The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has released a report finding violations of conflict-of-interest rules at the auditing, accounting and consulting agency PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). "The report finds significant violations of the firm's, the profession's and the SEC's auditor independence rules" and concludes that "a substantial number of PwC professionals, particularly partners, had violations of the independence rules, and many had multiple violations," the SEC said in a statement released Thursday.

"Almost half of the PwC partners - 1,301 out of a total of 2,698 - self-reported at least one independence violation," according to the report, and "PwC acknowledges that the review disclosed widespread independence non-compliance that reflected serious structural and cultural problems in the firm." The violations stemmed largely from partners' and other employees' holding investments in the companies they were auditing.