet. «The statistics analysis, understanding what happens on the market economies, the effects experienced by to our ship-owners, allow us to ...

The technology group Wärtsilä is one of eleven founding members of an international coalition dedicated to accelerating the energy transition in the transport and logistics industries. The aim of the coalition is to drive the development of energy sources and technologies in order to curb global warming, reduce air pollution, and protect biodiversity. The members will pool their R&D efforts in pursuit of three key goals, namely: To unlock a more extensive portfolio of clean energy sources To lower energy consumption per kilometre-equivalent for transported goods To eliminate a substantial ...

The coronavirus crisis could “level down” the UK economy with London and the South East expected to bounce back more quickly than Hull and Bradford. Sectors such as finance and construction will be worst affected by the pandemic, a report from the Social Market Foundation think tank warned. Initially, that means London and the South East would be worst hit, but other areas face a slower recovery. The Treasury said it was committed to “levelling up” every region of the UK. The worst-affected areas in the short-term: • Camden and ...

Orders for German industrial goods rose by 10.4% in May, rebounding from their biggest drop since records began in 1991 the previous month, data showed on Monday, as demand picked up after lockdown measures to fight the coronavirus were lifted. The increase was weaker than a Reuters forecast for a rise of 15% and the Economy Ministry said a return to pre-crisis levels will be slow even though the economy is recovering. The Statistics Office data showed that domestic orders rose by 12.3% while orders from abroad were up 8.8%. ...

Members of the European Parliament’s environment committee (ENVI) will vote on Tuesday (7 July) on a package of measures intended to clean up the maritime sector and include shipping in the EU’s Emissions Trading System. According to a set of compromise amendments seen by EURACTIV, the main political groups – EPP, S&D, Renew and Greens – will all back the vote on a key policy report that urges the Commission and Council to agree to a carbon market extension. ENVI is the most influential committee on climate policy and the ...

Around one fifth of German companies (21%) believe their survival is threatened by the coronavirus crisis, Germany’s Ifo institute said on Monday, with travel agents, hotels and restaurants particularly concerned. “We could see a wave of insolvencies in the coming months,” Ifo researcher Stefan Sauer said. Source: Reuters (Reporting by Michelle Martin; Editing by Scot W. Stevenson)