The Reality Check: Is Your Organisation Actually Ready for RegTech?

Part 5 of the RegTech Selection Series

The most expensive RegTech mistake isn't buying the wrong solution.

It's buying any solution before you're ready.

Throughout this series, we've explored the RegTech Trap, the build vs. buy decision, how to evaluate vendors, and what makes implementation succeed. We've established that you're not buying algorithms, you're buying trust.

But here's what we haven't addressed: What if you're not ready to buy anything at all?

This is the question most organisations skip. The vendor demos are exciting. The board is asking about AI. The competitors seem to be moving faster. The pressure to do something is immense.

But technology layered onto a broken foundation doesn't fix the foundation. It just makes the cracks harder to see until they become impossible to ignore.

The Readiness Problem Nobody Talks About

I've watched organisations spend millions on RegTech solutions that were doomed before the contract was signed.

Not because the technology was wrong. Not because the vendor overpromised. But because the organisation wasn't ready to absorb it.

The signs were there:

• Data scattered across systems that don't talk to each other

• Processes that exist in people's heads, not in documentation

• Teams already overwhelmed by the last transformation initiative

• Executive sponsors who signed off but won't stay engaged

• A culture where "compliance" means "someone else's problem"

No technology survives this environment. The best it can do is expose how unprepared you were.

The Six Dimensions of RegTech Readiness

Before you evaluate a single vendor, assess yourself across these six dimensions:

1. Data Readiness

The question: Is your data clean enough to feed an AI?

RegTech solutions are only as good as the data they consume. If your customer records are incomplete, your transaction data is fragmented, or your risk ratings haven't been updated in years, no algorithm will save you.

Warning signs:

• Multiple "sources of truth" for the same data

• Manual workarounds to reconcile systems

• Data quality issues that everyone knows about but nobody owns

• Legacy fields that were repurposed and no longer mean what they say

The honest question: If you fed your current data into a new system tomorrow, would you trust what came out?

I learned this lesson the hard way during a system migration years ago. A field designated for "second nationality" had been repurposed by IT because it was never used until FATCA made it critical. The remediation was painful and expensive.

Data governance isn't bureaucracy. It's the foundation everything else sits on.

2. Process Clarity

The question: Do you actually know how work flows today?

You cannot automate what you don't understand. And most organisations understand their processes far less than they think.

Warning signs:

• Processes that exist only in senior employees' heads

• Workarounds that have become the actual process

• Different teams doing the same thing differently

• No one can draw the end-to-end workflow on a whiteboard

The honest question: If your three most experienced people left tomorrow, could someone reconstruct how things actually work?

New technology doesn't create process clarity. It demands it. If you implement a case management system without understanding your current case flow, you'll just digitise your confusion.

3. Change Capacity

The question: Can your organisation absorb another transformation?

Change fatigue is real. If your teams are still recovering from the last major initiative ... or worse, still in the middle of one, adding RegTech to the pile is a recipe for failure.

Warning signs:

• Multiple transformation initiatives running simultaneously

• "Change champions" who are already stretched thin

• Cynicism about new initiatives ("here we go again")

• No dedicated resources for implementation. Everyone's doing it "on top of" their day job

The honest question: When you announce this initiative, will people lean in or tune out?

The organisations that succeed treat implementation as a dedicated effort, not a side project. They protect time, they resource properly, and they sequence initiatives so people can actually absorb them.

4. Executive Commitment

The question: Is this a priority or a checkbox?

Executive sponsorship that ends at signature is worse than no sponsorship at all. It creates the illusion of support while leaving implementation teams exposed.

Warning signs:

• The executive sponsor delegates everything after approval

• No regular check-ins or visibility at leadership level

• Budget approved but no appetite for the hard decisions

• "Just make it work" without understanding what "it" requires

The honest question: Will your sponsor still be engaged six months in, when the hard problems surface?

RegTech implementations surface uncomfortable truths — about data quality, process gaps, and organisational dysfunction. Without sustained executive air cover, these truths get buried instead of addressed.

5. Team Readiness

The question: Do you have the skills to own this?

Buying technology doesn't eliminate the need for expertise. It shifts what expertise you need. And most organisations underestimate this shift.

Warning signs:

• No internal resources with experience in the technology category

• Assumption that the vendor will handle everything

• Training budget that covers initial rollout but not ongoing development

• Key roles unfilled or filled by people already at capacity

The honest question: Who will own this system after the vendor's implementation team leaves?

The vendor will configure it. The vendor will train you. But the vendor won't run it day-to-day. That's your job. And if you don't have the skills internally, you'll either become permanently dependent on expensive vendor support or watch the system slowly degrade.

6. Culture Foundation

The question: Do people trust each other enough to trust a new system?

This is the dimension most organisations ignore and the one that predicts success more than any other.

