PwC Mexico has been fined $100,000 by PCAOB for auditor independence
The US Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) has censured PwC and imposed a civil penalty of $100,000 on the company. PwC SC, the accountant’s Mexican office, signed an engagement letter with Banco Santander Mexico in June 2016. However, at least six partners of PwC Mexico had personal financial relationships with the bank.
In addition to the penalty, the PCAOB requires PwC to take steps to establish, implement and monitor policies and procedures to provide reasonable assurance regarding compliance with auditor independence requirements and audit committee communications requirements.
The six partners were located in the office where the lead audit engagement partner for the engagement primarily worked, so they were Covered Persons and three of the six partners had a prohibited debtor-creditor relationship with Banco Santander Mexico.
Although the debtor-creditor relationships were discovered by PwC and settled in September 2015, uninsured brokerage interests were not immediately identified and were not settled until around June 2018, two years after the engagement letter. During those two years, the company issued audit reports on the bank’s 2016 and 2017 accounts and in both audit reports, PwC had confirmed that it was independent of the bank.
“PCAOB fines PwC Mexico $100,000 for breach of auditor independence” was originally created and published by International Accounting Bulletina brand owned by GlobalData.
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