The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants said it will stop allowing students to take online exams, beginning in March, in response to a rise in cheating.
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Since introducing remote testing during the pandemic, cheating scandals have arisen at Big Four Firms EY, KPMG, Deloitte and PwC, as well as other major firms. The ACCA said that online tests have become too difficult to police, especially given students’ access to artificial intelligence tools. Candidates will be required to sit assessments in person, with certain exceptions.
“We’re seeing the sophistication of [cheating] systems outpacing what can be put in, [in] terms of safeguards,” Helen Brand, chief executive of the ACCA, told the Financial Times.”
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The ACCA is the world’s largest accounting body, with over 257,900 members.
Cheating scandals
The accounting profession is facing an ongoing talent shortage. And while remote testing made the profession more accessible for many, Brand said the issue has reached a “tipping point” with the rapid development of technology.
In 2022, EY paid a $100 million penalty to the Securities and Exchange Commission for cheating on exams required to obtain and maintain CPA licenses. The firm admitted that, for multiple years, a significant number of their audit professionals cheated on the ethics component of CPA exams and various CPE courses.
In 2024, KPMG’s firm in the Netherlands and Deloitte’s firms in Indonesia and the Philippines collectively paid $27 million in fines to the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board for cheating on exams and sharing answers.
And in February 2025, PwC Israel paid the PCAOB $2.8 million in fines to the PCAOB for widespread exam cheating.
