AI marketing compliance software for financial services: how to choose

We make Connor, one of the tools this page describes. Every fact about another vendor comes from that vendor's own website, read on 24 October 2026, and each one is linked in the sources. Where a website doesn't mention something, we don't assume the vendor lacks it. If you represent a vendor and something here is wrong or out of date, email hi@runconnor.com and we'll correct it.

What marketing compliance software does

Marketing compliance software checks a financial firm's marketing against the rules of the regulators it answers to: adverts, social posts, videos, web pages, emails, brochures, and what affiliates and influencers post about the firm. It works before publication and after. People also call it marketing material review software, marketing materials compliance review or advertising compliance software.

The format doesn't change the rules. The FCA says “All financial promotions must be clear, fair and not misleading regardless of the media type”, and that a promotion can “take the form of a website, Facebook post, tweet, etc.” (FCA). In the UK the advertising codes apply as well: “All financial marketing communications are, however, subject to Code rules that cover non-technical elements of communications”, such as serious or widespread offence and social responsibility (CAP Code, section 14).

1. SubmitA marketer uploads a draft, or a link to a post or web page.
2. CheckThe tool checks it against the rules, flags what may breach them and explains each finding.
3. DecideAn approver at the firm accepts or dismisses each finding, then approves the promotion or sends it back.
4. RecordEvery version, finding and decision is kept. COBS 4.11.1R requires an adequate record of every promotion a firm communicates or approves, with some exceptions.
5. MonitorOnce the promotion is live, the tool checks it again, along with the firm's website, its affiliates' posts and ads that others run about it.

How it differs from proofing, brand and surveillance tools

Four kinds of software are sold for checking marketing. They look at different things:

The lines are blurring. IntelligenceBank says its AI “Flags brand, legal and regulatory risks during creation, during review and after content goes live”, and Filestage says its Review Agents give “instant feedback based on your brand guidelines and industry regulations”. Judge a tool by what it does rather than what it is called: which financial regulators' rules it holds, and whether its findings cite them.

Archiving and surveillance tools serve a different rule: a firm must take all reasonable steps to record telephone conversations, and keep electronic communications, that relate to certain activities in financial instruments (SYSC 10A.1.6R). Those tools capture what staff say to clients; marketing compliance software checks what the firm publishes.

What AI review does, and what stays with your firm

Automated compliance review is a first read. A tool reads the promotion, flags what may breach the rules and explains why. It cannot approve anything, because the obligation sits with the firm:

A firm must ensure that a communication or a financial promotion is fair, clear and not misleading.

Our guide to fair, clear and not misleading covers what that takes. A firm approving an unauthorised person's promotion must also “confirm that the financial promotion complies with the financial promotion rules” before approving it (COBS 4.10.2R(1)); see the financial promotions approval process. In the US, an appropriately qualified registered principal of a FINRA member firm must approve each retail communication, with some exceptions, before it is first used or filed with FINRA, whichever is earlier (FINRA Rule 2210(b)(1)(A)).

What a tool can check in the promotion

• Prescribed wording that is missing or altered, such as the CFD risk warning in COBS 22.5.6R.
• Warnings without enough prominence: only in a caption, on the last slide or at the end of a video.
• Claims that need evidence or balance, such as “guaranteed”, “risk-free” or a projected return.
• What is said in a video, as well as what is written.
• What changed between versions, and between markets.

What only your firm can confirm

• Whether a claim is true, and that you hold the evidence.
• Who will see the promotion, and whether your targeting keeps others out.
• Whether rates, fees and loss percentages are current. A UK CFD firm must recalculate its loss percentage every three months.
• Whether customers understand it, which the Consumer Duty requires you to test where appropriate (PRIN 2A.5.10R).
• The final judgement, and the decision on record.

The firm stays responsible for every promotion it communicates or approves, whatever tool it uses. The FCA's social media guidance says “It is up to firms to decide how to ensure that a financial promotion complies with our rules” (FG24/1, paragraph 1.12). The FCA does not plan AI-specific rules: “We do not plan to introduce extra regulations for AI. Instead, we'll rely on existing frameworks”, which include accountability for senior managers (FCA, AI and the FCA). On its own use of AI, the FCA says: “Our people remain integral, using their expertise for judgement, while AI focuses on pulling out facts and analysing unstructured text.”

Anything prepared outside your firm feeds your checks rather than replacing them. In a review of 10 approvers published in May 2026, the FCA found that “In some cases, firms relied on third-party templates instead of doing proper checks themselves” (FCA, 27 May 2026).

