Auditing review calls for dividend assurances for investors

Donald Brydon's new report

Auditors should be responsible for providing assurance to investors that “weakly capitalised companies” have enough reserves to pay dividends, according to an auditing review by Donald Brydon.

The proposal comes after a series of accounting scandals in which several large quoted companies, such as Carillion and Thomas Cook, collapsed not long after paying large dividends. The flight path to ruin: Thomas Cook demise is a 'wake-up call' for high street brands Brydon's report is the third of three reviews commissioned by the Government following the collapse of Carillion, with John Kingman's last year and the Competition and Markets Authority's in April, which sought to break up the Big Four accounting firms. The recommendations come at a time when institutional investors h...