The Dutch arms of Deloitte, PwC and EY have been sanctioned for widespread exam cheating on internal training programmes which went on for six years until it was discovered in 2022.

The action by the US audit regulator sees Deloitte, EY and PwC, all in the Netherlands, fined a total of $8.5m (£6.2m) after staff abused online exam systems, trading answers and cheating on exams, which were a mandatory part of their training from juniors to partner level.

Deloitte Netherlands and PwC Netherlands were each fined $3m (£2.2m), while EY Netherlands was given a slightly lower fine of $2.5m (£1.8m) as none of their partners or members of the senior EY leadership team were involved in the misconduct.