Ernst Young, formerly known as Ernst Young, announced it stopped working on the project due to its US arm's decision not to move forward.
If the deal, called Project Everest internally, had gone through, it would have been the biggest shake-up in the accountancy industry for more than two decades.
We acknowledge the challenges with separating some of our businesses that have the deepest technical expertise in a way that gives both organisations the capabilities they need to compete in the market effectively, the BBC said.
We also realize that we need more time to make the necessary investments to prepare the businesses for a separation. The US, UK and Europe have raised concerns about large accounting firms, claiming they cannot properly serve as an auditor of clients who also use their consultancy services.
The SEC has fined EY $100 m because its auditors were caught cheating on the exam required to obtain and maintain their certification.
It's simply outrageous that the very professionals responsible for catching cheating by clients cheated on ethics exams of all things, said Gurbir Grewal, the SEC's enforcement director.