Statutory audit in Slovakia is performed by statutory auditors or audit firms. Many of the audit firms are members of the globally operating audit networks. Membership in a network imposes certain rights and duties for audit firms. The existence and operation of the audit networks can be understood as one of the results of globalization that allows an increasing possibility of cooperation at the international level. Our goal is to clarify the state of audit firms operating in the audit networks. To achieve the goal, it was necessary to choose a purposeful work methodology and research methods, based primarily on the analysis of data from the list of the audit firms.

The changing global economy environment also affected the area of statutory audit. Nowadays, statutory audit faces the significant changes not only because of the processes of digitization and automation in accounting and auditing, but because of increased and tightened legislative regulation, too. The most important aspects of financial reporting and auditing are subject to EU Regulations and EU Directives. For this reason, the issue of legislative regulation changes in field of statutory audit in Slovakia has become the subject of our article. Currently, the proposal of amending and supplementing Act. No 431/2002 Coll. on Accounting, as amended underwent an interdepartmental comment procedure. The proposal includes the changes on requirements for statutory audit. This article examines the current proposal to change (mainly increase) the conditions for performing the mandatory statutory audit of financial statements in Slovak audit environment. Our goal is to clarify the reasons and implications behind the changes of Slovak legislation as well as the impact of these changes on audit performance in Slovakia. We believe conducting statutory audits in accordance with the applicable legislation accepted and implemented at international European level can contribute to transparency and improve the quality of audit performance. In order to achieve the goal, it was necessary to choose a purposeful work methodology and research methods.