The GAAPweb blog

How seriously does your bank take identity theft?

I was reading the Technology supplement to the Guardian last week – an unusual reading choice for the likes of me perhaps, but I was drawn in by an article on identity fraud. You see, having recently been at the receiving end of my bank’s zealous but not entirely thorough fraud procedures I had special interest in a news item that claimed that banks didn’t take identity theft very seriously.

What happened to me is that I went to America on holiday, used my debit card to withdraw some cash a couple of times and then bang…card no longer active.
Which was very irritating, because New York has lots of shiny pretty shops in which I wanted to purchase many shiny pretty things.

On the face of it I was rather impressed because at least my bank was looking out for me…they just missed out one very important step: customer service…Why not just ring me up and check that it isn’t in fact me attempting to take money out, albeit in America (*shock* because no one ever goes abroad on holiday) not London, before placing a hold on my account? I guess they may not have wanted to phone me, on the off chance that I actually was in America and it cost them a lot of money as well as precious time out of their day. 

Actually, the Student Loans Company did call me whilst I was traipsing round the Met. Which was great.
Were it not to have cost me as much as it would have cost them I would have kept them on for ages, oblivious as they were to my whereabouts. (You’ll know from a previous blog that I don’t like them very much.)

So – this article. Basically the author, Victor Keegan, having suffered countless scams on his bank account, saw fit to research just how easy it is for fraudsters to steal our identities. As we all know, when phoning the bank – even if it isn’t really the bank but a foreign call centre worker- we are often asked for our mother’s maiden name because this is regarded by all banks as a failsafe security question… which it really isn’t. Our mother’s maiden names along with other sensitive information is available from the register of births, marriages and deaths which can be found online.

Keegan states that “We certainly need a new approach as well-insured banks don't take identity theft very seriously, and criminals are getting sophisticated. I have come across several examples of victims being rung up shortly after an identity theft by their banks to offer help. Except it is not their bank but the thief that made the call, to find out whether the crime had been reported or to elicit more confidential information. If someone tells you your mother's maiden name then it is easy to be convinced that they are from your bank.”

Luckily I have never had the misfortune to come up against any of these con merchants but I know people who have..banks do seem to take pains to make us aware of identity theft but there are many areas in which security procedures need to be tightened up. Whilst it is sad that, owing to my bank’s blundering, I was unable to buy as many shoes as I might have liked, I still feel happy that were someone to have stolen my purse and tried to empty my bank account they would have been prevented from doing so.

Skills shortage update - what the recruiters did next.

Is the skills shortage changing way we recruit?

As a result of the recent skills shortage employers are relying more heavily on promoting their brand values to recruit skilled professionals. A great deal of money is being spent in building up brand image as a way to stand out from competitors. With skilled Accounting and Finance professionals having their pick of roles it has become increasingly important for firms to show just what makes them good employers.

While getting bogged down in statistics about target demographics and marketing strategy, however, employers are missing a major source of publicity – their current employees.

With so many workers now members of sites like facebook the biggest threat to the company’s reputation is often internal. Though some companies have tried, you cannot control what your employees write about. All you can do is make sure they only have nice things to say.

While most people will ignore petty personal gripes they will pay attention to comments that seriously undermine the brand values the company is trying to put forward. There’s no point spending a fortune on a marketing campaign publicising your company as a great place for women to work if, at the same time, you have female employees publicly complaining that the maternity leave policies are poor or that women aren’t promoted or paid to the same level as men.

One well-known software company wanted to be known for providing staff with a good work/life balance so it went to its staff and asked what they could do. Many of the suggestions put forward by employees were easy and inexpensive to implement. For their next campaign they simply interviewed existing staff and used their opinions on their promotional material. By listening to staff and addressing their concerns they generated good publicity that potential employees could really trust.

Perhaps something good might come out of this skills shortage after all as employers are required to genuinely deliver the ideal working environment they all promise to provide.

