RegTech Roundup: Key Regulatory Compliance Tech Developments (June–July 2025)

The period of June and July 2025 saw significant momentum in Regulatory Technology (RegTech) worldwide. Major compliance tech news ranged from high-profile acquisitions and funding deals to the debut of cutting-edge AI-driven compliance solutions. Regulators across regions introduced new rules – especially in crypto and ESG domains – spurring demand for RegTech tools to keep firms in step with evolving requirements. Industry experts and recent surveys underscored key trends such as the mainstreaming of AI in compliance, exploration of blockchain for regulatory reporting, accelerated AML/KYC automation, and a surge in ESG compliance solutions. The following report provides a structured overview of the major news, product launches, regulatory updates, expert analysis, and market trends shaping RegTech in June–July 2025.

Major RegTech News and M&A Highlights

Several notable RegTech business moves and milestones made headlines during these months:

• CUBE Acquires Acin (June 2025): UK-based RegTech firm CUBE announced the acquisition of Acin, a specialist in AI-driven operational risk controls a-teaminsight.com a-teaminsight.com. This is CUBE’s fourth acquisition since 2023, and it folds Acin’s controls benchmarking network into CUBE’s platform, creating an end-to-end link from regulations to risk controls. Backed by a consortium of major banks (including Barclays, BNP Paribas, Citi, J.P. Morgan, and Lloyds), the deal (formally announced June 19) aims to unify compliance oversight with operational risk management a-teaminsight.com a-teaminsight.com. Post-acquisition, CUBE reports a combined ~1,000 institutional clients in 20+ countries, served by 700 staff a-teaminsight.com. CUBE’s CEO called it “a significant step forward” in connecting the “first and second lines of defence” via a unified AI-powered platform a-teaminsight.com.
• Hong Kong’s Diginex Scales ESG Compliance (July 2025): ESG reporting RegTech Diginex received an investment from the Hong Kong government to expand its AI-driven platform for sustainability compliance a-teaminsight.com. The funding comes on the heels of Diginex’s US$2 billion acquisition of Resulticks (an AI-based data management and engagement company) in early June a-teaminsight.com. The enhanced Diginex solution will streamline ESG reporting (aligned with ISSB and IFRS sustainability disclosure standards) in collaboration with a leading financial institution a-teaminsight.com. This underscores the growing public-sector support for RegTech that helps financial firms meet new ESG compliance obligations.
• Zango AI Secures Seed Funding: Zango AI, a London–Bengaluru RegTech startup, raised a $4.8 million seed round led by Nexus Venture Partners on July 1 techshotsapp.com. Zango’s platform uses regulation-specific LLMs (large language models) to automate compliance tasks like horizon scanning, gap analysis, and audit prep, pairing AI with human experts for accuracy techshotsapp.com. The service keeps clients (including banks like Novobanco and fintechs like Monzo) “audit-ready – with no operational drag and no surprises”, according to co-founder Ritesh Singhania business-standard.com business-standard.com. The funding will be used to expand teams in the UK and India and build out its AI-native GRC (Governance, Risk & Compliance) product modules business-standard.com business-standard.com.
• Industry Recognition: Established players in the compliance tech space earned accolades. For example, Frankfurt-based Regnology was named “Best RegTech & Compliance Provider” at the 2025 FTF News Technology Innovation Awards (announced June 11) regnology.net. The award highlighted Regnology’s year of innovation – including strategic acquisitions (such as buying Vermeg’s RegTech division) and new product launches like its Rconnect real-time regulatory portal regnology.net. With a client base of 35,000 financial institutions and 100+ regulators, Regnology’s recognition underscores how RegTech firms are expanding to meet “increasingly complex compliance” needs worldwide regnology.net regnology.net.

New Product Launches and AI Innovations

June–July 2025 witnessed a wave of new compliance technology products hitting the market, many infused with advanced AI and automation features:

