Regulatory technology
Demand for regulatory technology rises and falls with new rules. Several sets of compliance rules start being enforced through 2026, and the extra demand lasts 18-24 months beyond the first deadlines.
Research snapshot · updated Nov 12, 2026
State of the art (2026)
Demand for compliance software follows specific rule changes, and rules are moving in both directions. The EU's crypto-asset rules, MiCA, have applied in full since 30 December 2024. In the US, the GENIUS Act on stablecoins became law in July 2025 and federal regulators are responsible for the detailed rules. Other obligations have been cut back. In March 2025 FinCEN exempted US companies and US persons from beneficial ownership reporting under the Corporate Transparency Act. The EU's 2026 simplification of sustainability reporting narrowed who must report and postponed some deadlines. Compliance tools have to keep up with these changes, and a new deadline does not always mean more demand.
GENIUS Act + EU MiCA + AI Act stack creates multi-year structural RegTech demand
GENIUS Act (signed July 2025) imposes 100% reserves, monthly disclosure, a BSA programme and seize/freeze/burn on stablecoin issuers - a new sub-market for issuer compliance tooling, with six agencies racing an 18 July 2026 final-rule deadline. EU MiCA reached full application end-2024 across all crypto-asset service providers. The EU AI Act high-risk regime, once due August 2026, has been deferred to December 2027 under the Digital Omnibus. The US Corporate Transparency Act has narrowed sharply - FinCEN now exempts domestic entities - but the broader stack remains unprecedented in breadth through 2026-2027.
Gen-AI-native AML tooling pressures legacy NICE Actimize / Oracle Mantas / SAS
Hawk AI (transaction monitoring with explainable AI), Lucinity (gen-AI investigator workbench), Resistant AI (fraud + AML), ComplyAdvantage (gen-AI investigation summarisation) reset the AML / TMS unit economics by reducing false-positive review labour 30-50%. Legacy NICE Actimize / Oracle Mantas / SAS retain enterprise mainframe deployments but lose mid-market + neobank wins.
Sanctions intelligence + entity beneficial-ownership becomes structural in post-2022 sanctions regime
Russia + Iran + DPRK + Venezuela + China-Russia shadow-fleet + Wagner / Rosneft / Lukoil + IRGC + secondary sanctions create permanent compliance burden on banks + commodity traders + insurance + maritime. Kharon, Castellum.AI, Sayari, Dow Jones Risk Compliance + screening providers benefit. Each new sanctions package (UK + EU + OFAC) tightens demand by 10-20%.
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Signal stack
Evidence stacked leading → lagging
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Signal stack
Evidence stacked leading → lagging
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Technology-native KPIs
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Landscape map
Who builds what, and who depends on whom
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