How Bank Compliance Professionals are Navigating the Current Regulatory Environment

In today’s banking compliance landscape, change is the only constant. 

To make sense of it all, we brought together banking compliance professionals for an open and candid roundtable conversation to foster peer insights and practical takeaways. 

Guiding the discussion with me were two seasoned experts:

• Ethan Singleton, Managing Principal at FS Vector, who advises banks and fintechs on compliance operations, regulatory exams, and third-party oversight
• Andrew Bigart, Partner at Venable and Co-Chair of the firm’s Financial Services Group, who specializes in regulatory compliance, payments, and bank-fintech partnerships 

Here’s what’s top-of-mind for the banking industry and how leading teams are adapting.

Top compliance challenges for banks

We started with a poll: What’s your biggest regulatory challenge right now?

The top answers:

• Keeping up with changing regulations
  
• Implementing new technologies
  
• Managing compliance costs

Each of these surfaced again and again during the discussion. 

Regulatory pressure is evolving, and with it, the role of compliance is expanding from risk mitigation to business enabler.

Why technology is critical for bank marketing oversight

As marketing channels diversify and fintech partnerships grow, manual review processes alone can’t keep up with the speed and scale of content being published. That’s why more banks are turning to technology to extend their compliance oversight—especially when it comes to social media and digital advertising.

During the roundtable, one attendee shared how their team has evolved their process:

On top of our traditional review and approval process—where all marketing creatives, social posts, and advertisements are vetted by both the fintech partner and our internal compliance teams—we also use a tool with a web crawler feature. It monitors the internet for unauthorized use of our brand or product names, and it’s added a valuable layer of protection.

That tool? PerformLine.

PerformLine’s automated discovery capabilities help banks proactively monitor for unapproved messaging across the web, detect potential UDAAP risks, and ensure partners are marketing within approved boundaries.

In an environment where content can go live instantly—and be reshared just as fast—technology like PerformLine is no longer a “nice to have.” It’s mission-critical for modern marketing compliance.

Andrew also emphasized the role of contract language and oversight, even while federal regulatory oversize is lax:

The FTC is still very active, especially around testimonials, endorsements, and misleading claims.

Andrew Bigart

Proactive monitoring, combined with clear guidelines and ongoing audits, is essential—especially for consumer lending products with heightened UDAAP risk.

Regulatory uncertainty doesn’t mean a free pass

Despite a quieter Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), compliance leaders shouldn’t mistake this as an all-clear.

Andrew highlighted a key risk in today’s environment: regulatory reversal.

We’re seeing potential policy shifts. But we don’t know where things will land—and regulators could look back at today’s decisions down the road.

Andrew Bigart

In the meantime, state regulators are stepping up. Ethan cautioned against complacency:

It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking ‘there’s no CFPB now—so we can take more risks.’ But that’s not the case.

Ethan Singleton

New York, California, and Massachusetts were called out as states increasingly acting as “mini-CFPBs,” making multi-state coordination and consistent internal practices essential.

Budget pressures in a “lower-risk” environment

One consistent theme? Business teams are feeling emboldened by perceived deregulation and pushing for faster growth, sometimes at the cost of compliance.

Andrew flagged the risk:

There’s a perception that expenses for compliance are less important now. But when business teams want to take on more risk, compliance becomes even more critical.

Andrew Bigart

His advice: Lean in. Proactively help the business navigate the safest path forward.

Ethan agreed, especially in areas like AI, where technology is moving faster than oversight frameworks. Being able to clearly document decisions—and show your work—matters more than ever.

Third and fourth-party risk—one size no longer fits all

Third-party risk is no longer a checkbox exercise. It’s a consistent challenge, especially for partner banks.

Ethan noted that third-party oversight was cited in nearly every partner bank consent order in the last two years. While the interagency guidance sets the expectation, it has its limitations:

The reliance on the interagency guidance… isn’t particularly helpful. It tells you that you have to do it—but not how.

Ethan Singleton

He urged banks to tailor third-party risk management to the specific product type—whether it’s lending, payments, or deposit services. Just as importantly, oversight must extend to fourth parties—the vendors used by your fintech partners.

His advice?

Require your fintechs to adopt a third-party risk program that mirrors your own. It makes oversight and exams simpler and strengthens alignment.

Ethan Singleton

Andrew agreed, adding that regulators increasingly expect banks to maintain contractual rights and transparency, including in data access and risk controls. 

Due diligence evolving beyond the basics

The diligence process for fintechs has evolved—especially in payments, crypto, and stablecoin verticals.

Ethan reflected on how far things have come:

Four years ago, diligence was often limited to reviewing policies. Today, it’s about operationalized controls, RegTech, walkthroughs, and real risk validation.

Ethan Singleton

Even for licensed fintechs, banks must be confident that their partners’ programs meet or exceed internal standards. Both Ethan and Andrew stressed that licensing doesn’t replace oversight—it complements it.

Compliance is a catalyst for growth

As Andrew put it:

It’s very easy to say no when regulators are loud. But now, compliance needs to lean in to help the business grow the right way.

Andrew Bigart

We couldn’t agree more.

From fintech partnerships to AI oversight and social media monitoring, compliance leaders today are navigating more complexity than ever. But they’re also finding new ways to add value—and PerformLine is here to help.

Want to see how to automate oversight, streamline due diligence, and monitor marketing at scale with PerformLine? Let’s chat.

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