As 2026 gets underway, RegTechs are positioning for a shift in regulatory emphasis from refits, rewrites and attestations to demonstrable evidence. Across the jurisdictions supervisors are shifting from consultation and rulemaking into validation and testing whether firms have operationalised reforms through governance, high-quality data, defensible controls and credible evidence. The seven RegTechs that follow have each presented an explicit outlook on how the 2026 regulatory landscape will unfold. From regulatory reporting and horizon scanning to financial crime, conduct, surveillance and resilience, these outlooks reflect a market grappling with ongoing regulatory evolution, constrained resources, cross-border divergence and increasing scrutiny of third parties and technology. Common themes include the normalisation of AI under stricter governance, a renewed focus on data integrity at source, and the observation that that simplification does not mean deregulation. Together, these perspectives offer a practical, ground-level view of how compliance is developing into a more integrated, outcomes-driven discipline.
CONFLUENCE
Confluence’s January 2026 outlook observes that regulators across major jurisdictions are moving from rulemaking into validation and enforcement, with transparency, governance, data quality, and operational resilience increasingly tested through examinations and supervisory reviews. The report highlights practical pressure-testing – scrutiny of conflicts, valuation governance, disclosures that are meaningful in operation (not just present), and resilience expectations that extend into vendor oversight and incident response. It also points to growing attention on private markets – liquidity, leverage, valuation, counterparty exposure – and the “normalisation” of advanced technology, where regulators focus on explainability, accountability, and data integrity rather. Confluence positions its value proposition around enterprise data and software supporting regulatory reporting, analytics and investor communications, complemented by monitoring and workflow controls for disclosure obligations – including shareholder disclosures – to help firms manage cross-border complexity and maintain effective oversight.ELLIPTIC
Across its 2026 outlook, Elliptic highlights five regulatory and policy trends for crypto: frameworks increasingly aligned to national strategic priorities; momentum behind stablecoin rules (referencing progress around the GENIUS Act); expanding institutional participation and use cases; stronger focus on the effectiveness of crypto sanctions measures; and continued demand for better blockchain analytics to support more data-driven compliance. A companion outlook on sanctions enforcement argues that sanctions authorities are now routinely targeting cryptoasset actors (including publishing wallet addresses), and that 2026 will bring renewed urgency on sanctions-evasion risks – especially as evaders adapt and as stablecoins feature more prominently. Elliptic’s stated proposition centres on blockchain analytics capabilities such as wallet screening, transaction monitoring, and investigative tooling, positioning analytics quality and coverage as foundational to scalable, defensible AML/CFT and sanctions programmes.
FENERGO
Fenergo’s 2026 outlooks present a consistent theme: growth in regulatory complexity alongside operational constraints forces firms to industrialise compliance. In EMEA, it predicts AI will move from pilots into production to address capacity constraints (rising volumes, limited experienced talent), while compliance tech stacks consolidate toward end-to-end models spanning KYC, fraud, transaction monitoring, and sanctions – with stronger governance and auditability. In APAC, it expects a more proactive supervisory stance to drive higher enforcement, with geopolitics reshaping due diligence and third-party risk; the argument favours continuous monitoring and better data integration, with AI helping replace slow manual processes. In the US, it links margin pressure to greater scrutiny of investments and predicts more centralised client management across onboarding through lifecycle reviews, supported by AI governance and measurable operational efficiency. Fenergo’s differentiated value proposition is its focus on industrialising compliance across the full client lifecycle, treating KYC, AML, sanctions and ongoing due diligence as a single, continuously governed operating model supported by integrated data, workflow automation and embedded controls.KAIZEN
Kaizen’s 2026 regulatory reporting outlook, presented in a recent webinar, points to a transition year in which regulatory change is driven less by new rewrites and more by targeted reform of existing regimes, particularly under MiFIR. In the UK, the FCA’s MiFIR consultation signals a significant narrowing of scope, including the removal of certain instruments from reporting, a reduction in mandatory fields, and revisions to long-standing reporting guidelines. These changes are explicitly framed around cost reduction and relevance of data but are paired with higher supervisory expectations around accuracy and control. In the EU, MiFIR reform is on hold pending the outcome of ESMA’s Call for Evidence, creating a period of uncertainty but little immediate rule change, with any substantive amendments now unlikely before the second half of the decade. Regulators in both jurisdictions emphasise that simplification does not equate to deregulation, and that improved data quality remains central. As a result, firms are expected to focus on stabilising business-as-usual reporting, strengthening data lineage and remediation, and preparing for phased MiFIR change. Kaizen distinguishes itself through a forensic focus on data quality and award-winning services like ReportShield™, which provide full visibility into reporting quality down to the field level and support clients in proactively managing reporting risk rather than merely generating regulatory submissions.
