Proactive compliance isn’t just a buzzword; it’s a business imperative. Alan Carlisle, chief compliance officer at Marqeta, breaks down how companies can align compliance with innovation and growth.
New challenges in 2025 will require businesses to go beyond thinking of compliance as merely “rule-following” and instead as a driver of sustainable growth. The DOJ has significantly heightened its scrutiny of compliance programs in recent years, setting higher standards and expectations. Despite this, many companies continue to favor reactive “fire extinguisher” solutions over proactively investing in thoughtful compliance strategies that align with the DOJ’s evolving guidance.
With a new administration taking office, the regulatory environment will certainly evolve across industries, requiring companies in banking and fintech and those using emerging technologies like AI to be on high alert, ready to navigate as new rules and changes are implemented.
Given the uncertainty ahead, it will be increasingly important for compliance leaders to implement strategies that keep them one step ahead of ever-changing regulatory regimes, protect their companies and help propel innovation forward.
Building a proactive compliance program
For companies to adopt effective and proactive compliance strategies, compliance must be deeply ingrained in the organization’s culture, with every individual — from leadership to frontline employees — actively embracing their role in upholding ethical practices and adhering to regulatory standards. With these elements, organizations can be better equipped to build a foundation of trust and resilience while empowering deeper innovation and growth.
Embed compliance into company culture
Compliance should serve as a cornerstone of a company’s culture and 2025 strategic priorities. Compliance strategies should go beyond simply seeking to avoid fines and instead be embedded into the everyday makeup of the business’s culture and product strategies, helping to build trust, ensure stability and foster sustainable growth. An employee-centric compliance program is a proven value-add to innovation, instead of compliance being a barrier to building and launching new products and services.
The first step is having a well-thought-out approach to employee training at all levels, emphasizing the importance of compliance in every aspect of the company. When employees understand the “why” and “how,” the collective focus and ownership of implementing compliance into everyday work is easier and more effective. However, training isn’t enough in isolation to drive improved compliance outcomes and to truly shape compliance culture. In addition to training, companies should be implementing helpful process-oriented strategies to better integrate compliance into their people experience and brand promise. This includes:
- Promoting their commitment to serving the customer and interests of consumers, businesses or whomever the company’s downstream products and services are intended to provide a solution for. This should be a “tone from the top” commitment that includes compliance-related objectives in employee and team goals to reinforce the importance of remaining mindful of ethical and regulatory obligations.
- Inviting compliance experts to the conversation early in product development, corporate strategy and issue resolution can allow for the application of a regulatory lens to decision-making. It will be important for company executives to coach their compliance partners to focus on active listening in early conversations to avoid impeding the creative space needed to innovate. Obstacles should only be introduced early when they are material and can have an outsized impact on the project or eventual outcome. This approach builds trust between the commercial and control arms of the organization, resulting in better collaboration company wide.
- Building intentional gates as a “forcing function” to ensure that risks are being talked about openly and honestly so that risk-measured mitigating controls can be thoughtfully designed to minimize friction and cost. This can be as simple as compliance “sign-off” processes. This is also an area where executives can coach both sides of the risk-and-reward equation, ensuring that a healthy credible challenge is invited but that building bureaucracy for the sake of bureaucracy must be avoided at all costs.
Using these or similar basic mechanisms can result in a cross-functional collaboration between legal, compliance, IT and operations to break down silos and strengthen the rollout of new initiatives and trainings across departments, helping to mitigate risks and create a foundation for long-term success.
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Read moreDetailsBuild awareness and foresight of the regulatory environment
Staying up to date with compliance trends and new regulations is a critical part of being able to implement a proactive compliance strategy. Companies that consistently monitor regulatory trends are more equipped to anticipate upcoming changes, allowing them to take action and more effectively adapt their product strategies to ensure new solutions and innovations are compliant from conception. Compliance teams that actively engage with industry bodies, legal experts and regulators to stay informed can take action faster to help protect themselves and their customers as new regulations are introduced.
Companies that proactively embrace compliance have demonstrated their adaptability, gaining a competitive edge by staying ahead of regulatory changes. For example, Microsoft implemented GDPR before its enforcement, thereby establishing the company as a pioneer in data privacy. Major brands are also proactively developing ethical AI guidelines and aligning their products with emerging regulations around AI and data security. Organizations that go beyond compliance and integrate robust approaches into the foundation of their company priorities turn compliance into a competitive advantage, not a financial burden or source of friction. Adapting with clear strategies and the right tools isn’t just smart–it’s essential.
In 2025, compliance is no longer a checkbox exercise but a strategic advantage. Businesses that embrace proactive compliance will stay ahead of regulations and lead the charge in innovation. Making compliance a proactive partner in decision-making and hiring the right people helps to mitigate risks and builds trust with customers and stakeholders, allowing businesses to set themselves apart in a competitive market.
Alan Carlisle is chief compliance officer at Marqeta. He is a veteran regulatory and compliance practitioner with over 25 years of experience in financial services and capital markets. Before Marqeta, Alan was most recently with SoFi, where he spent six years leading the compliance function. 
