THE ACCOUNT
The latest in finance and business
Cooking the books
The financial thriller has become a hugely successful fixture of books, TV and film (think Margin Call, The Banker’s Wife and Billions). According to a new book, the genre was pioneered by Canadian banker-turned-author Paul Erdman from a Swiss prison cell (Erdman spent 10 months in solitary confinement for his participation in a banking fraud – he later skipped bail and was convicted in absentia and sentenced to nine years) with the publication of his 1973 book The Billion Dollar Sure Thing.
Erdman’s story centred on the devaluation of the dollar and fixing of the gold price in 1971. Now Mikkel Krause Frantzen has written The Birth of the Financial Thriller: Making a Killing in the 1970s, an academic study of the genre, published by Edinburgh University Press, which says: “By contextualising the rise of financial thrillers within the dramatic events of the 1970s, such as the abolition of the Bretton Woods system and the oil crises, this book illustrates how a genre found the world of finance during a particular historical moment, but also how the world of finance found its genre.”
The Birth of the Financial Thriller will surely make a worthy addition to the shelves of the Library of Mistakes, a building in the heart of Edinburgh, dedicated to the study of financial history, which was featured in these pages last year. The book isn't cheap, with a list price of £90, but if it inspires any CAs to develop a sideline in fiction it could prove a profitable investment.
Cooking the books
The financial thriller has become a hugely successful fixture of books, TV and film (think Margin Call, The Banker’s Wife and Billions). According to a new book, the genre was pioneered by Canadian banker-turned-author Paul Erdman from a Swiss prison cell (Erdman spent 10 months in solitary confinement for his participation in a banking fraud – he later skipped bail and was convicted in absentia and sentenced to nine years) with the publication of his 1973 book The Billion Dollar Sure Thing.
Erdman’s story centred on the devaluation of the dollar and fixing of the gold price in 1971. Now Mikkel Krause Frantzen has written The Birth of the Financial Thriller: Making a Killing in the 1970s, an academic study of the genre, published in March by Edinburgh University Press, which says: “By contextualising the rise of financial thrillers within the dramatic events of the 1970s, such as the abolition of the Bretton Woods system and the oil crises, this book illustrates how a genre found the world of finance during a particular historical moment, but also how the world of finance found its genre.”
The Birth of the Financial Thriller will surely make a worthy addition to the shelves of the Library of Mistakes, a building in the heart of Edinburgh, dedicated to the study of financial history, which was featured in these pages last year. The book is far from cheap, with a list price of £90, but if it inspires any CAs to develop a sideline in fiction it could prove a profitable investment.
Under cover
In 2017, identical twins, Oliver and Alexander Kent-Braham, and software engineer, David Goate, spotted a gap in the insurance market. Following the UK’s vote to leave the EU the previous year, the trio wanted to provide car insurance for groups often underserved by traditional insurers – notably migrants, young drivers and people with limited credit history.
“Our customers are ambitious, entrepreneurial, educated people who are striving to build a better life in the U.K.
Unfortunately, with the current political climate, these individuals don’t always feel welcome in the U.K. and we don’t want financial services to further discourage them to settle here,” Oliver Kent-Braham told Insurance Times in 2018.
Fast forward to 2021 and their brainwave, Marshmallow, achieved unicorn status with a valuation exceeding $1.25bn (£940m), the first black-owned UK business to do so.
The company, which employs around 700 people across London and Budapest, recently raised $90m in its latest round of funding and is now valued at around $2bn.
“We’ve already supported over one million people in the UK with their insurance needs, but we’re only just scratching the surface,” says Oliver Kent-Braham.
“There are still major financial services barriers that make it harder for newcomers to settle and take part in everyday life. This funding gives us the capital to solve these problems and deliver against our mission.”
Under Cover
In 2017, identical twins, Oliver and Alexander Kent-Braham, and software engineer, David Goate, spotted a gap in the insurance market. Despite Britain voting to leave the EU the previous year, the trio wanted to provide car insurance for groups often underserved by traditional insurers – notably migrants, young drivers and people with limited credit history.
Fast forward to 2021 and their brainwave, Marshmallow, achieved unicorn status with a valuation exceeding $1.25bn (£940m), the first black-owned UK business to do so.
The company, which employs around 700 people across London and Budapest, recently raised $90m in its latest round of funding and is now valued at around $2bn.
“We’ve already supported over one million people in the UK with their insurance needs, but we’re only just scratching the surface,” says Oliver Kent-Braham.
“There are still major financial services barriers that make it harder for newcomers to settle and take part in everyday life. This funding gives us the capital to solve these problems and deliver against our mission.”
Missing the target
This month marks another milestone in a startling and worrying trend. The UK hits its Overshoot Day for 2025 on 20 May.