• AI-Powered Communications Compliance (Smarsh): U.S. e-communications archiving leader Smarsh unveiled its biggest platform update in years on June 4. The refresh layers next-gen AI (including a ChatGPT-style “Copilot”-ready capture tool) and an open API suite onto its cloud compliance stack a-teaminsight.com. This launch positions Smarsh to help banks and brokers govern the new wave of AI-generated content and chat – which regulators now treat as formal business communications requiring capture and supervision a-teaminsight.com a-teaminsight.com. Both U.S. and European regulators have made clear that “off-channel” conversations (e.g. WhatsApp, Teams chats, even AI assistant prompts) must be recorded and auditable, so Smarsh’s enhancements aim to ensure compliance teams can capture and review these emerging communication channels effectively.
• Automating ESG Reporting (Achilles Comply360): On June 10, UK-based Achilles launched Comply360, an enterprise platform to simplify ESG and non-financial reporting esgtoday.com esgtoday.com. The new software centralizes data collection, audit-ready reporting workflows, and framework alignment for sustainability disclosures. It leverages AI to extract data from company documents and auto-populate ESG disclosure reports, and includes built-in project management for coordinating across teams esgtoday.com esgtoday.com. Comply360 supports major frameworks like the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), IFRS Sustainability Standards, and GRI, while also allowing custom indicators for specific industries esgtoday.com esgtoday.com. An integrated carbon accounting engine helps calculate emissions using real operational data esgtoday.com. “Sustainability reporting is no longer optional… but remains resource-heavy and fragmented,” noted Achilles VP Mark Chamberlain, stating the tool provides the structure and automation needed to meet obligations “efficiently and consistently, without increasing internal burden.” esgtoday.com esgtoday.com
• Real-Time ESG Risk Management (Datamaran): Similarly in June, RegTech firm Datamaran rolled out a new AI-driven “Core” product for ESG risk and compliance management esgdive.com esgdive.com. Announced via a June 18 press release, the platform uses artificial intelligence to help corporate sustainability and legal teams conduct materiality assessments, monitor regulatory changes, and benchmark peers esgdive.com esgdive.com. The goal is to turn the growing ESG compliance burden into a “strategic advantage” by providing insights that keep companies agile amid shifting climate disclosure rules esgdive.com esgdive.com. Datamaran’s tool specifically supports alignment with multiple reporting frameworks and regulations, including the EU’s CSRD which mandates double materiality assessment (evaluating both how climate risks impact the company and how the company impacts society/environment) esgdive.com. This reflects a broader trend of RegTech solutions emerging to meet new sustainability disclosure mandates around the world.
• AI for Marketing Compliance (Apex Compliance): In the RegTech niche of marketing content compliance, Apex Compliance (Boulder, CO) introduced a novel AI-powered feature in July. Debuting as a Top Startup finalist at an industry expo, Apex’s new “Meta Business-Account Scan” can audit a brand’s Facebook/Instagram pages – analyzing images, videos, and captions – to flag high-risk claims or language in seconds bignewsnetwork.com bignewsnetwork.com. The tool uses computer vision and NLP against a library of regulated “trigger phrases,” giving marketers a color-coded report of compliance issues and suggested safer wording bignewsnetwork.com bignewsnetwork.com. Founder Asa Waldstein noted that manual review of social media content can miss hidden regulatory landmines, whereas “our computer-vision layer helps find and correct issues in moments.” bignewsnetwork.com bignewsnetwork.com This kind of solution shows AI being applied in creative ways to niche compliance challenges (in this case, helping supplement and cosmetics brands avoid misleading claims that could trigger FDA/FTC warnings).

Key Regulatory Updates Shaping Compliance

Regulators did not stand still during June–July 2025 – new rules and guidance across jurisdictions are influencing RegTech priorities in areas like crypto, operational resilience, and transparency:

