“The regulator for American auditing firms said on Thursday that it had found serious problems with procedures at PricewaterhouseCoopers and that the firm had failed to remedy them.

“It was the second time a major audit firm suffered such a stinging rebuke from the Public Company Accounting Ovesrsight Board, created by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in 2002 in response to accounting scandals at Enron and WorldCom. Deloitte was similarly criticized in late 2011.

“Legally, the board’s action has no impact on the firm. But it comes on the heels of criticism of the major audit firms from regulators around the world who have expressed doubts that the firms are sufficiently independent from, and skeptical of, company managements.

“Using carefully worded language, the board said there were reasons to doubt PricewaterhouseCoopers did adequate audits in 2008 and 2009.”

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