A survey on the cross-border audit industry conducted by Securities Times reveals that currently, cross-border audits are confronted with four core challenges: difficulties in verifying the authenticity of overseas vouchers, complexities in aligning accounting standards and tax regulations across multiple countries, challenges in evaluating the internal controls of overseas subsidiaries, and soaring on-site verification costs (for instance, travel expenses in Africa and Latin America are over five times those within China).
Meanwhile, some enterprises have over 99% of their business conducted overseas, yet their annual audit fees are less than one million yuan. The contradiction between high costs and low fees is prone to triggering the simplification of audit procedures and an increase in fraud risks. The industry is calling for measures such as technological empowerment (e.g., blockchain confirmations and cross-border data collaboration platforms), the establishment of unified compliance standards for cross-border audits, and the optimization of fee mechanisms to balance audit quality and costs and fortify the security for cross-border financial information.
Published on December 30th, 2025