A country’s overshoot day marks the date when Earth Overshoot Day would fall if all of humanity consumed at the same level as the people in that country.
This is different from a country's deficit day which refers to the date by which the residents of the country begin to demand more than their country’s ecosystems can provide in the entire year.
What that means is that we are effectively in debt to the planet and borrowing resources from future years. The Earth Overshoot Day is predicted to fall on 17 July (the exact date will be confirmed in June). Humankind as a whole is using roughly 1.7 times more natural resources than the planet can regenerate in the same time frame.
In the UK that date falls earlier with every passing year. Back in 2000 it was 17 September, but by 2020 – despite the impact of lockdown – it was 22 August. Population growth has been a contributing factor but ultimately it comes down to ongoing mass overconsumption. Indeed, it may surprise you to learn the UK Overshoot Day is three days earlier than China’s.
How is Earth Overshoot Day calculated?
The Global Footprint Network calculates Earth Overshoot Day by dividing the Earth’s biocapacity (the natural resources produced each year) by humanity’s ecological footprint (the natural resources we consume each year), and then multiplying by 365.
To better understand where biodiversity risk and opportunities show up in your business, it is well worth reading Why Nature Matters to Accountants, a publication created by the Global Accounting Alliance, with input from ICAS among other institutes.
Missing the target
This month marks another milestone in a startling and worrying trend. The UK hits its Overshoot Day for 2025 on 20 May – that’s the date when the planet’s biocapacity would be exhausted if every country consumed natural resources at the same level as the UK.
What that means is that we are effectively in debt to the planet and borrowing resources from future years. The Earth Overshoot Day is predicted to fall on 17 July (the exact date will be confirmed in June). Humankind as a whole is using roughly 1.7 times more natural resources than the planet can regenerate in the same time frame.
In the UK that date falls earlier with every passing year. Back in 2000 it was 17 September, but by 2020 – despite the impact of lockdown – it was 22 August. Population growth has been a contributing factor but ultimately it comes down to ongoing mass overconsumption. Indeed, it may surprise you to learn the UK Overshoot Day is three days earlier than China’s.
How is Earth Overshoot Day calculated?
The Global Footprint Network calculates Earth Overshoot Day by dividing the Earth’s biocapacity (the natural resources produced each year) by humanity’s ecological footprint (the natural resources we consume each year), and then multiplying by 365.
Quantum leap
You may not have noticed, but World Quantum Day was on 14 April. Yes, that really is a thing.
While we have all heard about the ways in which AI is changing the world, that is as nothing compared with the quantum computing revolution. Quantum computing, we are told, will see vast amounts of data processed at warp speed and far more efficiently than with AI. Or at least that is the promise fuelling the hype.
In September 2024, Microsoft announced a collaboration with Atom to build the world’s most powerful commercial quantum machine. In China, meanwhile, researchers say they have broken new ground by using a real quantum computer to fine-tune an AI model. In maths problem-solving tests, its accuracy rose from 68% to 82%.
Meanwhile, the UK government has just announced an investment of £121m in quantum technology to tackle crime, fraud and money laundering.
There is scepticism, however, about whether quantum computing is simply a nut that can’t be cracked. Anyone who has followed this story will know that a breakthrough in quantum has been “just around the corner” for well over a decade. Will this time be any different?
Quantum leap
You may not have noticed, but World Quantum Day was on 14 April. Yes, that really is a thing.
While we have all heard about the ways in which AI is changing the world, that is as nothing compared with the quantum computing revolution. Quantum computing, we are told, will see vast amounts of data processed at warp speed and far more efficiently than with AI. Or at least that is the promise fuelling the hype.
In September 2024, Microsoft announced a collaboration with Atom to build the world’s most powerful commercial quantum machine. In China, meanwhile, researchers say they have broken new ground by using a real quantum computer to fine-tune an AI model. In maths problem-solving tests, its accuracy rose from 68% to 82%.
Meanwhile, the UK government has just announced an investment of £121m in quantum technology to tackle crime, fraud and money laundering.
There is scepticism, however, about whether quantum computing is simply a nut that can’t be cracked. Anyone who has followed this story will know that a breakthrough in quantum has been “just around the corner” for well over a decade. Will this time be any different?
CAs in the news: Awards special
We celebrate three CAs who have been shortlisted for the Finance & Accountancy Business Awards, aka the Fabbies
Peter Cowan CA
Senior Audit and Accounts Manager, Hall Morrice
Aged 31, Peter Cowan CA is set to become Hall Morrice’s youngest-ever Director of Audit and Accounting. On being nominated in the Rising Star category, he said: “I am delighted that what we are doing at Hall Morrice is being celebrated through these awards.”