• EU Cryptoasset Rules (MiCA Implementation): In Europe, regulators continued rolling out the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) framework. On June 27, the European Commission adopted a delegated regulation specifying liquidity management standards for stablecoins regulationtomorrow.com. These regulatory technical standards set minimum content requirements for liquidity policies and stress tests that issuers of asset-referenced tokens and e-money tokens (i.e. stablecoins) must follow regulationtomorrow.com regulationtomorrow.com. The rules – which take effect 20 days after publication – ensure stablecoin issuers maintain adequate reserves and risk controls to protect holders regulationtomorrow.com regulationtomorrow.com. As MiCA’s provisions come into force, crypto market participants are turning to RegTech solutions for real-time monitoring of reserve ratios, disclosures, and other compliance obligations mandated under the new regime.
• U.S. SEC Crypto Task Force: In the United States, regulators moved to clarify crypto compliance expectations. On July 1, the U.S. SEC formally launched a new Crypto Task Force charged with drawing “clear regulatory lines” in the crypto asset markets sec.gov sec.gov. Led by Commissioner Hester Peirce, the task force will recommend how federal securities laws apply to digital assets and DeFi, craft tailored disclosure frameworks, and chart realistic paths for crypto firms to register and comply sec.gov sec.gov. The SEC emphasized a goal of fostering innovation while protecting investors, indicating enforcement will focus on truly fraudulent actors while giving compliant-minded crypto businesses more guidance. This collaborative approach – including public roundtables and coordination with other regulators – has been welcomed by the industry as a sign of more clarity ahead in the U.S. crypto regulatory landscape.
• Asia-Pacific Compliance Moves: In Singapore, regulators tightened oversight of crypto service providers. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) issued new guidance in June requiring that Digital Token Service Providers (DTSPs) based in Singapore but serving only overseas clients must now obtain a MAS license grip.globalrelay.com. Previously, some firms operating from Singapore claimed exemption if serving foreign users exclusively – but MAS noted the “money laundering risks are higher” in such models and that it cannot effectively supervise unlicensed entities operating from its jurisdiction grip.globalrelay.com. This policy clarification, along with MAS’s establishment of a new Singapore Payments Network (SPaN) for national payment systems grip.globalrelay.com, shows APAC regulators actively expanding compliance requirements in fintech and crypto. Meanwhile, Hong Kong moved forward on licensing for virtual asset trading platforms (with government support for RegTech as seen in the Diginex case above), and Australia enforced hefty fines on payment institutions for AML breaches – all signaling that regulatory expectations are rising across regions, driving demand for automated compliance solutions.
• Operational Resilience & Reporting: Regulators also advanced rules in traditional finance that carry heavy compliance workloads. For example, Canada’s long-planned rewrite of its OTC derivatives trade reporting rules was scheduled to take effect on July 25, 2025, aligning Canadian requirements with global data standards and the U.S. CFTC’s swap data rules a-teaminsight.com. This kind of overhaul (finalized by Canadian authorities in 2024) means firms must upgrade their regulatory reporting systems – a space where RegTech vendors (trade reporting solutions, data validation tools, etc.) play a crucial role in helping banks adapt to new schemas and ensure no lapses in compliance as rules change. Likewise, in the EU, banks faced initial reporting under the new DORA (Digital Operational Resilience Act) and in the US, regulators floated “SAFER” resilience proposals a-teaminsight.com – both pushing financial institutions to bolster risk controls and incident reporting. Together, these regulatory developments are driving innovation in RegTech, as firms seek automated, efficient ways to meet more rigorous standards in everything from crypto transparency to enterprise risk reporting.

Expert Insights and Market Trends

Beyond the headlines, industry leaders and research published in June–July 2025 provided deeper context on where the RegTech market is headed:

