PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) is a multinational professional services network headquartered in London. As the second-largest professional services network globally, it is recognized as one of the Big Four accounting firms, alongside Deloitte, EY, and KPMG. PricewaterhouseCoopers International Limited, a private company limited by guarantee in England, oversees the PwC network.
In 1904, the original British firm of Price Waterhouse opened an office in Liverpool, expanding throughout the United Kingdom and worldwide.
Since 1935, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) has utilized the services of PwC to tally the votes for the Academy Awards.
In 1957, Cooper Brothers, Lybrand, Ross Bros & Montgomery, and McDonald, Currie and Co. agreed to adopt the name Coopers & Lybrand for international practice.
In 1964, the Civil Rights Act was cited in the Supreme Court ruling on Hopkins's employment case.
In 1973, the member firms in the UK, US, and Canada changed their names to Coopers & Lybrand.
In 1975, the firm relocated from Frederick's Place to modern offices at Southwark Towers in London Bridge Street.
In 1980, Coopers & Lybrand expanded its expertise in insolvency by acquiring Cork Gully, a leading firm in that field in the UK.
In 1985, the firm relocated from George Street to modern offices at Plumtree Court, designed by Dennis Lennon & Partners.
In 1989, PW and Arthur Andersen discussed a merger to take advantage of economies of scale, but negotiations failed due to conflicts of interest such as Andersen's links with IBM and PW's audit of IBM, as well as different cultures.
In 1989, the United States Supreme Court held that Price Waterhouse must prove that the decision regarding Ann Hopkins's employment would have been the same if sex discrimination had not occurred. The accounting firm failed to prove that the decision to postpone Hopkins's promotion would have been made without sex discrimination, which constituted discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
In 1990, a Federal district judge in Washington ordered the firm to make Hopkins a partner. It was the first time in which a court awarded partnership in a professional company as a remedy for sexual or race-based discrimination.
In 1990, in certain countries including the UK, Coopers & Lybrand merged with Deloitte, Haskins & Sells to become Coopers & Lybrand Deloitte.
In 1992, Coopers & Lybrand Deloitte reverted to Coopers & Lybrand.
In 1994, the firm moved to new offices designed by Terry Farrell at Embankment Place.
In September 1998, Coopers & Lybrand merged with Price Waterhouse.
In 1998, Price Waterhouse and Coopers & Lybrand merged to form PricewaterhouseCoopers.
In 1998, PwC was created through a merger between Coopers & Lybrand and Price Waterhouse.
In 1998, a secret project began within the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) administration to improve the water system with a World Bank loan.
ChuoAoyama Audit Corporation was the Japanese affiliate of assurance service of PwC from April 2000 to 2006.
Around July 2000, PwC began preparing for either an acquisition or IPO by developing separate financial records for due diligence.
In 2001, after an investigation by Parivartan, the contract for privatizing Delhi's water system was awarded to PwC, following pressure from the World Bank during the bidding process.
In May 2002, PwC announced that PwC Consulting would be spun off as an independent entity and filed with the SEC for an initial $1B IPO to trade in August.
In June 2002, PwC Consulting hired Greg Brenneman, formerly of Continental Airlines, as CEO to run the global division.
In July 2002, it was rumored that PwC was in talks with an unknown public company, as no PR space or announcement for the impending IPO had been set.
In August 2002, PwC announced it sold Monday to IBM for approximately $3.5 billion in cash and stock; Monday was consolidated into IBM Global Business Services.
Between 2002 and 2010, PwC helped multinational companies obtain 548 legal tax rulings in Luxembourg, providing assurance that their tax-saving plans would be viewed favorably, resulting in billions of dollars in tax savings.
In 2002, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) was passed, which limited the overlap between management consulting and auditing services and reduced the Big Five accounting firms down to the Big Four.
In 2003, PwC was associated with the accounting scandal at the India-based DSQ Software, which collapsed.
In November 2004, Parivartan first approached the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) following a report in The Asian Age newspaper which revealed a scheme. The DJB initially denied the project's existence but later granted an RTI request.
In March 2005, AIG said that deals with a Barbados-based insurance company may have been incorrectly accounted for over the past 14 years, because an AIG-affiliated company may have been secretly covering that insurer's losses.
From 2005, PwC audited Quinn Insurance Limited which went into administration in 2010.
In 2005, an investigation conducted by Arvind Kejriwal and Parivartan revealed that PwC was unethically favored by the World Bank in a bid to privatize the water distribution system of Delhi, India. The investigation alleged corruption in the process.
In May 2006, the Financial Services Agency of Japan suspended ChuoAoyama Audit Corporation from provision of some statutory auditing services for two months following the collapse of cosmetics company Kanebo. Three of the partners were found assisting with accounting fraud for hiding deficits of about $1.9 billion over the course of five years.
