A report from Global Relay has revealed significant regional disparities in the adoption of AI for compliance in the financial services sector.
According to the Industry Insights: Compliant Communications Report 2025, North American firms are showing greater reluctance to embrace AI technologies compared to their EMEA counterparts.
The survey, conducted with hundreds of compliance and surveillance professionals globally, found that 56.3% of North American respondents have no plans to integrate AI into their compliance processes in the next year. This is in stark contrast to the EMEA region, where 71.4% of firms are planning to introduce AI.
The report also highlights differing approaches to communication channel compliance. Over half (50.6%) of North American firms believe that banning platforms such as WhatsApp and WeChat is an effective solution, whereas only 31.7% of EMEA firms share that view. However, this practice may be waning overall. Since 2023, there has been a 20% drop in firms choosing to ban channels, and a 28% increase in those opting to enable and monitor them instead.
Despite AI’s growing presence in the industry, it is still viewed by many as expensive and only marginally effective in detecting compliance risks. Global Relay vice president of compliance supervision Don McElligott said, “Recent technological advances in AI are moving the needle quickly when it comes to adoption, although AI is still generally perceived as difficult, expensive, and only marginally effective for risk detection use cases. It will be very interesting to see if adoption numbers increase as organizations realize the value and availability of effective AI solutions.”
The report also shows progress in enforcing policy adherence, with the number of professionals reporting difficulty getting staff to follow compliance rules falling to 29.5%, compared to 61.5% in 2023.
Regulatory uncertainty in North America may be contributing to hesitancy. While EMEA firms are operating within the clearer framework of the EU AI Act, recent changes in the leadership and strategy of U.S. regulatory bodies like the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) have left some firms cautious. Yet, with the SEC’s shift towards a “technology-neutral” stance, an upswing in AI use may be imminent.
Global Relay senior manager of regulatory intelligence Ryan Sheridan said, “Considering the size of off-channel communications fines firms have been hit with over recent years, weighed against the cost to enable and capture channels, leveraging compliance solutions feels like a quick, cost-effective win. Having no clear plan in place, or channel bans staff simply won’t stick to, is incredibly hard to defend should regulators uncover noncompliance. The technologies are there, they are proven, and they are a small price to pay for peace of mind compared to the alternative.”
The Compliant Communications Report continues to provide a yearly snapshot of how financial firms are navigating an evolving regulatory landscape. It underscores the growing need for practical, monitored communication strategies, and the industry’s slow but steady shift toward embracing AI as a viable compliance tool.
The Bank of England (BoE), in collaboration with the BIS Innovation Hub in London, has conducted a pioneering experiment using AI to detect fraud in retail payment systems.
According to Finextra, dubbed Project Hertha, the initiative explored whether modern AI tools could identify complex and previously unseen financial crime patterns in real-time transactional data.
Criminals typically act through intricate networks of accounts across various financial institutions, making detection a significant challenge. Payment systems, however, provide a valuable network-wide perspective, and the BoE aimed to leverage this to detect suspicious activity more efficiently.
Keep up with all the latest RegTech news here
Copyright © 2025 RegTech Analyst
Copyright © 2018 RegTech Analyst
