PwC Hong Kong was fined $4m (£3.1m) following an inspection last year, while a $3m (£2.3m) fine was imposed on PwC China, trading as PricewaterhouseCoopers Zhong Tian LLP. This was the highest ever fine imposed by the US Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) on a Chinese based firm.

Erica Y Williams, chair of the PCAOB, said: ‘The two PwC global network firms violated the integrity and personnel management elements of the PCAOB quality control standards by failing to detect or prevent extensive, improper answer sharing on tests for mandatory internal training courses.’

From 2018 until 2020, over 1,000 individuals from PwC Hong Kong and hundreds of individuals from PwC China engaged in improper answer sharing by either providing or receiving access to answers through two unauthorised software applications, vLearn and Lifeistooshort.