• Compliance Spending & AI Adoption: A global survey of 300 compliance executives (published in SteelEye’s 2025 Annual Compliance Health Check report in mid-June) found that 77% of financial institutions increased their compliance spend in the past year steel-eye.com. The top reason was anticipation of rising regulatory fines – indeed, 67% of respondents expected more enforcement penalties for communication record-keeping breaches in 2025 steel-eye.com. Much of that budget is going into technology: half of the firms boosting spend directed the majority of new funds to compliance tech (vs. 27% channeling it mainly to hiring) steel-eye.com. Notably, 68% of firms have already implemented AI in their surveillance and monitoring processes, and an overwhelming 96% of those report measurable improvements in outcomes steel-eye.com. SteelEye CEO Matt Smith commented that “AI is no longer an aspiration for compliance teams; it’s a competitive necessity. Firms that fail to adopt intelligent surveillance tools will struggle to keep pace” with complex communication channels and regulatory scrutiny steel-eye.com. This sentiment – that advanced RegTech is now critical to avoid falling behind – was echoed across many industry discussions in 2025.
• Compliance as a Competitive Advantage: Further reinforcing this trend, a joint survey released on June 26 by Equifax and RegTech startup Kompliant found that 99% of financial services organizations now rely on compliance technology, and 55% are implementing AI/ML-based solutions for compliance functions stocktitan.net stocktitan.net. The report, titled “From Cost Center to Revenue Driver: The Current Compliance Landscape,” highlighted a shifting mindset: 90% of institutions said technological advancement in compliance is crucial for competitive advantage stocktitan.net stocktitan.net. Top executives are involved too – over half (56%) of organizations now involve their CEO in compliance tech decisions stocktitan.net. At the same time, 68% of firms remain cautious about very new tech due to security concerns stocktitan.net stocktitan.net, underscoring that solutions must balance innovation with robust risk management. “The industry is navigating increasingly complex regulations alongside transformative technology,” noted Kompliant CEO Leo Patching, adding that most firms are seeking to streamline daily compliance work and reduce costs (like fines) through automation stocktitan.net stocktitan.net. In short, compliance is no longer viewed purely as a cost – when optimized with tech, it’s seen as an area that can protect and even boost the bottom line by enabling safer business growth.
• Market Growth Forecasts: The RegTech market itself continues its rapid expansion in 2025. Industry analyses projected global RegTech spending to exceed $22 billion by mid-2025, growing at roughly 23% CAGR silenteight.com. One research report valued the market at about $19 billion in 2025 and on track to reach over $33 billion by 2029 researchandmarkets.com, reflecting sustained double-digit growth as financial institutions invest in technology to manage the ever-growing regulatory burden. Drivers include stricter AML/KYC regulations, data privacy laws, and emerging areas like crypto compliance and ESG reporting. In fact, AML/KYC automation is a major growth area – by 2025 more than 70% of customer onboarding KYC steps are expected to be digital and automated (using biometric IDs, digital verification, etc.), up from current levels, as firms move away from slow manual checks silenteight.com. Likewise, blockchain is gradually entering the compliance toolkit: industry experts predict that about 15% of AML/KYC processes could be conducted on blockchain-based systems by 2025 silenteight.com, leveraging distributed ledger transparency for things like inter-bank customer due diligence and transaction traceability. While still early, this hints at future RegTech innovations blending decentralized tech with compliance (for example, shared KYC utilities or on-chain regulatory reporting).
• Focus on ESG and Sustainability: A clear takeaway from mid-2025 is the rise of ESG compliance tech as a distinct segment. With regulations like the EU’s CSRD coming into effect (requiring extensive climate and social impact disclosures) and global frameworks from ISSB and others, companies face intense pressure to report non-financial metrics. RegTech firms are responding: as detailed above, new platforms from Achilles, Datamaran, and Diginex are deploying AI to help enterprises gather ESG data, perform materiality analysis, and produce compliant sustainability reports. These tools aim to reduce the burden of what CEOs often call “fragmented and resource-heavy” reporting processes esgtoday.com. They also help navigate the patchwork of standards – from EU taxonomy and TCFD climate risk reports to various national guidelines – by updating regulatory content libraries and providing alerts on new ESG rules. The Hong Kong government’s direct investment in Diginex’s ESG platform a-teaminsight.com is evidence that regulators themselves see value in promoting RegTech to improve disclosure quality and consistency. Analysts expect ESG RegTech to be one of the fastest-growing areas in compliance tech over the next few years, as sustainability reporting moves from a niche concern to a core requirement for global businesses.

Conclusion

In summary, June–July 2025 was a dynamic period for regulatory compliance technology, marked by consolidation among providers, breakthrough product innovations, and an intensifying focus on emerging risk areas. Across finance, insurance, crypto, and corporate sectors, organizations are embracing RegTech solutions – especially those powered by AI and automation – to keep ahead of changing laws and mounting compliance demands. From anti-money laundering and KYC in banking, to cryptoasset supervision, to climate risk disclosure, regulators are raising the bar, and technology is racing to meet the challenge. Industry leaders stress that adopting intelligent compliance tools is now “a competitive necessity” rather than a nice-to-have steel-eye.com. Backed by robust funding and customer demand, the RegTech market is poised for continued growth in all regions. These summer 2025 developments collectively show an ecosystem maturing: one where compliance is increasingly tech-enabled, proactive, and aligned with business strategy – turning regulatory complexity into an opportunity for innovation and trust.

Sources: The information and quotes in this report are drawn from a range of industry news releases, expert commentary, and regulatory updates published in June and July 2025, including A-Team Insight’s RegTech news service a-teaminsight.com a-teaminsight.com a-teaminsight.com, company press releases and analyses (Regnology regnology.net, SteelEye steel-eye.com steel-eye.com, Business Standard business-standard.com business-standard.com, ESG Dive esgdive.com esgdive.com, ESG Today esgtoday.com esgtoday.com), and regulatory bulletins (Norton Rose Fulbright’s Regulation Tomorrow blog regulationtomorrow.com, SEC announcements sec.gov, MAS statements via GlobalRelay grip.globalrelay.com, among others). These sources provide a comprehensive view of the RegTech landscape during June–July 2025, reflecting both the technological advancements and the evolving compliance environment that drove them.