SEC deal with accounting firms paves way for Chinese IPOs in US

Washington

US regulators have ended a three-year standoff that could have jeopardised the listings of hundreds of China-based companies trading in the United States.

The Chinese affiliates of the four largest accounting firms each agreed to pay US$500,000 to resolve Securities and Exchange Commission claims that they blocked investigations of accounting fraud by refusing to hand over documents, the SEC said in a statement on Friday.

The agency dropped six-month auditing bans as part of the deal.

The accord resolves what became a broader diplomatic row over whether Chinese laws prohibited companies from complying with US regulations. The conflict came to a head as the SEC ramped up probes of accounting fraud at dozens of companies based in China and listed in the …