Penny Millionaire Project - Week 19

Monday - this is fast becoming Mhairi's project. This morning she handed over a penny from the South Bank, plus a penny she'd found on the night bus the previous Friday night. The night bus penny bore no trace of kebab, nor anything else more sinister, and for that we should all be grateful.

Sunday I was in the garden hanging out my washing, when there, upon an old wooden chair, I spied a penny. This sounds like the beginning of a magical adventure but I'm afraid I just hung out my washing, picked up the penny and came inside - it was a bit nippy.

Later on Sunday, at my nan's house, my auntie came good with a 5p she'd spotted on the path alongside her parked car.

Week Nineteen

How much found: 8p
Total found so far: £11.13
How it could now be spent: A Murder on the Dance Floor mystery party.

Does QBE limit your career options?

There comes a time in everyone's career when difficult decisions have to be made. Difficult decisions that create confusion. Confusion can lead to despair, and nobody likes despair. That's why we're starting this section of the GAAPweb blog - to help you through. Think of us as the Samaritans for Finance studiers and professionals.

If you have a career related issue troubling your mind, then let us try to help you find some clarity. We'll find the right Finance professional to answer your question, and you'll feel that nagging worry drift away with the tide of their knowledge.

The first luminary to offer guidance will be our very own Andrew Wigram - until recently Financial Controller of GAAPweb - now a finance overlord of Trinity Mirror.

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Can a QBE candidate climb as high as their qualified peers?

Question:

I’m a qualified by experience accountant. I’ve been working in a small practice since completing my A levels 3 years ago. I am now looking to move into industry, but am concerned about my prospects due to the fact that I don’t have a professional accountancy qualification. Is my lack of an ‘on paper’ qualification likely to hold me back? - Richard, Lancashire.

Answer:

I would have to answer this from a personal and then “professional perspective”.

Personally, I would certainly hire someone like this, as I believe someone who is QBE is likely to be a good candidate. Certainly by way of actually understanding a job and being able to perform, this is very important. I would, however, probably not be able to justify a high salary for such a position, without the relevant qualification.

Thinking of the finance profession as a whole, it is unfortunately very important for you to obtain your qualification. It seems nearly impossible to move up to a financial controller/manager position without either having an ACCA/CIMA qualification, or being en-route to obtain one of these.

In summary, if you are lucky, and manage to get your foot in the door, then being without a qualification should not be an issue, however, making that next step/getting promoted to Financial Controller level or above, will become far more difficult.

Andrew Wigram is the Corporate Development and Finance Director for two Trinity Mirror job boards.

Does size matter?

Would you say bigger is better?

It’s an important question to ask yourself as you plan your career in Finance. Do you want to work for a smaller company where you might get noticed and developed quickly? Or do you want the advantages that come with working for one of the big names?

Changes in the Big 4 mean you may not have to make that choice.

Skills shortages have forced the Big 4 to recognise that people really are their biggest asset. People management, development and retention are top of their agenda according to a report from The Economist.

Spotting talented employees early on and persuading them to stay for longer is the new focus as companies plan for the future. The danger point for employers comes after three years once people are certified as Accountants and start looking to move on. Research has suggested that most who leave after this time would like to return and wish they had stayed on longer.

Even after employees have moved on there are programmes in place to keep in touch. Helping people leave on good terms allows them to return to the company later on. In a time of skills shortages and job-hopping the loyalty of staff is increasingly important.

So how is the Big 4 persuading you to stay?

Deloitte:

• Global development program – allowing employees to spend up to 3 years abroad early on in their careers.
• Priorities for 2010 business plan include: improving scores in annual staff survey; increasing proportion of female Partners; assessing Partners as managers of people not just the amount of money they bring in.

Ernst & Young:

• Partners have spent years identifying specific skills needed for different roles so staff can easily plan a route to develop their career.
• Electronically delivered training services allow people greater control over their development.

