Compliance obligations are spreading well beyond financial services, and according to RegTech firm CUBE, firms that wait for deadlines to force their hand risk falling behind.
In its latest fortnightly analysis, The CUBE Read, covering 7 to 18 September 2026, the company identifies three developments reshaping compliance and risk: the expansion of regulatory intelligence into new sectors, sharper recognition of multi-entity complexity, and a modernisation window created by platform transition.
CUBE argues that manufacturing, retail, energy and professional services are now beginning the shift financial services made a decade ago, from manual, fragmented regulatory monitoring towards structured, automated intelligence.
Regulators are accelerating that change. The FCA plans intelligence-led AML supervision of legal and accounting sectors from 2028. FATF has published its first assessment of online gambling as a laundering channel and warned that professional launderers are exploiting digital hawala networks linked to formal banking. ESMA has also highlighted gaps in the EU perimeter around prediction markets.
For newcomers, CUBE frames this less as a burden and more as a chance to build infrastructure that financial services firms have spent years refining.
Timing is pressing. The FCA’s PS26/17 fund liquidity rule takes effect on 1 February 2027, with a transitional period running to 1 August 2027. The UK’s T+1 settlement transition goes live on 11 October 2027, with interim milestones due in December 2026. CUBE’s Cost of Compliance Report found that 74% of firms take more than a year to move from identifying regulatory change to full implementation, meaning decisions on both deadlines are needed now.
Elsewhere, AMLA is preparing its first joint FIU exercise and information-sharing guidelines ahead of the 2027 EU AML regulation milestone, which CUBE says will set the baseline for cross-border collaboration. In Asia-Pacific and the Middle East, ADGM reported a 54% rise in assets under management in the first half of 2026, Hong Kong investment product sales hit a record $9.9tn in 2025, the HKMA opened a consultation on an expanded sustainable finance taxonomy, and ASIC proposed free public access to officeholder names and director IDs.
On multi-entity complexity, CUBE notes that firms are articulating the challenge with growing precision, a necessary first step. Those treating entity-level regulatory change management as a standing capability, rather than relying on individual jurisdictional expertise, gain a structural edge. Comparative analysis of how rules apply differently across jurisdictions is where manual approaches fall shortest.
Finally, CUBE sees migration from legacy tools as a prompt to rethink what compliance functions need, not simply a lift-and-shift. With the SEC proposing a major overhaul of transfer agent rules, the FCA opening its crypto authorisation gateway, ESMA consulting on prospectus disclosure under the EU Listing Act, and IOSCO and CPMI seeking feedback on a cyber resilience toolkit, firms with current, well-structured intelligence will respond fastest.
CUBE concludes that deadlines, regulatory activity and platform transition are aligning in a way that rarely recurs, making now the moment to build.
For more, read the full update here.
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Copyright © 2026 RegTech Analyst
