Voting on the proposed separation of the audit and consulting businesses, which was approved in September, was set to start this month with balloting of the big four firm’s UK and US partners to go first.

However, this has now been delayed as legal details of how the split will work are still under discussion, covering specifics of how assets, liabilities and people will be split between the businesses.

It was also revealed this week that Carmine Di Sibio, EY’s global chairman and CEO, has had his term extended by a further two years to allow him to oversee the split, should it go ahead. His current four-year term was due to expire in June 2023.

The firm’s leaders still expect voting procedures to be completed in early 2023, February or March, and an IPO of the US consulting business could happen later in the year, The Financial Times reports.