Audit and lending are entering 2026 with shared themes – rising regulatory pressure, a pivot to data integrity, and the acceleration of AI across assurance and risk. But each market is moving at its own speed. Here’s what’s next across the UK, US, Canada, and Australia – and how firms are using Validis to standardize financial data at the core.
🇬🇧 United Kingdom: Quality up, consistency lagging
The FRC’s 2025 Audit Quality Review shows Tier-1 firms improving again – five of six achieving ≥90% “good or limited improvement” outcomes – but smaller firms remain uneven, with quality varying significantly between engagements. (FRC, July 2025)
Audit fee inflation remains high (up ~75% over five years per Financial Times), as firms juggle reform costs and staff shortages.
The audit market reform agenda (ARGA transition) continues to emphasize competition and mid-tier capability building.
What it means:
Standardization and repeatability – not just technology – define sustainable audit quality.
How Validis helps: Validis provides identical, standardized client data across all engagements, helping UK firms deliver Tier-1 audit quality at Tier-2 cost.
🇺🇸 United States: Enforcement at record levels
The PCAOB 2024 Enforcement Report shows 51 actions, the highest since 2017, with 40 related to audit performance – proof that regulatory intensity isn’t fading.
EY and KPMG 2025 outlooks highlight a surge in AI-driven risk assessment and data lineage demands, particularly under PCAOB AS 2310 revisions.
In lending, specialist and community banks are driving growth, using embedded finance and real-time data to reduce underwriting friction.
What it means:
Audit firms must evidence data provenance; lenders must modernize monitoring.
How Validis helps: In the US, Validis delivers audit-ready, provenance-rich financial data – supporting PCAOB compliance and powering embedded-finance underwriting.
🇨🇦 Canada: Oversight modernisation underway
The CPAB 2025–2027 Strategic Plan centers on evolving oversight for both public and private audits, citing “persistent inconsistency” and a need for better firm-level governance.
EY Board Matters 2025 urges Canadian audit committees to strengthen data-driven risk assessment and regulatory readiness.
SME and commercial lenders face rising expectations on loan transparency and data traceability as open finance expands.
What it means:
Canadian firms have a window to modernize before oversight tightens further.
How Validis helps: Validis enables one unified, audit-ready data stream for firms and lenders, improving coverage and repeatability across portfolios.
🇦🇺 Australia: Independence and tech convergence
The ASIC Audit Inspection Report 2025 reaffirms the regulator’s focus on auditor independence and financial reporting accuracy, following its new surveillance program launched in 2024.
The FRC Australia 2024 oversight review notes gaps in non-PIE audit quality monitoring – a likely trigger for more scrutiny in 2026.
Australia’s specialist lending sector continues to grow rapidly (~15% YoY per KPMG’s Major Banks Report 2025), increasing demand for standardized, digital borrower data.
What it means:
Expect wider inspection coverage and more cross-use of audit and prudential data.
How Validis helps: Validis gives Australian firms standardized, reusable data flows across audit, financial reporting, and lender risk monitoring.
🤝 Partnership & Ecosystem Updates
Trullion x Validis
Validis is featured in Trullion’s 2025 eBook on the modern audit ecosystem, showcasing how standardized client data underpins the next generation of audit automation and assurance tools.
📈 The common thread
Across all four markets, the direction is the same:
- Regulators want evidence.
- Lenders want velocity.
- Firms want consistency.
- The only way to deliver all three is trusted, standardized, refreshable data – which is exactly what Validis enables.
Ready for 2026?
Let’s make your audit and lending workflows evidence-first.
Book a 20-minute Validis demo