Kathryn Groundwater CA
UK Finance Manager, Flotation Energy
Flotation Energy, an ambitious offshore wind developer with a global portfolio that covers both fixed and floating developments, has projects in the UK, Ireland, Taiwan and Japan. Kathryn Groundwater CA, who joined the pioneering company in February 2023, has been shortlisted in the category of Excellence in Finance.
Adam Wilson CA
Financial Controller, Trojan Energy
Adam Wilson CA joined Aberdeen-based Trojan Energy in January 2024. The company provides EV charging solutions to local authorities around the country, and its products are designed in association with Disability Rights UK to make sure they don’t impede pavement users. Wilson has also been shortlisted in the Excellence in Finance category.
Star time
As you will see elsewhere in these pages, we have now launched CA Rising Stars 2025, celebrating those CAs aged 35 and under who are making great strides in the profession.
Whenever I talk to somebody about what I do for a living as editor of CA magazine, I have to start by explaining what a CA is – and it’s not uncommon for me to be met with a blank look. Then I explain what a CA does, often rattling off a list of ICAS members who we’ve interviewed since I first joined the magazine five years ago, initially as a writer, then as Editor. They include…
- The COO for the London Marathon
- The first woman to win Countdown in 27 years
- The CEO of a world-famous high-street fashion chain
- A tech pioneer who created the first platform for paid music downloads
- The project manager for the Uefa Women’s Euros 2022
- The CFO of the Bank of England
- The founder of a company improving mobility and accessibility for people with disabilities
- The COO of the Scottish FA
- The first Muslim woman to sit on the FA Council
- The CEO of the company that publishes the Beano
- The CFO of the Scottish National Trust
- The CEO of the 2022 Commonwealth Games
We have also featured numerous CAs working at big firms who have led the way on programmes aimed at improving understanding and awareness of neurological conditions or boosting social mobility and diversity. And then there are the CAs who started their own accounting practices or founded a business. Or those who provide crucial financial advice – many of them pro bono – to charities, some of which can be brilliant at raising money but less adept at managing it.
And, when I rattle off that list, or even an abbreviated version of it, then I get a reaction.
We also promote those interviews on social media, because we feel it’s important to reach the widest possible audience – and hopefully challenge some of the tired old stereotypes about the accountancy profession.
That is why I’m so excited about CA Rising Stars 2025. Because it will provide a platform to share so many compelling stories about ICAS members – and, by extension, ICAS and the CA qualification.
So if you are a CA aged 35 or under, or you work alongside a CA you feel is worthy of wider credit for their achievements, please do consider making a nomination. That way, they – or you – will get the recognition so richly deserved.
Ryan Herman
Star time
As you will see elsewhere in these pages, we have now launched CA Rising Stars 2025, celebrating those CAs aged 35 and under who are making great strides in the profession.
Whenever I talk to somebody about what I do for a living as editor of CA magazine, I have to start by explaining what a CA is – and it’s not uncommon for me to be met with a blank look. Then I explain what a CA does, often rattling off a list of ICAS members who we’ve interviewed since I first joined the magazine five years ago, initially as a writer, then as Editor. They include…
- The COO for the London Marathon
- The first woman to win Countdown in 27 years
- A tech pioneer who created the first platform for paid music downloads
- The project manager behind the Uefa Women’s Euros 2022
- The CFO of the Bank of England
- The founder of a company improving mobility and accessibility for people with disabilities
- The COO of the Scottish FA
- The first Muslim woman to sit on the FA Council
- The CEO of the company that publishes the Beano
- The CFO of the Scottish National Trust
- The CEO of the 2022 Commonwealth Games
We have also featured numerous CAs working at big firms who have led the way on programmes aimed at improving understanding and awareness of neurological conditions or to improve social mobility and diversity. And then there are the CAs who started their accounting practices or founded their own businesses. Or those who provide crucial financial advice to charities, some of which can be brilliant at raising money but less adept at managing it.
We have also featured numerous CAs working at big firms who have led the way on programmes aimed at improving understanding and awareness of neurological conditions or boosting social mobility and diversity. And then there are the CAs who started their own accounting practices or founded a business. Or those who provide crucial financial advice – many of them pro bono – to charities, some of which can be brilliant at raising money but less adept at managing it.
And, when I rattle off that list, or even an abbreviated version of it, then I get a reaction.
We also promote those interviews on social media, because we feel it’s important to reach the widest possible audience – and hopefully challenge some of the tired old stereotypes about the accountancy profession.
That is why I’m so excited about CA Rising Stars 2025. Because it will provide a platform to share so many compelling stories about ICAS members – and, by extension, ICAS and the CA qualification.
So if you are a CA aged 35 or under, or you work alongside a CA you feel is worthy of wider credit for their achievements, please do consider making a nomination. That way, they – or you – will get the recognition so richly deserved.
Ryan Herman
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