US securities regulators levied fines totalling more than $7m against three China-based auditors for a variety of offenses including issuing a false audit report.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, which oversees auditors of public companies listed on US exchanges, announced on 30 November that it had imposed fines against PwC China and PwC Hong Kong for “improper answer sharing” by hundreds of employees on tests for mandatory internal training courses.