KPMG Chips in as Countrywide Picks up $600 Million in Settlement

Posted on by Caleb Newquist

Investors who lost money in King Oompa Loompa’s house of no hassle mortgages announced that they have reached a $624 million settlement with KPMG and Countrywide. Maybe that’s why the Kaptains of Klynveld were in such an optimistic mood.


KPMG’s share of the settlement was $24 million which hardly seems worth it. Think about it. Bank of America could probably cough up an extra $24 mil without any trouble and KPMG would probably be fine not cutting a check at all. It’s just like your friend that hassles with you over the check at, “My share was only $18.25.” Eventually you just tell them to f**k off and pay for the whole thing yourself.

BofA’s Countrywide in $624 mln lawsuit settlement [Reuters]

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KPMG’s Investment in Phil Mickelson Is Working Out Pretty Well, Sayeth KPMG’s Leadership

We just assumed that we had heard the last of the cubicle-side chats with KPMG’s leadership but lo and behold, this morning we find yet another convo with KPMG’s three amigos – T Fly, JVeih, Keizer Soze – sitting in the mailbag.

And yes, Phil comes up.


KPMGconversation

Okay, some thoughts –

In response to Inquisitor #1, Johnnie V. says “our goal is to make sure to not sell services into a company” but then qualifies by saying, “[Making] sure we’re bring the full suite of..services to help them deal with those issues and those problems.” In other words, there is a very fine line between hustling clients for more business and actually serving them to suit their needs.

Re: “Mid-market” – This can be summed up by saying: KPMG is having the most success winning smaller clients from the next tier firms.

And finally to the most important question – Inquisitor #3 thinks Phil is great and all but for the love of everything that is good and holy, are there any other plans to get the name out there? This Five Guys obsession has him worried.

Since Tim and Phil are BFFs, he’ll take this one…except he doesn’t say anything that really means anything. JVeih jumps in (no doubt give him the “WTF are you talking about?” look) to say that KPMG’s Mean Girls strategy is working and the firm is getting far more attention from CFOs than it was just one year ago. The rest of the Big 4 have plateaued and Phil has been instrumental in the glad-handing and back-slapping efforts.

Bonus Watch ’10: More Evidence That Promotions at KPMG Don’t Pay Like They Used To

From somewhere deep in the heart of Texas:

KPMG Dallas senior associate promotion bonus: $650 before tax. That’s down from $800 last year. Bullshit.


For those of you that don’t have a 10-ky handy, that’s a 19% drop. This correlates with the news from last month that the 1.25% for the summer bump and then a little follow up at fiscal year end.

Another source is seriously unmoved and makes an interesting point, “The bonus hardly pays for the charcoal so we can cook our Omaha Steaks.”

And just for the record, the freshly minted SAs get their new titles officially on July 1 but they should be comfortable correcting colleagues, family and clients for the next two weeks. Keep us updated.

UPDATE: Advisory out of NY chimes in:

KPMG NY Advisory Senior Associate announcements are being made by performance managers. Bonuses are a staggering $150 more then Dallas, thats $800 or 5.3% of the average salary here when annualized. I don’t dare think of what that comes to hourly with our SAS70 and Audit support busy season coming into swing.

KPMG Lands More Audit Work From Bridgewater Associates

Big win for the KPMG audit practice in New York as we’ve confirmed that the Asset Management group has won more audit work from the Westport, Connecticut hedge fund.

This week Institutional Investor compiled the largest 25 Hedge Funds and Bridgewater was at the top with $58.9 billion in hedge fund assets. Our source, someone familiar with matter, was impressed, “Huge win for them considering they’re typically fighting for 3rd in those major bids.” It’s our understanding that KPMG had some work from BW but adding more engagements will make for a prestigious addition to their client roster. Congrats to KPMG and the team that made it happen.