The world's largest professional services firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers, has been fined a record £1.4m after the failure of investment bank JP Morgan to protect billions of pounds of its clients' assets.

PricewaterhouseCoopers admitted to the Accountancy and Actuarial Discipline Board (AADB) that its standards had been called into question after it allowed the UK securities arm of JP Morgan to appear to opperate under rules requiring client money to be kept separate from the bank's own funds between 2002 and 2008.

The fine of £1.4m is the biggest levied by accountancy regulators in the UK. Penalties usually range from £17,000 to £500,000.