Rooted in Compliance: Insights from the fintech compliance market

Ahead of Rooted in Compliance: Session 1 – Fintech, we caught up with Kendall Maylor, Divisional Principal, Privacy, Legal, Compliance & Policy in Emerging Tech, to discuss what she's seeing across the fintech compliance market and the conversations coming up most often with leaders in the space.

As fintechs continue to grow, launch new products, and navigate emerging technologies, compliance teams are being asked to do more than ever before. The role is evolving beyond regulation and oversight, with compliance leaders playing an increasingly important part in helping businesses scale responsibly.

In this Q&A, Kendall shares her thoughts on the challenges fintechs are facing today, common misconceptions about compliance, and what she hopes people take away from the first Rooted in Compliance session.

What’s the biggest shift you’re currently seeing across fintech compliance?

The fintech compliance market is moving from reactive to proactive and a more strategic business function. Compliance leaders are no longer just interpreting regulations but instead they are being asked to enable growth, support product innovation, evaluate AI risk, own third-party relationships and build governance frameworks that are scalable. Compliance is becoming more integrated with product engineering, and executive leadership.

What’s one challenge fintechs are struggling to solve?

Balancing innovation with regulatory expectations: Fintechs generally want to move quickly and leverage AI, launch new products or services, and expand into new markets. At the same time, investors and regulators expect mature compliance programs. It seems to be a common theme that a handful of fintechs are trying to figure out how to build compliance frameworks that scale with the business without hindering product and engineering teams. This is a key coveted skillset at the moment.

What’s something people outside the space misunderstand about compliance?

A tale as old as time! ‘Compliance exists to slow things down or just be the team/person that says ‘no’’. This is not the case. The best compliance teams help the business move faster by creating clear frameworks that make decision making easier. Strong compliance programs build trust with banking partners, regulators, customers, and investors.

Compliance is not a cost center, it is a competitive advantage.

What are you hoping people take away from the first Rooted in Compliance session?

My hope is that the individuals attending leave realizing that they are not facing these challenges alone. Whatever it might be, AI governance, regulator change, or scaling teams, most fintechs are wrestling with the same challenges.

I want to create a space where compliance leaders share practical ideals, lessons learned and build relationships with peers who understand the space and can relate. No one has all the answers, but my hope is to bring people together and learn from one another as the industry moves forward.