Technology adoption is fundamentally about trust. Trust that the system works. Trust that leadership knows what they're doing. Trust that speaking up about problems won't be punished. Trust that this initiative is actually meant to help, not just add burden.

Warning signs:

• Compliance seen as a "policing function" rather than a partnership

• People don't speak up when they see problems

• Blame culture when things go wrong

• Silos between teams that should collaborate

The honest question: If this implementation hits problems, will people surface them early or hide them until it's too late?

I've spent years advocating for compliance culture because I've seen what happens without it. The best technology in the world cannot overcome an environment where people don't trust each other. They'll work around the system, they'll hide problems, and they'll quietly abandon tools that don't fit how things "really work."

Culture isn't soft. It's the hardest thing to build — and the most important.

The Ten Questions to Ask Before You Start

Before you issue an RFP, before you schedule a demo, before you allocate budget, answer these honestly:

Data:

1. Can we identify a single source of truth for our core compliance data?

2. When was our last data quality assessment, and what did it find?

Process:

1. Could a new hire understand our key workflows from documentation alone?

2. Do we know where our current processes break down?

Change:

1. What's our track record on the last three technology implementations?

2. Do we have dedicated resources, or is this "on top of" existing jobs?

Leadership:

1. Will our executive sponsor still be engaged in month six?

2. Is there appetite to make hard decisions when problems surface?

Team:

1. Who will own this system after implementation?

2. What skills are we missing, and how will we fill the gaps?

If you can't answer these questions confidently, you're not ready. And that's okay.

When to Wait

There's no shame in pausing. In fact, it's often the smartest move.

Wait if:

• Your data quality issues would poison any new system

• Your team is still recovering from the last major change

• You can't articulate what problem you're actually solving

• Executive sponsorship is nominal, not real

• You don't have internal ownership identified

Use the waiting period to:

• Run a data quality remediation project

• Document your current processes properly

• Build change capacity through smaller initiatives

• Secure genuine executive commitment

• Develop or hire the skills you'll need

The vendors will still be there in six months. And you'll be a much better buyer.

When to Proceed

You're ready when:

✅ You can clearly articulate the problem you're solving in business terms, not technology terms

✅ Your data is clean enough, or you have a realistic remediation plan running in parallel

✅ Your processes are documented and understood

✅ You have dedicated resources and realistic timelines

✅ Your executive sponsor is genuinely committed, not just nominally attached

✅ You have internal ownership identified, someone who will own this after the vendor leaves

✅ Your culture supports speaking up when things go wrong

✅ Your team has the skills, or you have a plan to build them

✅ You've learned from previous implementations - what worked, what didn't

✅ You're buying to solve a defined problem, not because competitors are buying or the board is asking about AI

If you can check these boxes honestly, you're in a strong position. Proceed with confidence and use the frameworks from this series to select and implement well.

The Trust Thread

Looking back across this series, one theme runs through everything: trust.

Part 1: The RegTech Trap happens when organisations buy technology without building trust with vendors, with their teams, with the process itself.

Part 2: The build vs. buy decision is fundamentally about where you place your trust in your own capabilities or in a partner's.

Part 3: The Trust Equation: transparency, accountability, partnership predicts vendor success better than any feature list.

Part 4: Implementation succeeds or fails based on whether your organisation trusts the change enough to embrace it.

Part 5: Readiness is about whether the foundations of trust exist in your data, your processes, your leadership, your culture.

You cannot shortcut trust. You cannot buy it off the shelf. You cannot implement it in a quarter.

But you can build it deliberately. And when you do, technology becomes what it should be: an enabler, not a saviour.

The Bottom Line

RegTech is not a solution. It's an amplifier.

It amplifies good foundations into great outcomes. And it amplifies weak foundations into expensive failures.

Before you buy anything, ask the harder question: Are we ready?

If the answer is no, that's not failure. That's wisdom.

Fix the foundations first. Build the culture. Clean the data. Document the processes. Secure real commitment.

Then buy with confidence, with clarity, and with realistic expectations.

Because the organisations that succeed with RegTech aren't the ones with the biggest budgets or the fanciest tools.

They're the ones that were honest about where they started.

📋 The RegTech Selection Checklist

Ready to evaluate vendors? Download our one-page checklist with 16 questions across the Trust Equation framework.

👉 [Download the Selection Checklist (PDF)]

Read the Full Series

• Part 1: The RegTech Trap - Why most compliance technology investments fail before implementation begins

• Part 2: Build vs. Buy - When to build in-house and when to partner with specialists

• Part 3: Evaluating Solutions - The Trust Equation framework for vendor selection

• Part 4: Making It Work - Implementation, inclusion, and long-term success

• Part 5: The Reality Check - Is your organisation actually ready? (You are here)

This concludes our RegTech Selection series. Thank you for reading. If this framework has been useful, share it with a colleague who's about to start their own RegTech journey, ideally before they sign anything.