PwC | |
Company type | Members have different legal structures; both UK and US firms are limited liability partnerships |
Industry | Professional services |
Founded | 1998 (PricewaterhouseCoopers) 1849 (Price Waterhouse) 1854 (Coopers & Lybrand)[1] |
Founders | Samuel Lowell Price Edwin Waterhouse William Cooper |
Headquarters | London, England |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | Mohamed Kande (Chairman)[2] |
Services | Assurance Risk assurance Risk advisory Tax advisory Legal services Data and analytics Management consulting Digital Transformation Financial advisory Forensic accounting |
Revenue | US$55.4 billion (2024)[3] |
Number of employees | 370,000 (2024)[3] |
Website | www |
PricewaterhouseCoopers International Limited[4] is a multinational professional services brand of firms, operating as partnerships under the PwC brand. It is the second-largest professional services network in the world[5] and is considered one of the Big Four accounting firms, along with Deloitte, EY, and KPMG.[6]
PwC firms are in 149 countries, with 370,000 people.[3] As of 2019,[update] 26% of the workforce was based in the Americas, 26% in Asia, 32% in Western Europe, and 5% in Middle East and Africa.[7] The company's global revenues were US$50.3 billion in FY 2022, of which $18.0 billion was generated by its Assurance practice, $11.6 billion by its Tax and Legal practice and $20.7 billion by its Advisory practice.[8] The firm in its recent actual form was created in 1998 by a merger between two accounting firms: Coopers & Lybrand, and Price Waterhouse.[1] Both firms had histories dating back to the 19th century. The trading name was shortened to PwC in September 2010 as part of a rebranding effort.[9]
The firm has been embroiled in a number of corruption controversies and crime scandals. The firm has on multiple occasions been implicated in tax evasion and tax avoidance practices. The firm has frequently been fined by regulators for performing audits that fail to meet basic auditing standards. Amid Russia's war in Ukraine, PwC assisted Russian oligarchs to hide their wealth and contributed to bypassing global sanctions placed on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.[10][11]