The National Bank of Ukraine Removes PricewaterhouseCoopers Audit LLC from the Register of Banks’ Auditors (updated)
21.07.2017 10:56 | National bank of Ukraine
The National Bank of Ukraine has removed
PricewaterhouseCoopers Audit LLC from the Register of accounting firms authorized
to audit banks. The decision to this effect was taken by the NBU Board on 20
July 2017 upon the recommendation from the Committee on the Audit of Ukrainian
Banks.
The rationale behind this decision was
PricewaterhouseCoopers Audit LLC’s verification of misrepresented financial
information in the financial statements of CB PRIVATBANK PJSC. In particular,
this concerns information on credit exposure and regulatory capital reported by
the bank.
The audit findings by PricewaterhouseCoopers
Audit LLC failed to highlight risks faced by PRIVATBANK PJSC, which led to the bank being declared insolvent and nationalized, with substantial
recapitalization costs borne by the state.
The NBU is authorized to remove accounting firms
from the Register of banks’ auditors in accordance with Article 7 of the Law of
Ukraine On the National Bank of Ukraine,
Article 70 of the Law of Ukraine On Banks and Banking and NBU
regulations. The regulator’s practice of barring accounting firms from auditing
banks is in line with international approaches and is in compliance with the
27th principle of the Basel Core Principles of Banking Supervision.
In 2015-2016, the NBU barred nine accounting firms
from auditing banks for audit policy violations.
For reference:
The Committee on the Audit of Ukrainian Banks is a
collegial body set up by the NBU. The Committee comprises nine members (six
representatives of the NBU, one representative of the Audit Chamber of Ukraine,
one representative of the National Securities and Stock Market Commission, and
one representative of the National Commission for the Regulation of Financial
Services Markets of Ukraine).