KPMG:

• Time codes to account for how long senior staff spends on employee matters. These count towards pay rises and promotion.
• Compass – a programme that identifies 11 milestones on the path to Senior Partner allowing you to plan a development path.
• Career breaks which won’t affect chances for promotion.
• Mentoring of junior staff by Partners from another function to allow greater insight into different areas.

PricewaterhouseCooper:

• Run programs, such as Genesis Park, which take promising employees out of work for five months and train them for Partner level roles.

This level of talent management may be beyond the resources of most firms but the principles could be applied on a smaller scale. Making people management a measurable target for senior staff, offering more flexible career paths and giving people a way back to the company all give skilled employees a reason to stay.

Big 4 Graduate programmes (for perpetual real world evasion)

A number of programmes are on offer at the Big 4 specifically aimed at providing fresh graduates, undergraduates and strong equivalent candidates with opportunities to gain some valuable experience and a potential ‘foot in the door’ prior to seeking full time employment. Competition for these programmes is understandably fierce; following is a list of the programmes offered by each in turn:

Ernst & Young:

Summer internship – 6 week work experience opportunity to gain understanding of company practice and training.
Industrial placement – 12 month placement across multiple areas to gain experience and fast track qualifications, often undertaken during penultimate Degree year.
Work experience – 2 week placement over Easter, working within Tax, Technology or Security Risk Services.
E&Y Degree – gaining experience in conjunction with graduation, offered by the Lancaster University Management School.

Deloitte:

Teach First – opportunity to gain QTS, then commencing after 2 years’ Graduate programme in Audit, Tax, or Consulting.
Gap year – ‘deferred entry’ scheme; secure a job, then go travelling for a year.  Even comes with the offer of a £1000 interest free loan.
Summer Vacation Scheme – 7 week rotation in different core service areas: Professional Services; Actuarial; Consulting; Corporate Finance.
Industrial placements – year placement as part of a Degree.
The Inside View – 2 day course for first year students to learn about Professional Services culture and what it entails.

KPMG:

Work placements – short vacation, international internships, or sandwich-year placements.
One year business programme – 1 year undergraduate placement, working toward ACA or CA (Scotland only).

PriceWaterhouseCoopers:

PwC take a slightly different approach to training on their website, focusing on developing candidates through leadership training schemes:
Genesis Park – 5 month Leadership development programme.
Ulysses – 5 step learning process, incorporating the following: Preparation and selection; Foundation; In-the-field projects; Review; Follow-up and network.

Penny Millionaire Project - Week 18

Monday – my little sister gave me a 5p she’d found in Tesco by the checkout. Tesco yet again. I’m beginning to wonder if it’s completely beyond them to have Internet spooks scouring blogs for any reference to Tesco and doing whatever it takes to be mentioned more…

Tuesday – a double whammy from Mhairi - a 2p that she found walking home and a 5p her boyfriend found during a nice walk in leafy Mitcham, Surrey.

On Thursday she came good yet again with a 2p from the train.

Week Eighteen

How much found: 14p
Total found so far: £11.05
How it could now be spent:  A Spear & Jackson Razorsharp Garden Knife.

Don't fancy entering into a shadowy Faustian pact with Tesco? Get a rewarding new job instead.

Save-as you-throw…

The UK produces more waste per head of population than many of its European neighbours and also has one of the worst recycling rates. These statistics, therefore, highlight why almost two thirds of people would support a “pay-as-you-throw” system of collecting household waste, according to a Local Government Association survey.

64% were in favour of lower council tax and charges according to how much rubbish people put out, therefore recyclers pay less.

With such public support, this proposed system of charges and rewards could lead to a much ‘greener’ Britain.

However being a voluntary option, and like all new schemes, people have been more than quick to point out problems. But if we are to challenge EU targets and catch up with the rest of Europe, some measures need to be taken urgently. Councils in England, and consequently the taxpayer, are facing fines of up to £3 billion over the next four year if European targets are not met for reducing the amount of waste thrown into landfill.

