PwC partners split over leaked paper

Following the leaking of an internal PricewaterhouseCoopers document calling for a halt to the harmonisation of US and international accounting standards, some partners at the firm have taken issue with the sentiments revealed in it.

The paper, which was leaked to the Financial Times attacked the need to converge international accounting standards and said the International Accounting Standards Board should focus on its own rules, rather than focus on aligning itself with US standards.

However partners outside the UK, as well as some in London, back the creation of a single set of global standards putting them at odds with UK-based partners who fear convergence will result in US-style standards.

Yesterday, Rob Ward, the US-based global managing partner at PwC sought to portray a unified stance saying the firm was ‘fully supportive of international financial reporting standards'.

But according to the FT, doubts still linger among London-based partners, with one partner quoted as saying: ‘We may end up with a single view. Or we may say that viewed from one side of the Atlantic it looks like this, and from the other it looks like that'.