By Priya Giuliani, Director, KPMG Forensic

Think of a financial fraud and the vast majority of people will assume the con-artist scrupulously plans a highly sophisticated attack.  They may be right – but not all the time.  Some frauds are so simple they are impossible to detect until it is too late.

By Helen Dickinson, Head of Retail

Mary Portas has begun her mission to rescue Britain’s ailing high streets. On offer is the chance for town centres across the UK to bid for a share of £1 million funding, together with support from Whitehall and Portas, to help transform a small number of local high streets into modern community hubs.

By Helen Dickinson, Head of Retail

After a Christmas season that saw many retailers turn to more drastic promotional activity and discounting to attract consumers, retailers have already begun thinking about their pricing strategy for the forthcoming year.  2012 is expected to be another tough one for the sector where volume growth will be pretty hard to come by.  Getting pricing right for both your target market and your business model will be the key to survival and optimising profitability.  Effective discounting must form part of a long term strategy, which must be sustainable.