The options that the government have proposed are: a sack based system where households buy different sized pre-paid sacks; a weight based system, within this wheelie bins are fitted with chips to allow the bins to be weighed when they are collected; a volume based system, this makes households choose from a range of wheelie bin sizes according to the amount of waste they think they will generate. Other options include charging by frequency of collection or combinations of the above options.

A LGA survey revealed that 64% of you would support such schemes, but what do you think of these plans happening in your area?

Penny Millionaire Project - Week 17

Wednesday – a walk around town with my little brother and sister. I’ve been looking after them for a week and it has cost me literally hundreds of pounds. My brother went some way to recouping my losses, by finding a 2p slotted between some cobbles in an alleyway. Only another 14,999 to find and I’ve broken even.

On Friday, a 20p came from Nix, who found it next to the ticket machine at Earlsfield station. She tells me she’d been tempted to keep it because she’d had to raid her copper jar to buy a loaf of bread, but didn’t. Now that’s the kind of dedicated soldier you want in your platoon.

Friday – some post arrived at work. I’ve never received anything at work, I'm not one of the important people who get mail. I was completely intrigued.

And inside the padded envelope was a business card, from a lady called Louise at UK Recruiter. I flipped it over to find this...

I couldn't believe it! The courage and sacrifice of this mother was the highlight of my week. If he's reading this, I just hope he understands.

Week Seventeen

How much found: 27p

Total found so far: £10.91

How it could now be spent: A Blonde Bombshell wig.

If you're the type of person who'd feel guilty taking money from a child's bedroom, browse our jobs instead.

Student Moans - Finances beyond university

Coming back from my holiday this weekend I noticed a flood of new students at the airport being ushered towards trains and buses by representatives from their chosen places of learning. It’s hard to believe that we are at the dawn of yet another academic year already and watching all the new students I couldn’t help but feel a little nostalgic. They seem to be younger and younger every year (right I’m hoping that that’s the most clichéd sentence I’m going to write in my posts, but I can’t guarantee it). It also got me thinking about how I had to sort out my student loan repayments when I got back to work and how I wished that someone had given me a bit more guidance with my finances when I was studying.

One of the biggest mistakes that I made was that I didn’t plan for life beyond studenthood. But then nobody warns you that the second you pick up your degree certificate someone bespectacled* and bossy from your local authority is sending you a letter to cough up money for council tax – or that the next time you visit the doctors, your prescription will set you back nearly 7 quid.

Where does this governmental assumption that you instantly and magically have a job when you stop studying come from? Life as a new graduate is more stressful than you may anticipate – you go from being relatively protected and exempt from financial ties, save food books rent and bills (okay and tuition fees but don’t get me started on those) to being liable to a whole range of compulsory charges overnight, without having had time to find a job in between.

Okay not everyone is in this position, but I was. And so were many of my friends. The government is only too aware of the ratio of graduates to jobs available but that doesn’t stop them from dropping us in at the deep-end. I scrabbled and scrimped and did all kinds of intolerable temp jobs in order to make ends meet and it was exhausting and depressing. They really ought to introduce an incremental payment scheme. New graduates, provided that they are not gainfully employed, should perhaps pay a third of what everyone else does and gradually work up to paying the full amount when they are ready and able to.

I also really resent that most students, save those who are in possession of trust funds, start off their life as a graduate in thousands of pounds worth of debt. Although, somewhat refreshingly according to Natwest, students who graduated this summer left university with less debt than their predecessors last year. This first fall in student debt levels since 2000 is said to reflect youngsters saving money by living at home, taking part-time jobs and working rather than traveling in their gap years.

I suppose this decrease is promising but the greater problem is still there...certainly I know that I will be paying off my student loan until I'm about 78.

* no offence intended – I wear glasses myself. I was just working out a visual image.