Too many compliance leaders have a similar take on the process of identifying, assessing, and operationalizing a specific regulatory change. “We caught the change and its ramifications,” they tell themselves, “but it took a lot more time and resources than it should have.” If they’re very brave, they will also admit that the process is not scalable, and that it’s unsustainable with the resources available.
The manual processes that prompt such musings aren’t just inefficient; they’re a risk. Unfortunately, according to our 2026 RegTech Benchmark Survey, they remain the norm for the majority of financial services organizations.
57% of survey respondents cited “manual processes that are slow and painful” as their greatest regulatory challenge.
–AscentAI 2026 Regulatory Compliance Benchmark Survey
What manual compliance processes actually cost
We asked compliance professionals how much time their teams spent per month on regulatory change management:
- 27% of organizations spend less than 10 hours per month
- 25% spend between 10 and 20 hours
- 22% spend 21 to 30 hours
- 6% spend 31 to 40 hours
- 20% spend 41 hours or more per month
37% of Tier 1 banks (which have the most complex regulatory environments) spend more than 41 hours per month on regulatory change management alone.
These numbers represent:
- Senior talent spending time on low-value, repetitive tasks. A Director of Compliance spending hours manually reviewing regulatory documents is not doing the strategic work they were hired to do.
- Risk exposure that compounds over time. A missed update, a miscategorized obligation, or a change that never makes it to the policy owner aren’t visible until they show up in exam findings.
- Scalability debt. As organizations expand into new jurisdictions, new products, and new regulatory environments, manual processes don’t scale. The team grows, the cost grows, and the coverage stays roughly the same.
The negatives of manual processes are no secret. A VP at a large regional US bank put the need succinctly. “Take away everything manual and repetitive”.
The automated alternative
Our Regulatory Compliance Survey identified 4 stages of compliance maturity:
- Basic – Compliance activities are primarily manual via email, spreadsheets, and documents. Dedicated compliance technology is limited.
- Dependent – Compliance initiatives rely on consultants or outside counsel to be effective.
- Emerging – Some processes are supported by software tools or point solutions (horizon scanning, data feeds, etc.)
- Advanced – Compliance operations are highly automated across a fully integrated tech stack
16% of organizations that have reached the top tier in our maturity model don’t reduce senior team members to regulatory monitoring, document review, and change tracking. Those tasks are automated by platforms that can process regulatory updates from thousands of data sources across almost 100 countries in real time. They automatically inform you when a rule change is relevant to your business and even automate identification of impacted regulatory obligations—the language that tells you exactly what you must do to remain compliant. As a result, processes that used to take days or weeks of manual review now occur automatically in minutes.
The ROI calculation is simpler than you think
If your team spends 40+ hours per month on regulatory change management, imagine what they could do with that time when armed with real-time, relevant, and enriched regulatory change information. AscentAI’s solutions enable you to reduce risk, provide an enterprise-wide, centralized repository for all regulatory obligations, and deliver the granular changes you need to make data-driven decisions and execute faster, accurately, and confidently.
Next steps:
1 – Download the full Benchmark Report
2 – AscentAI has developed a short self-assessment scorecard focused on regulatory change management. You can read more about it and download the quiz (no email required – we promise!).
If you have additional questions or would like to learn more about our solutions Contact Us.