In September 2006, ChuoAoyama resumed operations under the Misuzu name, following its suspension. By this time, the combined firm of PricewaterhouseCoopers Aarata and Misuzu had 30% fewer clients than ChuoAoyama had prior to its suspension.
In 2006, Cattles plc was audited by PwC, later resulting in legal action from Cattles due to alleged inadequate investigations.
In March 2007, police raided PwC's Moscow offices, confiscating documents related to Yukos and charging and convicting PwC of failing to pay 243 million rubles, or $9.4 million, in taxes. However, less than two weeks later authorities cleared PwC of any wrongdoing in regard to its audit.
In July 2007, Misuzu was dissolved. Misuzu was the firm that ChuoAoyama resumed operations under after its suspension.
In July 2007, PwC agreed to pay US$229 million to settle a class-action lawsuit brought by shareholders of Tyco International Ltd. The lawsuit was related to a multibillion-dollar accounting fraud, where Tyco's chief executive and chief financial officer were found guilty of looting $600 million from the company.
In 2007, Cattles plc was audited by PwC, later resulting in legal action from Cattles due to alleged inadequate investigations.
In 2007, Joe Nocera wrote in the New York Times about the alleged complicity of PricewaterhouseCoopers with prosecutors in bringing new charges against Mikhail B. Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev.
In 2007, PwC was criticised by the Treasury Select Committee of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for helping Northern Rock, a client of the firm, to sell its mortgage assets while also acting as its auditor.
In 2007, shopping center giant Centro understated its liabilities by more than $3 billion.
In 2007, the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) issued a fine of £2.3m on PwC and ordered the firm to pay £750,000 costs following their investigation of the 2007 audits of Cattles and its principal trading subsidiary. PwC admitted that their conduct fell significantly short of expected standards.
In 2007, the ICAI found partners of PwC guilty of professional negligence in under-providing for nonperforming assets of the now-defunct Global Trust Bank. As a result, the RBI banned PwC from auditing any financial company for over a year.
During the 2008 financial crisis, Northern Rock, a client of PwC, was rescued by the UK government.
In 2008, Centro almost collapsed when it was unable to refinance its debt during the financial crisis. PwC was Centro's auditor and admitted negligence.
In the 2008 financial crisis, PwC was criticized after the insurer AIG was unable to fulfil its collateral obligations to Goldman Sachs.
Until 2008, PwC audited Quinn Insurance Limited which went into administration in 2010.
In January 2009, PwC was criticised, along with the promoters of Satyam, an Indian IT firm listed on the NASDAQ, in a $1.5 billion fraud. PwC wrote a letter to the board of directors of Satyam that its audit may be rendered "inaccurate and unreliable" due to the disclosures made by Satyam's (ex) Chairman and subsequently withdrew its audit opinions.
Colonial Bank failed in 2009, after filing materially false financial information with the SEC.
In 2009, PwC began rebuilding its consulting practice with acquisitions such as Paragon Consulting Group and the commercial services business of BearingPoint.
In 2009, PwC conducted the audit of Connaught plc, which later led to a reprimand and fine from the FRC.
PwC began auditing Evergrande, a Chinese property company, in 2009.
In September 2010, the trading name was shortened to PwC as part of a rebranding effort.
The current PwC logo was introduced in September 2010, when the company changed its trading name from PricewaterhouseCoopers to PwC. It was designed by Wolff Olins.
In November 2010, PwC acquired Diamond Management & Technology Consultants.
In December 2010, following the completion of the ESPO pipeline construction, an official report suggested $4 billion was stolen by Transneft insiders. Alexei Navalny criticized PwC, Transneft's auditor, for ignoring his warnings, but PwC denied any wrongdoing.
Between 2002 and 2010, PwC helped multinational companies obtain 548 legal tax rulings in Luxembourg, providing assurance that their tax-saving plans would be viewed favorably, resulting in billions of dollars in tax savings.
During the 2010 Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission investigation into AIG's collapse in the 2008 financial crisis, PwC was criticized after the insurer was unable to fulfil its collateral obligations to Goldman Sachs. Witnesses wondered how PwC was signing off on the accounts for both AIG and Goldman Sachs when they were using different valuation methods for the swaps contracts.
In 2010, Connaught plc, a UK outsourcing company, was put into administration after reporting material losses.
In 2010, Joe Nocera in the New York Times discussed the legal issues of Mikhail B. Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev.
In 2010, Quinn Insurance Limited (QIL), which had been audited by PwC for the years 2005 to 2008, went into administration.
In 2010, it was revealed that the Russian government placed pressure on PwC to withdraw audits.
In August 2011, PwC acquired PRTM.
In October 2011, MF Global, a brokerage once run by former New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine, declared bankruptcy.
In 2011, a House of Lords inquiry criticized PwC for not drawing attention to the risks in the business model followed by Northern Rock.
