The FSA’s announcement that it was setting up a new accounting and auditing sector team must have frightened a few people. Are accountants suddenly to come under its stern regulatory glare? The short answer is no. The FSA is merely setting up a liaison body ‘to strengthen its relationship with the major auditing firms’.

Sounds like the new head of the liaison body and former Deloitte partner Kari Hale will have a good entertainment budget. But TS wonders about the necessity to have someone devoted to this issue.

Soon after we heard this news an email arrived about the watchdog’s ‘ground-breaking study to measure the real costs of financial regulation’, to be undertaken, coincidentally, by Deloitte. TS hopes those writing the report will take into account the costs of their former colleague.