The Accountancy and Actuarial Discipline Board of the UK’s Financial Reporting Council has fined PricewaterhouseCoopers, auditors to JP Morgan Securities in London, £1.4 million ($2.2 million), reduced from £2 million for co-operation and other mitigation.

The action relates to JPMS’s failure to comply with the Financial Services Authority’s rules governing the segregation and protection of client money over a period of seven years. JP Morgan uncovered the omission in 2009 and reported it to PwC and the FSA; the UK regulator fined the bank £33.3 million in 2010.

PwC accepted that it did not carry out its professional work in relation to these reports with due skill, care and diligence so that it wrongly reported that JPMS had maintained systems adequate to enable it to comply with the client money rules throughout the relevant period and was in compliance with the client money rules.