PCAOB imposed $35 million in fines in 2024

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board imposed over $35 million in fines in 2024.

Last year was a big year for the PCAOB with modernizing standards, ramping up inspections and expanding engagement. The Board particularly ramped up its enforcement program.

In mainland China and Hong Kong, the PCAOB revoked the registration of a firm for repeatedly violating rules and failing to cooperate with the Board’s investigation, and fined KPMG China partners $150,000 for violating audit standards.

In April, the PCAOB also levied a $27 million fine against KPMG Netherlands for cheating on exams and sharing answers, making it the largest civil money penalty in the history of the Board.

Standards and rules

In 2024, the PCAOB adopted new standards, rules or amendments that addressed:

• Quality control at audit firms, approved by the SEC;
• General responsibilities of the auditor in conducting an audit, approved by the SEC;
• Aspects of designing and performing audit procedures that involve technology-assisted analysis of information in electronic form, approved by the SEC;
• PCAOB Rule 3502 governing liability for contributing to audit firm violations, approved by the SEC;
• Usefulness of audit firm registration information;
• Public reporting of standardized metrics at the firm and engagement level; and,
• The PCAOB’s framework for collecting information from audit firms.

Inspections

The PCAOB inspected 232 audit firms and over 920 audits across domestic, annual, domestic triannual, international and broker-dealer audits. Of the total number of inspections, 79 firms and more than 220 audits were international.

The PCAOB published more staff publications than ever before, enhanced its website with new online charts, issued 2023 inspection reports early, and launched new resources for small firms.

Engagement

The Board hosted 13 events to engage with stakeholders in 2024, including conferences, webinars, and advisory and working group meetings. It also held one-on-one meetings with over 250 audit committee chairs. 

Additionally, the PCAOB held four iterations of its Forum for Auditors of Small Businesses and Broker-Dealers event. All events were hosted in person by a PCAOB board member, with chair Erica Williams hosting in Chicago, George Botic in Los Angeles, Kara Stein in Denver and Anthony Thompson in Jersey City, New Jersey. A fourth forum was scheduled to be held by Christina Ho in Miami but was postponed due to Hurricane Milton; it was rescheduled for March 2025.

The PCAOB also selected 676 students from U.S. colleges to receive a $15,000 scholarship in the 2024-2025 academic year — the largest group of recipients and the greatest scholarship amount in the program’s history.

Twelve of the 2024 scholars were selected from Historically Black Colleges and Universities. More than 60% of the total cohort were women and nearly half self-identified as an underrepresented group in the accounting profession.