On January 22, 2014, an administrative law judge for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") ruled that the Chinese firms affiliated with the Big Four accounting firms, which are PwC, Deloitte, KPMG and Ernst & Young, should be denied the privilege of practicing or appearing before the SEC for a period of six months, which means that a company could not use an audit report by these firms to satisfy their SEC filing obligations.