US securities regulators and the Chinese affiliates of the Big Four accounting firms are in settlement talks over access to the firms’ documents concerning their Chinese clients, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing a filing issued by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Chinese arms of PwC, Deloitte, KPMG and Ernst & Young have been in “continued settlement efforts” with the SEC since the firms’ refused to hand over documents about Chinese audit clients, resulting in a six-month suspension from auditing US-traded companies issued in January. The SEC has sought to review such documents for several years.
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