An investment advisor in Seattle shares a product update with a client in Tokyo. The advisor speaks confidently, using clear slides and polished language. The client nods, asks no questions, and thanks them for the time. But the next day, a support ticket appears. The client didn’t understand the new terms. Now they are hesitant to move forward.
That moment is no longer just a customer service issue. It is a compliance risk.
Financial compliance has always been about getting things right. In 2025, it’s also about making sure things are understood. That means being clear across languages, channels, and time zones.
Regulators are watching more closely. They’re asking if clients truly grasp what they’re being told. And that’s bringing language access to the center of the compliance conversation.
This article looks at what financial compliance really means in 2025. It focuses on how regulators are raising expectations and what that means for the way institutions communicate. We’ll explore how language access is becoming part of everyday compliance and why it matters for teams working across borders and languages.
In the past, being compliant meant sharing the right information, at the right time, in the right format. That’s still important.
But now, regulators want to know how you shared that information, and if it was actually understood by the person receiving it.
This shift touches everyday activities like:
Product and risk disclosures
Onboarding conversations
Cross-border transactions
Regulatory meetings and internal reviews
These interactions are often complex, technical, and time-sensitive. When language gets in the way, the risk of misunderstanding — and non-compliance — goes up.
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Regulators in the EU, US, and UK have made it clear: communication needs to be fair, clear, and understandable. Here’s what that looks like in practice:
The Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II) has required since 2014 that information be shared in a "comprehensible form," helping clients understand the nature and risk of investment products.
In the US, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) updated its guidance in 2023. It encourages financial institutions to support clients with Limited English Proficiency by creating language access plans and multilingual services.
The UK’s Consumer Duty, updated in February 2025, asks firms to help customers make informed decisions. That includes people who may struggle to understand communications due to language or other barriers.
This all points to one thing: It’s not enough to say you told the client. You have to show that they understood you.
If a client doesn’t fully understand the terms of a financial product, you don’t just have a confused customer. You have a compliance problem.
Here’s what’s at stake:
Language is no longer just a customer support issue. It’s a governance issue too.
Compliance teams are working more closely with legal, operational, and customer-facing teams to close these gaps. Many are now building language access into their risk and compliance processes.
What that looks like:
These aren’t just tech upgrades. They’re smart, scalable ways to meet compliance expectations and reduce the risk of miscommunication.
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In 2025, regulators are asking new questions. Here’s what compliance and audit teams need to be ready for:
If your answers aren’t clear, your audit results might not be either.
Some financial firms are doing more than just checking the compliance box. They’re using language access to build trust, keep clients, and expand into new markets.
By adding interpretation, captions, and translation into their client-facing work, they can:
Tools like Interprefy are already helping financial teams do this without adding complexity. Whether it’s a live webinar or a confidential client call, they make it easier to deliver multilingual communication that meets today’s standards.
Financial compliance used to be about having the right documents in place. Now, it’s also about making sure those documents — and the conversations around them — are clear, understandable, and accessible.
Language access is becoming part of how compliance is judged. The firms that act on this now won’t just avoid risk. They’ll stand out for doing the right thing, the right way, for every client they serve.