This study examines the impact of audit regulation in New Zealand, using audit quality reviews undertaken by the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) between 2013 and 2017. Regulation has more than halved the number of registered audit firms indicating that it imposes costs on audit firms. The results show that audit quality is improving, but a high proportion of audits do not meet the FMA's requirements. A key area for improvement is the consistency of quality across audits performed by the same audit firm. The FMA advises audit firms to investigate the underlying cause of audit deficiencies to ensure that internal quality control systems are effective in producing high‐quality audits on a regular basis. A comparison of audit file ratings with the United Kingdom shows that New Zealand's audit quality is much lower. The variation in audit quality across countries concerns the International Forum of Independent Audit Regulators (IFIAR) as it has the potential to undermine stakeholder confidence in the audit industry. Thus monitoring progress in improving audit quality in New Zealand is important. This paper provides insights into audit quality at a country level, whereas most research focuses on the firm level.

中文翻译：

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新西兰的审计质量–监管机构的早期证据

这项研究使用了金融市场管理局（FMA）在2013年至2017年之间进行的审计质量审查，研究了新西兰审计法规的影响。法规已将注册会计师事务所的数量减少了一半以上，这表明这将对会计师事务所造成成本。结果表明，审核质量正在提高，但是很大比例的审核不符合FMA的要求。改进的关键领域是同一家审计公司执行的所有审计的质量一致性。FMA建议审计公司调查审计缺陷的根本原因，以确保内部质量控制体系能够有效地定期进行高质量的审计。审计文件评级与英国的比较表明，新西兰的审计质量要低得多。各国之间审计质量的差异使国际独立审计管理者论坛（IFIAR）感到担忧，因为它有可能破坏利益相关者对审计行业的信心。因此，监测提高新西兰审计质量的进展非常重要。本文提供了对国家/地区审计质量的见解，而大多数研究都集中在公司层面。