Britain’s financial regulator fined audit firm PwC £15-million on Friday for failing to alert the watchdog that London Capital & Finance might be involved in fraudulent activity ahead of its costly collapse for taxpayers.
PwC, one of the world’s “Big Four” auditors, encountered “significant issues” through its 2016 audit of LCF, the investment firm that collapsed in early 2019, the Financial Conduct Authority said on Friday. The FCA, which in February banned and fined a former director of LCF, said that a senior individual at LCF “acted aggressively towards auditors”, and the firm provided PwC with “inaccurate and misleading information”.
LCF’s collapse led to a damning independent review of the FCA, resulting in an internal shake-up at the watchdog.