The International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants (IESBA) has updated its global ethics code to strengthen rules to guard against accepting excessive inducements and hospitality, highlighting the importance of avoiding being put in a compromising situation 

Bill Dodwell, former head of tax policy at Deloitte and regular contributor to Accountancy magazine, has been confirmed as a member of the General Anti-Abuse Rule (GAAR) advisory panel while also taking up a role as a part-time senior policy adviser at the Office of Tax Simplification (OTS)

Corporate UK is missing out on a £13bn ‘gender dividend’ because companies are still failing to get enough women into top roles, with no real progress since 2016 and just 16% of FTSE 350 executive committees female, a proportion which has not changed in two years, according to research from diversity consultancy the Pipeline

Employers must improve their hiring process to secure the top finance talent. Karen Young, director at Hays Accounting and Finance, provides tips and advice to employers across the finance industry looking to attract talented individuals

ICAEW is among a further 67 companies who have signed up to the Treasury’s women in finance charter, taking the total number of signatories to 272, covering over 760,000 financial services employees in the UK

Begbies Traynor has posted full year results showing revenues of £52.4m in 2018, up from £49.7m, while pre-tax profits jumped to £2.3m compared with £600,000 the previous year

David Price, CEO and wellbeing expert at Health Assured, provides advice to employers on how to minimise employee stress caused through redundancy by reducing uncertainty and supporting staff and managers

The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has named Mike Suffield as acting executive director of audit and actuarial regulation following the announcement that the previous postholder Melanie Hind (nee McLaren) is to step down to take up a family opportunity overseas

Big Four challenger CogitalGroup has signalled its intention to expand its international reach as its London division, Blick Rothenberg, acquires Westleton Drake, a specialist private tax client practice

PwC UK has promoted 54 equity partners, up from 31 last year, but says that progress on diversity is slower than the firm would like

Smith & Williamson, the financial and professional services firm, has reported a 8.9% hike in tax and business services revenue, as operating income hits £266.7m with profitability up double digits year on year, and continued growth across all business lines for the year ended 30 April 2018, reports Sara White

Melanie Hind (nee McLaren), one of the Financial Reporting Council’s (FRC’s) most senior executives, has announced her departure from the audit regulator, which is currently under intense scrutiny from MPs and others over claims the organisation is ‘toothless’ and ‘too cosy’ with the Big Four accountancy firms

With regulation of crowdfunding being somewhat loose, Richard Tall, corporate partner at Faegre Baker Daniels, considers how the regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), could strengthen oversight and improve governance standards

Jon Roberts, partner and head of public sector audit at Grant Thornton is taking over the audit service line as head of assurance at the mid-tier firm in a reshuffle of top jobs

Nearly half of all board appointments from now until 2020 in FTSE 350 companies need to go to women if government equality targets are to be reached, according to a report by the Hampton-Alexander Review