Why firms are buying it now

The FCA's latest figures, for 2024, show it intervening on more promotions, and it says compliance is still a concern:

promotions amended or withdrawn by authorised firms after FCA intervention in 2024

19,766

the same figure for 2023

10,008

That is an increase of 97.5%. The FCA wrote: “We are still concerned about the levels of compliance with the financial promotions' rules and will keep focusing on this area to reduce consumer harm.” Old material is part of the job: in the third quarter of 2024, one firm withdrew 6,792 promotions, “many of which were historical promotions withdrawn as a precaution” (FCA, Q3 2024 data). Our guide to FCA financial promotions data has the detail.

The FCA calls social media “an increasingly important part of firms' marketing strategies, enabling firms to reach large audiences”. On affiliates, it says: “Firms working with affiliate marketers, like finfluencers, should take proactive responsibility for how their affiliates communicate financial promotions.” After publishing its social media guidance in March 2024, it reviewed 411 social media promotions across 21 firms (FCA, 2024 data). In May 2026, its director of consumer investments, Lucy Castledine, said: “Consumers see these promotions daily - in social media feeds, online adverts, websites and apps.” See financial promotions on social media.

The Consumer Duty reaches every channel. Its consumer understanding rules apply to any firm under the Duty that produces, approves or distributes financial promotions, whatever the channel, “including electronic communications, such as on social media” (PRIN 2A.5.1R). Where appropriate, a firm must test communications before sending them and monitor their impact afterwards (PRIN 2A.5.10R).

How to compare marketing compliance software

There's no single best marketing compliance software, only the one that handles your markets, formats and volumes best on your own promotions. For the vendors side by side, see our comparison of 11 tools. Ten things separate them.

Where the rules come from. Ask whether the rules are built from regulators' own text or from a checklist the vendor wrote, and whether every finding quotes the words it is about, cites the provision and links to it. A finding your approver can't check against the regulator's text is an opinion. Ask how changes reach the tool: in April 2026 the FCA proposed removing consumer credit promotion provisions in CONC 3 “which may be overly prescriptive or outdated” (CP26/15), and in October it said it will review its promotion rules for high-risk investments (FS26/3).

Which rules apply to each promotion. A UK gold CFD banner and a US savings advert need different rules. Ask whether the tool works out the rules from your home regulator, the markets a promotion targets and the products it names, and whether you see that list before the check runs. Findings from rules that don't apply cost your approver time on every promotion.

Which markets. List every market your promotions reach, including through your website and your affiliates. The baseline is similar (“fair, clear and not misleading” under COBS 4.2.1R, “fair and balanced” under FINRA Rule 2210(d)(1)(A)), but prescribed warnings, approval duties and record periods are local. Ask whether a promotion shown in two markets is checked against both.

Which formats. Ask which formats the tool reads and its size and length limits, then send your hardest material. The FCA's social media guidance says a short video does not meet its expectations if its dialogue gives the benefits disproportionate prominence, and nor does a long video whose risk warning appears at the end rather than while the promotion is being made (FG24/1, paragraph 2.46). To catch either, a tool has to hear the audio and know when each warning appears, not only read the caption.

What happens after launch. If you approve promotions for others, you must take reasonable steps to monitor each one for as long as it is communicated (COBS 4.10.2R(1A)). If affiliates promote you, the FCA expects you to consider “how many partnerships the firm can viably maintain before adequate monitoring is no longer possible” (FG24/1, paragraph 3.22). Ask which websites, networks, hashtags and ad libraries a tool watches, how often, how it tells a post about you from one that isn't, and whether it sees your site as a visitor in each market does. The FCA has described as good practice an approver that “had introduced software to monitor approved financial promotions on their clients' websites”, which “detects changes to the website the approver can proactively investigate” (FCA, 2024 data). See affiliate marketing compliance.

The record. You must make an adequate record of every promotion you communicate or approve, with some exceptions, and keep it for three, five or six years depending on the business, or indefinitely for pension transfers, conversions, opt-outs and FSAVCs (COBS 4.11.1R). For MiFID business, COBS 4.11A.3R also requires a record of each marketing communication a firm issues, other than oral ones. FINRA spells out what its record must include, such as a copy, the dates of first and last use, and the principal who approved it and when (Rule 2210(b)(4)). Ask to see one promotion's full record: every version, the findings, any dismissed and why, who decided and when, and the rules as they stood. Then ask how you export all of it, because you may have to keep it longer than you use the tool.

