The chairman of the ChuoAoyama PricewaterhouseCoopers board said Wednesday that both he and the deputy chairman will resign to take the responsibility for the firm's failure to prevent three of its accountants from conspiring in the earnings falsification at Kanebo Ltd., just hours after the auditor was slapped with a suspension order.

The disgraced firm also will change its name as a way of making a fresh start. It plans to solicit ideas from the public this summer.

Earlier in the day, the Financial Services Agency ordered ChuoAoyama, one of the country's four major auditing firms, to halt statutory auditing services for two months from July 1 for listed firms and those capitalized at 500 million yen or more for its role in the Kanebo window-dressing.