Regulatory technologies for enhancing sustainability compliance: a multivocal literature review

Unofficial AI-generated summary based on the public title and abstract. Not an official translation.

🔬研究者:Provides a comprehensive synthesis of RegTech literature for sustainability compliance, identifying research gaps and future directions.

🏢実務担当者:Offers insights on adopting RegTech for automated ESG reporting and risk management, with practical implications for financial institutions and corporations.

🏛政策担当者:Highlights the need for standardized terminology and regulatory support for RegTech to enhance sustainability compliance efficiency.

Purpose As sustainability regulations tighten, Regulatory Technologies (RegTech) solutions have become more crucial, enabling real-time monitoring, predictive risk analytics, automated reporting and data-driven decision-making to support compliance. The purpose of this study is to synthesize the existing body of knowledge from academic and gray literature – including insights from researchers, industry and governing authorities – to assess the capabilities enabled, challenges and limitations of using RegTech solutions for sustainability compliance. Design/methodology/approach A multivocal literature review approach was applied to synthesize insights from academic literature and gray literature. We adopt an information systems capabilities lens to assess how RegTech supports sustainability-related compliance needs. Given that RegTech is an emerging field where much of the practical development and discussions about RegTech and compliance technologies occur outside academia, a multivocal literature review approach bridges the gap between academia and industry and ensures a comprehensive and holistic analysis. Findings The findings reveal that RegTech enables automated compliance monitoring, and environmental, social and governance (ESG) risk management, enhances transparency in reporting and offers tools to mitigate greenwashing risks while also supporting sustainable investment and digital finance. In additon, varying maturity levels across platforms, high implementation costs and cybersecurity risks present further adoption challenges. Practical implications To fully harness RegTech’s potential, interdisciplinary collaboration is crucial. Researchers in sustainability, finance, law, management and information systems should work together to develop frameworks, empirical studies and policy recommendations that address the operational, ethical and technical dimensions of RegTech. Strengthening partnerships between academia, industry and policymakers can help bridge the gap between conceptual research and practical implementation, ensuring that RegTech solutions are both effective and ethically sound. For industry, the integration of RegTech solutions presents a significant opportunity to improve sustainability compliance while reducing regulatory burden. Financial institutions, corporations and technology providers should prioritize investments in scalable and interoperable RegTech solutions that align with emerging regulatory and sustainability reporting standards such as the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation and global ESG disclosure standards. Originality/value This study’s originality lies in its comprehensive synthesis of academic and gray literature to evaluate the role of RegTech in sustainability compliance, a critical yet unexplored topic. Moreover, the study provides valuable insights for researchers, policymakers, regulators and practitioners on advancing standardized terminology across disciplines regarding the RegTech phenomenon and offers strategies and insights to enhance RegTech’s potential in driving sustainability compliance.

• openaire https://doi.org/10.1108/jfrc-04-2025-0074first seen 2026-05-05 19:08:43