PwC partners raking it in

Partners at PwC have seen their annual pay rocket to more than £750,000 each – despite a string of scandals.

the accountancy giant said the average amount paid to each partner jumped 7pc to £765,000 this year, compared with £712,000 in 2018.

Profits at PwC rose from £1.2bn to nearly £1.3bn, as a growing number of its clients sought help with introducing digital technologies into their businesses.

the bonanza at the auditor comes after one of its rivals was last month accused of handing out ‘rewards for failure’. Deloitte gave staff their biggest pay increase in a decade, hiking their annual payouts 6pc from £832,000 to £882,000.

the bumper pay in the industry came despite the auditors presiding over a series of highprofile accounting disasters.

In June, PwC was fined £4.6m by the Financial Conduct authority for missing a huge black hole in the finances of It firm redcentric, while Deloitte was ordered to pay £4.2m in July for failing to spot an accounting scandal at outsourcer serco. such debacles have raised questions about the quality of audits carried out by PwC, Deloitte and the other big four firms KPMG and eY, with a report by the Competition and Markets authority calling for the firms to be broken up.

this would separate their auditing businesses from the more lucrative consultancy arms. Ministers are considering the proposals in a consultation that closed last Friday.

Yesterday PwC said it had ‘responded constructively’ to reviews of the audit industry.