Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets publishes Sector in Beeld 2025 on audit consultation use and declining issuer reporting queries

The Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM) published its Sector in Beeld 2025 report, supplementing Trendzicht 2026, setting out data-driven insights on developments in the accountancy sector and supervision of issuers’ financial reporting. The report highlights differences in the use of specialist consultation during statutory audits, increased adoption of written policies for root-cause analyses at audit firms, and a decline in desktop reviews that generate reporting questions. In 2024, consultations featured in an average 32% of statutory audits at audit firms with a regular licence (RV), with large RV firms at 40% versus 14% for small firms. Public-interest entity (OOB) audit firms used consultations in 25% of all statutory audits, rising to 38% for OOB audits compared with 23% for regular statutory audits; consultation topics were similar across firm types, including the audit opinion, going concern and fraud/corruption. The share of RV audit firms with written root-cause analysis policies increased slightly, reaching 56% among large RV firms versus 28% among small and mid-sized firms. On issuer reporting supervision, the proportion of desktop reviews that raised questions fell from 87% for financial year 2019 to 65% for financial year 2023, with some cases resulting in follow-up actions such as meetings, informal communications, or communications with recommendations.