China urges state firms to drop Big Four auditors on data risk – Bloomberg News

Chinese authorities have urged state-owned firms to phase out using the four biggest international accounting firms as Beijing seeks to rein in the influence of the Western audit firms, signaling continued concerns about data security, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday.

China’s Ministry of Finance is among government entities that gave informal guidance to some state-owned enterprises as recently as last month, urging them to let contracts with PwC, EY, KPMG and Deloitte expire, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter.

While offshore subsidiaries are allowed to use the global auditors, their parent firms were urged to hire local Chinese or Hong Kong accountants when contracts come up, one of the people told Bloomberg.

China’s Ministry of Finance and the Big Four firms did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.