PricewaterhouseCoopers(PwC) has been fined record ₤1.4 million ($2.8 million) for not disclosing JP Morgan Securities’ concerning its client money. The case was brought up by the Accountancy and Actuarial Discipline Board(AADB). This is a sign of how the regulators are taking a harder line on auditors, seen by policymakers as being too soft on banks in the run-up to the financial crisis.
The Accountancy & Actuarial Discipline Board said in its judgment that PwC failed to notice that J.P. Morgan Securities Ltd. hadn’t properly segregated an average of $8.6 billion of client funds from the firm’s accounts in reports to the U.K.’s Financial Services Authority for the seven years through 2008.
In 2010 the Financial Services Authority slapped a record £33.32m ($66.64) fine on JPMorgan Securities for failing to keep client money separate from the firm’s money over a seven-year period to July 2009.
