A third of EMEA firms are already using AI in compliance, and 71.4% plan to introduce it in the next year – with EMEA firms also much less likely to ban communications like WhatsApp for business use
Global Relay, a leading provider of end-to-end compliance solutions for highly regulated industries, has shared the findings of its third annual report into the major compliance challenges facing financial firms.
Based on insights from hundreds of compliance and surveillance professionals worldwide, the Industry Insights: Compliant Communications Report 2025 leverages this data to track key compliance trends, with findings including:
- A third of EMEA-based firms are already using AI for compliance – and for those that aren’t yet, 71.4% intend to introduce it in the next year, compared to only 43.7% of North American firms
- Just 31.7% of EMEA-based respondents think that banning certain communications channels is an effective compliance solution, compared to the 50.6% of NA respondents who believe they work
- EMEA-based firms are much more likely to enable and monitor all communications channels, with over half (52.4%) of firms doing so compared to just 31.2% of NA firms
- There has been a considerable drop in respondents struggling to get staff to stick to compliance policies, down to just 29.5% compared to 61.5% in 2023
EMEA-based firms are leading the way with AI adoption for compliance use cases, coming as little surprise given that the EU AI Act provides a world-first regulatory guardrail for AI development. Coupled with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)’s recent commitments to support AI innovation, the U.K. and Europe are presenting firms with a permissive environment when it comes to AI.
“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,” explains Don McElligott, Vice President, Compliance Supervision, Global Relay. “It will be very interesting to see if adoption numbers increase as organizations realize the value and availability of effective AI solutions.”
Given the tempo of regulatory enforcements and punitive fines for off-channel communications over the last four years in the U.S., it’s unsurprising that NA firms are taking a more cautious approach to communications compliance and are more likely to believe that banning channels is an effective solution that eliminates potential risk and avoids regulatory scrutiny entirely.
“It’s very interesting to see that a surprisingly high number of firms are enabling the use of communications channels like WhatsApp, as conventional wisdom suggests the majority prohibit it,” says Rob Mason, Director, Regulatory Intelligence at Global Relay. “Since our 2023 report, we have seen the dial shift away from channel bans and towards communicating compliantly throughout the finance industry, and firms, their employees, and even regulators will no doubt continue to see the benefits of a more permissive, collaborative compliance environment.”
The Industry Insights: Compliant Communication Report series provides an annual snapshot of the changing face of compliance, combining insight from industry professionals and compliance experts for a data-driven overview of how compliance challenges are evolving, and how the industry is responding.