Regulatory change is accelerating at a pace that is leaving many financial services firms struggling to keep up. New rules land daily, guidance documents multiply, and compliance teams are expected to absorb mounting complexity without any proportional increase in resources.
To better understand how organisations are coping, AscentAI surveyed risk and compliance professionals across FinTech firms, Tier 1 banks, regional banks, and investment firms spanning North America and Europe — and the findings paint a revealing picture of an industry at a crossroads.
Manual processes remain the dominant — and most painful — reality
Despite years of digital transformation rhetoric, the survey found that 58% of respondents still operate at what AscentAI describes as a “Basic” or “Dependent” maturity level. In practical terms, this means compliance functions remain largely manual, spreadsheet-driven, or heavily reliant on outside counsel. Only 16% of organisations surveyed had reached an “Advanced” maturity level — characterised by highly automated, fully integrated compliance operations.
What makes those figures all the more striking is the projected shift ahead: that advanced cohort is expected to more than double, reaching 35% within just 12 months. Among Tier 1 banks specifically, 67% anticipate reaching that level within the same timeframe — a signal that the largest institutions are betting heavily on automation.
When asked about their biggest day-to-day challenges around regulatory data management, the responses were remarkably consistent across seniority levels. Some 57% cited time-consuming manual processes as their primary pain point, 39% pointed to fragmented data and the absence of a single source of truth, and 30% admitted they lacked full confidence in whether they had everything they needed to stay compliant. From the C-suite to junior analysts, the frustrations were strikingly similar.
Operationalising change: where the difficulty lies
Survey participants were also asked to identify the most challenging steps in their regulatory change management workflows. The results varied by geography and institution type. EMEA respondents and large institutions such as Tier 1 banks ranked operationalising regulatory changes within the business as their most difficult task. By contrast, regional banks and investment or broker-dealer firms found the monitoring of regulators for updates to be their steepest challenge.
This divergence reflects the different structural pressures these organisations face. Larger firms may have monitoring capabilities in place, but struggle to cascade rule changes effectively across complex, siloed organisations. Smaller institutions, meanwhile, may lack the dedicated resource to track the regulatory landscape with sufficient rigour.
AI: high expectations, mixed verdicts on current offerings
Artificial intelligence is generating significant interest across the compliance space, though opinion on its current state is divided. The survey found that 46% of respondents described AI for compliance as transformational technology with real potential. A further 41% acknowledged the value of AI in principle, but found existing market solutions underwhelming or unconvincing. Just 8% said they did not believe the AI hype at all — meaning 87% of respondents saw either current or future value in AI-powered compliance tools.
Whether that translates into investment is becoming clearer: 74% of respondents said they planned to invest in new compliance technology within the next 12 months. Adoption appetite was highest among FinTechs, with 90% planning to spend, followed by Tier 1 banks at 87% and regional banks at 80%. Given the survey’s findings on AI sentiment, RegTech tools powered by artificial intelligence are likely to feature prominently on procurement shortlists.
What comes next
The 2026 AscentAI Benchmark Survey is the first in a broader research series designed to track how compliance automation is evolving across the industry.
Future instalments will explore specific themes in greater depth, including compliance maturity modelling, the cost of manual processes, monitoring challenges, data management at enterprise scale, and AI adoption trends.
The full report, including cross-tabulated analysis by industry, geography, and seniority, is available to download now.
Download the full report here.
Copyright © 2026 RegTech Analyst
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