In 2012, Centro and PwC paid a $200 million settlement to resolve the shareholder class action, the largest ever in Australia.
In 2012, PwC acquired Logan Tod & Co, a digital analytics and optimisation consultancy, and Ant's Eye View, a social media strategy development and consulting firm.
In 2012, PwC audited Tesco, which was later subject to investigation by the Financial Reporting Council due to Tesco's overstatement of profits.
In 2012, the AADB of the UK fined PwC a record £1.4m for wrongly reporting to the Financial Services Authority that JP Morgan Securities had complied with client money rules. PwC neglected to check whether JP Morgan had the correct systems in place and failed to gather sufficient evidence.
The Zondo Commission report on state capture in South Africa uncovered several instances of alleged corruption, fraud and mismanagement at South African Airways (SAA). The report found that PwC effectively enabled capture of SAA by failing to adequately audit its financial and accounting processes between 2012 and 2016.
In 2013, Cattles plc brought a legal action against PwC in the UK regarding the 2006 and 2007 audits, claiming inadequate investigations. Cattles later discovered control weaknesses that caused its loan book to be materially overstated.
In 2013, PwC UK's head of tax was called before the UK's public accounts committee and was questioned about lying regarding the marketing of tax avoidance schemes.
In 2013, PwC acquired BGT Partners.
In 2013, PwC audited Tesco, which was later subject to investigation by the Financial Reporting Council due to Tesco's overstatement of profits.
In April 2014, Booz & Company combined with PwC to form Strategy&.
In August 2014, PwC completed their audit of financial statements in which BHS was described as a going concern days before its sale.
In 2014, PwC UK's head of tax was called before the UK's public accounts committee and was questioned about lying regarding the marketing of tax avoidance schemes.
In 2014, Tesco announced that it had overstated profits by £263m. The Financial Reporting Council started an investigation into accounting practices at Tesco and into the conduct of PwC in carrying out its audits.
In 2014, an investigation revealed that PwC received $55 million from Caterpillar Inc. to develop a tax avoidance scheme. PwC helped Caterpillar Inc. reduce its taxes by shifting $8 billion in profits from the US to Switzerland, allegedly saving $2.4 billion in US taxes over a decade.
In 2015, PwC India expressed disappointment with the court judgement in the Satyam case, asserting that there was no evidence of involvement or awareness of the management-led fraud at Satyam by their former partners.
In 2015, PwC were replaced as auditors of Tesco, ending a 32-year engagement, following a tender process to which they did not participate.
In 2015, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation sued oil company Petrobras and accounting firm PwC's Brazil arm over investment losses due to corruption at the Brazilian oil company.
In June 2017, the Financial Reporting Council began an investigation of PwC's audits of BT covering the years 2015 through 2017.
In 2016, Luke Sayers, then CEO of PwC Australia, had the firm prepare a report projecting the excessive cost of a plebiscite on gay marriage. Mark Allaby, a senior executive at PwC, left the board of the religious lobbying organisation Australian Christian Lobby, a group campaigning against same-sex marriage, following public outrage and pressure from PwC Australia.
In 2016, PwC acquired technology/consulting firm NSI DMCC.
In 2016, PwC in the UK was investigated by the Financial Reporting Council over its conduct in relation to the audit of BHS for the year to 30 August 2014.
In 2016, PwC initiated charges against the two whistleblowers that revealed the LuxLeaks tax controversy. They were convicted and sentenced with suspended prison sentences and fined.
In 2016, a United States federal judge rejected PwC's bid to dismiss a $3 billion lawsuit accusing the accounting firm of professional malpractice for helping cause the October 2011 bankruptcy of MF Global.
In 2016, the government of Ukraine had had to rescue PrivatBank by nationalisation to protect its 20 million customers.
In July 2021, PwC was sued by administrators Alvarez and Marsal on behalf of JD Classics for negligence related to audits in 2016 and 2017.
The Zondo Commission report on state capture in South Africa uncovered several instances of alleged corruption, fraud and mismanagement at South African Airways (SAA). The report found that PwC effectively enabled capture of SAA by failing to adequately audit its financial and accounting processes between 2012 and 2016.
In January 2017, PwC announced a five-year agreement with GE to provide managed tax services to GE on a global basis, transferring more than 600 of GE's in-house global tax team to PwC.
In March 2017, a Luxembourg appeals court upheld the convictions of the two whistleblowers that revealed the LuxLeaks tax controversy, but with reduced sentences.
In March 2017, the board of governors for the Academy voted to retain the services of accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, despite the mix-up at the 89th Academy Awards, saying "new protocols have been established including greater oversight from PwC's U.S. chairman Tim Ryan."
In June 2017, the Financial Reporting Council began an investigation of PwC's audits of BT covering the years 2015 through 2017.
