The global financial sector is facing unprecedented pressure to deliver commercial performance and rigorous compliance. As regulations tighten and markets fluctuate, financial institutions must embrace innovation to remain agile, efficient, and competitive.

Enter Luminance’s Legal-Grade AITM, the market-leading end-to-end solution helping finance professionals navigate complex regulations with speed and precision. We sat down with Anna Rawlence, VP of Product and Customer Experience, to explore how AI is transforming governance, compliance, and risk management in financial services.   

Q: What are some of the biggest challenges currently facing the financial sector?

The finance industry is operating in one of the most demanding regulatory environments we’ve ever seen. Governing authorities around the world are introducing new legislation and frameworks at a growing pace. From the EU’s DORA framework to crypto-asset standards, these new standards are impacting financial service providers and their clients, and compliance with these ever-shifting rules is non-negotiable.

Beyond tightening regulation, finance institutions face macro-economic uncertainty, volatile markets, and heightened customer expectations. Balancing all of these pressures while maintaining transparency and performance has become a defining challenge.

That’s why leading financial organisations adopt Luminance’s Legal-Grade™ AI. From automating due diligence to expediting reviews of LPAs and SPACs, Luminance enables firms to strengthen governance without sacrificing operational efficiency.

Q: How is AI reshaping the way the finance industry thinks about compliance and risk mitigation?

Organisations are increasingly recognising that AI is not just a tool for automation, but a strategic requirement for compliance and risk management. Luminance’s Legal-Grade™ AI is already transforming how financial institutions approach their governance and risk strategies by empowering organizations to move beyond reactive compliance and towards proactive oversight.

Luminance’s AI Negotiation Tool ensures teams spot potential risks before they escalate. With a first-pass review of any incoming contract, Luminance immediately identifies all deviations from your company’s core positions and policy standards, and suggests alternative language bring third-party paper into alignment. Then Auto Mark-Up amends the entire agreement in a single click. This level of precision allows firms to mitigate risk exposure and enhance internal controls at the review stage. And with our latest Compliance Module, compliance teams can be more confident than ever before that any agreement has gone through all the necessary checks, keep track of all ongoing relationships and respond to external factors in moments.

With new regulations like DORA and crypto-asset rules, how can AI help financial institutions stay compliant in real time?

Regulatory compliance is not a one-off task — it’s a continuous process. As new frameworks emerge, financial institutions must ensure that both new and existing contracts remain compliant.

Luminance’s end-to-end platform enables users to track compliance across all agreements, whether executed or in negotiation. For instance, say your team needs to check exposure against DORA requirements. Using Deep Insights, teams can ask natural-language questions such as “Show me all agreements that reference cybersecurity requirements” and instantly receive actionable summaries highlighting deviations and potential areas of non-compliance.  This real-time insight and tailored research plan allows firms to adapt policies quickly, reduce exposure, and monitor regulatory alignment across their entire contract landscape.

How does Luminance improve visibility across an organization’s contracts and obligations?

Luminance’s AI-powered contract repository ensures enterprise-wide visibility into your contracts. Acting as a single source of truth, the repository allows users to instantly surface critical business information like payment terns, renewal dates, and data protection provisions. Configurable dashboards and automatic alerts provide a continuous overview of these key milestones, ensuring no obligation or opportunity is missed.

What makes Luminance’s Legal-GradeTM AI well-suited to meet the evolving needs of financial institutions?

Unlike general-purpose AI tools, Luminance has been purpose-built for regulated industries, where accuracy, reliability and defensibility are key. Not only does Luminance recognised nuanced variations in language and have a legal contextual understanding of agreements, but our technology also works across any language and jurisdiction. This makes it the perfect tool for global financial institutions managing complex, cross-border portfolio. Our seamless integration into existing workflows, from Word-based negotiation to DocuSign execution, means teams are empowered to work faster and smarter with a tool that scales effortlessly with the growing commercial and regulatory demands of the finance industry.  

What next steps should companies interested in implementing Luminance take?

The best place to start is with a Proof of Value. Unlike other platforms, Luminance offers a free two-week trial that allows you to test the product out on your own contracts. You’ll experience firsthand the value of specialist AI unlocking unparalleled insight across your business. Get in touch today to bring the benefits of AI to your business.

Smiling young woman with blonde hair, wearing a gray outfit.

By: Anna Rawlence, VP of Product and Customer Experience

Anna oversees Luminance’s customer journey worldwide, partnering with clients to shape product development and deliver a best-in-class experience. She is a qualified solicitor in England and Wales, and prior to joining Luminance worked at White & Case as a Private Equity Associate. Anna studied History at the University of Edinburgh for her undergraduate degree, followed by completing her law conversion at BPP.