Where your teams work. Ask to see the integrations you need working in the demo: where creative is discussed (Slack, Teams), where work is tracked (Jira, Monday.com) and an API if you want to send promotions from your own systems.

Security evidence. Ask for independent evidence, such as certificates or audit reports and what they cover, rather than a policy summary. The FCA's guidance on outsourcing to the cloud says a firm should agree a data residency policy setting out where its data “can be stored, processed and managed”, and “know how it would remove data from the service provider's systems on exit” (FG16/5, pages 8 and 12). For AI tools, also ask which model providers process your promotions and whether your material is used to train models.

How pricing works. Ask what the unit is (a user, a module, a promotion, a version or a minute of video), whether a revised version is charged again, whether monitoring costs extra and what happens above your expected volume. Model it on last year's promotions, by format.

Time to go live. Ask what the vendor needs from you (markets, products, your own rules, users) and the date your first real promotion goes through. Then run the trial below before you sign.

How Connor answers these questions

Connor reads a promotion and works out which rules apply from your home regulator, the markets it targets and the products it promotes. It lists each problem with the rule it breaks and the fix; a person at your firm makes the decision, and Connor keeps the record. After launch, it checks your websites and your affiliates' and influencers' accounts.

• Rules from the regulator's own textConnor's library holds 206,492 provisions from 35 regulators and legislatures, collected from each one's official source (as of 18 October 2026). Each finding quotes the words it is about, cites the rule and links to the regulator's text where one is published.
• Only the rules that applyConnor works out which of its 548 rules apply from your home regulator, your markets and your products, and shows you before the check runs. You can add your own rules too.
• Nine jurisdictionsPromotions are checked in the UK, the EU, Cyprus, Ireland, the US, Australia, the UAE onshore, DIFC and ADGM.
• Video, including what is saidImages and carousels, videos including their audio and spoken words, PDFs up to 20 pages, presentations and Figma designs saved as PDFs or images, social posts by link and web pages.
• Affiliates and influencers, checked dailyTheir public accounts on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook and X, and LinkedIn company pages, with each new post scored for whether it is about you. It can review the relevant ones automatically against the rules that apply, and finds anyone's posts under your hashtags and Meta ads by anyone that mention you. It does not monitor Discord or Telegram.
• Websites as each market sees themAdd each site with the markets it serves, and Connor reads every page the way a visitor in that market sees it: the UK, the EU, the US, the UAE or Australia.
• The recordEach promotion goes from submission to approval, with comments on the creative and on each finding. A person at your firm decides; the record holds every version, the rules as they stood that day and who decided what, as a PDF or a read-only link. Reports show turnaround, approval rates and common issues.
• Where your teams workSlack, Teams, Jira and Notion; Monday.com, a REST API and others on request. Rule questions are answered in Claude and ChatGPT, Slack and Microsoft Teams, with the provision quoted and linked.

Pricing is not published: Connor charges a monthly platform fee plus credits for each promotion checked. Getting started takes about a week, and the first week is a free trial.

How to run a fair trial

A demo shows the vendor's examples. A trial on your own promotions shows what you'll live with.

1. Choose 30 to 50 of your own promotionsCover every format and market you use: some approved unchanged, first drafts of some that needed changes, and any that a regulator, an approver or a complaint challenged. Add hard cases, such as a carousel whose risk warning is small and only on the last slide, and a long video that shows the warning only at the end. FG24/1 (paragraph 2.46) says neither meets the FCA's expectations.
2. Write the answer key firstFor each promotion, list every issue and the rule it breaks, and mark the clean ones. Have a second person check the key, and don't share it with vendors.
3. Clear what you uploadRemove personal data and anything you can't share, and agree confidentiality and data terms with each vendor before uploading.
4. Run every tool the same wayThe same promotions, markets and products, run by your own people. Don't let a vendor tune its tool on your test set.
5. Score every findingMark each one found, missed or wrong against the key, and note whether it can be checked against the rule.
6. Run some twicePut a few promotions through again. AI tools can give different answers to the same input, and you need to know how often that happens.
7. Time one real decisionFrom upload to a recorded decision with your own approver. Then export the record and read it as the regulator would.

Score each tool on the same measures:

Questions to ask vendors in a demo or RFP

Connor checks each promotion against the rules that apply to it and cites the rule behind every finding. Its first week is a free trial: run your test set through it alongside the rest of your shortlist.