The growing wealth of the UK's FDs has prompted Investec Private Bank to offer them a lending facility that will allow them to borrow money to acquire or increase a strategic stake in a listed company.

Rather unusually, we head into a new year with a number of ‘known unknowns’ (to paraphrase Donald Rumsfeld’s words).

The key principle behind agreements between companies and their auditors to limit the auditor’s liability must be that the agreements are “fair and reasonable”.

Many FDs who voted in the 2007 RealFD/CBI FDs’ Excellence Awards told us the quality of junior staff at the nation’s audit firms wasn't up to scratch.

The Islamic finance industry is now believed to be worth up to £250bn. In response to this growing sector, the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants has launched a qualification in Islamic finance.

Nick Land (then chairman of E&Y) reacted indignantly last year to suggestions of a return to their old consulting business. “We are not re-entering that business,” he said.

The government has a lot of work to do to win back the confidence of business if a show of hands at a conference in London this week is anything to go by.

Being green can be costly but there are ways to mitigate the expense involved in reducing your carbon footprint.

There’s more bad news for banks still counting the cost of the sub-prime mortgage crisis.

Sectors that may be affected by the credit crunch are likely to come under the scrutiny of the Financial Reporting Review Panel next year.