SEC Bars Big Four From Auditing Chinese Companies

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has ruled that the Chinese affiliates of the Big Four accounting firms (Ernst & Young, KPMG, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu) may not audit US listed companies, a decision that will create significant difficulties for Chinese companies listed in the US and US companies with major Chinese operations, reports Kathy Chu for The Wall Street Journal.

Big Four affiliates will continue services for now

The decision won’t go into immediate effect, and for now the Big Four firms have said that they will continue to provide auditing services to their Chinese clients while...