MyComplianceOffice (MCO)
MCO’s APAC 2026 outlook describes regulators “moving from policy to practice,” with increasing expectations that firms actively enforce internal policies covering conduct, conflicts of interest, insider trading/market abuse, AML/CFT, fit-and-proper obligations, and record-keeping. The piece surveys multiple APAC jurisdictions (including Australia and Singapore) to show how guidance updates and enforcement priorities reinforce accountability for employee behaviour and conflict management. MCO positions RegTech as a way to translate policy into operational controls: providing a compliance management platform that supports oversight across the “Know Your Employee” landscape – covering personal account dealing, outside business activities, close personal relationships, and related conduct controls – while producing audit trails that help demonstrate compliance to regulators. The core 2026 message is that intent is insufficient; firms need demonstrable controls and ongoing monitoring that can scale across regions and business lines.
SHIELD
Shield’s 2026 Compliance Outlook sets a clear premise: in 2026, compliance “won’t be judged by intent but by evidence,” with regulators looking at data integrity, employee behaviour, system architecture, and vendor relationships as a connected control picture. It frames AI governance and model oversight (including explainability), digital communications as regulated records (including AI-generated content), and third-party/SaaS resilience as core themes, explicitly linking resilience expectations to regimes such as DORA. It also flags a growing regulatory split across the US, UK, EU, and APAC as a driver of operational complexity. Shield’s positioning emphasises “defensible oversight across channels, systems, and regions,” aligning its platform capabilities – records management, proactive surveillance, supervision, and information barriers – around the practical problem of proving supervision, governance, and controls across modern communication channels and technology stacks.
ZANGO.AI
Zango’s UK regulatory outlook for Q1 2026 frames the year’s opening phase as a pivot from extended consultation and framework design toward supervisory delivery, with regulators testing whether firms have operationalised reforms introduced across 2024–2025. The emphasis shifts to demonstrable outcomes: governance, data quality, evidence trails, and how firms handle data submissions and incidents as signals of control effectiveness. The outlook also frames this within a legislative policy backdrop that presses regulators on proportionality and efficiency, translating into more accountability and practical scrutiny for firms. Zango positions its value proposition around centralising regulatory change management: continuously monitoring regulatory sources, producing AI-summarised alerts, and converting change into structured obligations mapped to owners, policies, controls, approvals, and evidence.
2026 and Beyond
Looking ahead, these outlooks point to a regulatory environment that will continue to reward firms able to demonstrate control, consistency and accountability at scale. As supervisory focus sharpens on outcomes rather than assertions, compliance teams will need to embed data quality, governance and evidence into day-to-day operations, not treat them as episodic exercises. For RegTech providers, the challenge – and opportunity – lies in supporting this shift: moving beyond point solutions toward integrated, resilient platforms that help firms adapt as regulation, risk and technology continue to evolve through 2026 and beyond.
So, there you have it, seven perspectives on where regulatory priorities are headed over the coming year. If you are a RegTech with a published 2026 outlook and feel you should be included on this list, let us know and share your thoughts on how you see the regulatory environment unfolding HERE.
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