In June 2017, the Financial Reporting Council stated that there was no "realistic prospect" that a tribunal of the UK's accountancy watchdog would rule against the auditor PwC concerning its involvement in Tesco's 2014 case.
During November 2017, PwC was engaged in due diligence and valuation of the media company, MBC Group.
In November 2017, PwC accepted bitcoin as payment for advisory services, the first time the company, or any of the Big Four accounting firms, accepted virtual currency as payment.
In 2017, the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) severely reprimanded PwC and its audit partner following an investigation of their conduct in respect of the 2009 audit of Connaught. PwC was fined a record £5 million plus costs.
In July 2021, PwC was sued by administrators Alvarez and Marsal on behalf of JD Classics for negligence related to audits in 2016 and 2017.
PwC was fined for similar failures during the 2017 audit of Kier.
In 2018, PwC Australia CEO Luke Sayers was connected to perceived conflict of interest issues on a related to a personal investment in Australian Visa Processing (AVP), a company part-owned by PwC that was submitting a tender to redesign and run Australia's visa processing system.
In 2018, PwC was accused of disproportionately hiring younger workers and fostering "an age-conscious workplace in which youth is highly valued."
In 2018, PwC was banned by India's securities regulator from providing auditing services to public-listed companies for 2 years, and PwC was fined $2 million in addition to the suspension, related to the Satyam scandal.
In 2018, Veritas Capital acquired PwC's US public sector business and branded the new company as Guidehouse.
In 2018, a federal judge later ordered PwC to pay the FDIC $625 million related to the failure of Colonial Bank, the largest-ever judgement against a U.S. audit firm.
PwC was fined for failing to adequately challenge revenue and costs recognised by Galliford Try's management on large, complex long-term construction contracts during 2018 and 2019 audits.
In March 2019, a collective action related to an age discrimination case was certified by a federal judge in San Francisco.
In March 2019, the FDIC reached a $335 million settlement with PwC related to the failure of Colonial Bank.
In September 2019, the securities appellate tribunal overruled the ban on PwC by India's securities regulator, stating that there was no evidence of collusion of PwC in the Satyam scam and that SEBI had no jurisdiction over audit firms.
During 2019, PwC's US affiliate agreed to pay more than $7.9 million to its US regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) , to settle allegations that it improperly performed IT and other non-audit services for several audit clients.
PwC was fined for failing to adequately challenge revenue and costs recognised by Galliford Try's management on large, complex long-term construction contracts during 2018 and 2019 audits.
In 2020, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) leaked over 700,000 internal documents revealing that PwC had facilitated multiple dealings in which Isabel dos Santos made a fortune while in charge of Sonangol.
PwC signed off the 2020 accounts of Evergrande without reference to its uncertainties as a going concern.
In July 2021, PwC was sued by administrators Alvarez and Marsal on behalf of JD Classics for negligence related to audits in 2016 and 2017.
In October 2021, the accounting regulator in Hong Kong announced an investigation into PwC's audit of Evergrande.
By 2021, Evergrande had collapsed financially and set off the Chinese property sector crisis, which sparked questions about PwC's role in inflating the company's revenue prior to the firm's eventual bankruptcy.
In 2021, an investigation by the New York Times found that PwC staff sought employment at the Treasury Department where they pursued policies that helped PwC clients.
In February 2022, the state government of Kerala wrote to PwC in order to seek the refund of INR 16 Lacs paid in salary to Swapna Suresh, an employee accused of gold smuggling.
In April 2022, PwC responded to the Kerala government, stating that it could not repay the amount of INR 16 Lacs paid to Swapna Suresh as salary.
In June 2022, the UK's Financial Reporting Council fined PwC and a former partner, Jonathan Hook, over audit failures relating to construction firms Galliford Try and Kier Group.
In January 2023, PwC approved Americanas' balance sheets with accounting inconsistencies of around US$4 billion, causing volatility to the company's price on the Brazilian stock exchange and losses to the company's shareholders.
In July 2023, PwC completed an internal investigation after which eight partners, including former chief executive Tom Seymour, were removed from the partnership. Also in July 2023 PwC sold its Australian government consulting business to Allegro Funds for $1 with the business rebranded Scyne Advisory.
In 2023, PwC acquired Surfaceink, a hardware designer.
In 2023, it emerged that PwC was involved in helping Russian oligarchs to avoid sanctions.
In 2023, it was revealed that a PwC partner had been leaking confidential government tax plans to PwC after being a member of consultation groups set up by the Australian Treasury to improve tax laws.
In February 2024, Evergrade liquidators prepared for a potential lawsuit against PwC.
In September 2024, PwC ZhongTian, PwC's auditing business in China, was suspended for six months, had revenue confiscated, and fined by China's securities regulator.
In April 2025, PwC shut down its operations in nine African countries.
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