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From Alert to Action. The true cost of regulatory compliance
LONDON, Nov. 6, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — CUBE, a global leader in Automated Regulatory Intelligence (ARI) and Regulatory Change Management (RCM), has today launched its Cost of Compliance Report 2025.
The report surveyed over 2,000 senior compliance and risk officers from 1,300 unique financial institutions across 11 major global markets to identify the most pressing issues facing financial services organisations in an increasingly complex global regulatory environment. It aims to help guide strategic decision-making within compliance and risk departments and features exclusive interviews with leading industry professionals and regulatory experts.
CUBE’s report finds that financial services regulation is now firmly back in the spotlight as governments seek to simplify rulebooks to drive growth and reduce complexity. A key factor in achieving this, the report notes, is the ability to stay ahead of any potential regulatory change and ensure executive decision makers are informed early. Encouragingly, 16% of respondents now report potential regulatory change directly to their executive teams or board, which has traditionally been seen as an area of weakness in firms’ approach to compliance and risk.
The report also highlights that geopolitical uncertainty remains a significant concern for compliance and risk professionals globally. When asked how rising geopolitical tension would affect their approach to compliance and risk over the next 12 months, 25% of respondents said significant strategic change would be required, with 8% citing fundamental business model implications. Concerningly, 21% rated their regulatory change management approach as “somewhat” or “highly ineffective”.
Describing the current environment facing financial services institutions, Ben Richmond, Founder and CEO of CUBE, commented: “Our Cost of Compliance Report 2025 reveals a surge in AI regulation, with 157 new laws and rules in a single year. Add to that trade tensions, tariff shifts and conflicting legislation, and it’s clear compliance teams are under unprecedented pressure. The challenge is how global institutions keep up, and stay compliant, as the pace of change accelerates”
Technology, particularly advances in AI, is expected to play a pivotal role in driving strategic change. Richmond continued: “We remain optimistic about the use of AI and look forward to helping our customers use this technology to stay ahead of regulatory change, mitigating any risk with a precision and agility that was previously unthinkable. Our recent acquisition of Kodex AI underlines our commitment to lead this transformation, creating the industry’s first unified compliance, risk and agentic AI platform.”
With 98% of respondents reporting that they already automate at least part of their regulatory change management process, it’s clear that compliance and risk professionals are turning to technology, and increasingly AI, to streamline operations and navigate the complex global regulatory landscape. However, CUBE’s report found that it still takes organisations, on average, more than a year to fully implement a regulatory change. This highlights the critical importance of early visibility for decision makers on upcoming regulatory requirements.
Pedro Pereiro, Chief Customer Officer at CUBE, added: “Customers are focused on faster insights, clearer risk identification and smarter automation to keep pace with regulatory change. This report shows how mission-critical compliance and risk has become, and how technology is foundational to any strategy, with AI rapidly becoming central to staying ahead.”
Finally, the Cost of Compliance Report 2025 finds that AI itself will remain under heightened scrutiny from regulators. Between June 2024 and May 2025, CUBE captured and published 157 financial services regulatory insights relating to new laws, rules and regulations relevant to the use of AI – almost double the volume from the previous year. This increase reflects ongoing uncertainty around how best to regulate the use of AI to ensure financial services institutions remain compliant when adopting this transformative technology.
To access CUBE’s Cost of Compliance report for 2025, please click here.
About The Cost of Compliance Report
The Cost of Compliance Report is recognised as the global benchmark for insights into the evolving compliance and risk landscape. Now in its fifteenth year, CUBE revitalised the report following its acquisition of Thomson Reuters Regulatory Intelligence and expanded its scope. The 2025 report draws on the views of 2,200 senior compliance and risk officers from 1,300 unique financial institutions across 11 major markets (including China, Japan, India, Australia, UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, US and Canada) representing the most comprehensive global analysis of its kind.
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