When Rules Move Faster Than Readiness: Regulatory Adaptability as a Competitive Advantage

Regulation has been a key component of digital identity. What’s different in 2026 is the speed.

Governments are moving quickly to make corporate and personal identity more transparent, connected and machine-readable. Guided by bodies such as the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), many jurisdictions updated or expanded Anti-Money Laundering (AML) rules in 2025.

The goal was alignment. The result? More fragmentation than ever.

Instead of clarity, enterprises now face a patchwork of rules that vary by region, industry and technology type – and shift faster than organizations can operationalize them. 

In that environment, regulatory adaptability is no longer just a requirement – it’s a competitive advantage.

The New Compliance Reality

The past year has made the fragmentation clear. 

From new draft legislation on money laundering regulations in the U.K. to a patchwork of reporting requirements across the U.S., global commerce now demands that enterprises operate across different regulatory expectations for data, identity, biometrics, cryptoassets and beneficial ownership. 

Each expansion into a new country brings new unknowns – cultural norms, transaction patterns, local identity documents and shifting trust assumptions. What’s at stake isn’t only a bad audit. It’s delayed growth, blind spots around counterparties and fines in markets where the ground is still shifting.

A static approach to compliance simply can’t keep up.

Adaptability as a Compliance Strategy

So how do we solve that challenge? 

The companies that thrive in 2026 will be those with compliance frameworks that flex, rather than break, as rules change.

According to Trulioo Chief Product Officer Zac Cohen, “Innovation tends to push regulation into new areas. Until those regulations are fully formed, industry actors will need to move first while maintaining the agility to adapt to constant evolution.” 

That means leading businesses in 2026 will build systems that are:

• Transparent enough for regulators to trace every decision
  
• Auditable across jurisdictions and data types
  
• Explainable in how AI models reach decisions
  
• Modular so workflows can shift with new mandates without reengineering the stack
  

Compliance becomes something organizations practice continuously, not something they revisit when the rulebook updates.

What You Can Do Now

To prepare for the next wave of regulatory divergence, organizations should:

• Track global rulemaking, especially around beneficial ownership and AML
  
• Invest in explainability, ensuring AI-assisted verification can pass audit reviews
  
• Maintain isolated sandboxes for high-change areas like agentic commerce and biometric data retention
  

These steps turn compliance into a repeatable, resilient capability – one that’s in stride with the changing regulatory landscape, instead of a step behind.

Keeping Agile in 2026

Regulation is no longer the slow, predictable guardrail it once was. It is a rapidly evolving force reshaping how organizations verify identity, assess risk and enter new markets.

The winners of 2026 will not be those who simply keep pace with change.
They will be the ones who design for it – building systems that adapt as quickly as the regulations guiding them.

In a fragmented world, agility becomes the new foundation of trust.