Ukraine’s central bank has removed PwC from the register of accounting firms authorised to audit banks, in effect from 20 July.
The decision was made upon the recommendation of the Committee on the Audit of Ukrainian Banks.
A statement released by The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) stated that PwC had verified “misrepresented financial information in the financial statements of CB PRIVATBANK PJSC.”
The Big 4 firm’s failure to identify improper activities led to a $5.5.bn hole in the balance-sheet of PrivatBank.
The NBU pointed to the firm’s failure “to highlight the credit risk exposure faced by PRIVATBANK PJSC, which led to the bank being declared insolvent and nationalized, with substantial recapitalization costs borne by the state.”
PrivatBank, Ukraine’s biggest commercial bank, was audited by PwC from the 1990s until last year when it was nationalised, following claims of its “imprudent” lending policy.
PwC commented that they were “very disappointed” by the decision and will “examine all options for reversing this decision”.
The news follows a tough period for PwC, as recently the FRC launched an investigation into it’s audits of BT Italia.
This is despite the fact that PwC topped the list of best quality audits out of the top 6 firms.
PwC have also recently appointed 52 new partners.