Why GRC is Emerging as FinTech’s Most Strategic Growth Enabler?

Why GRC is Emerging as FinTech’s Most Strategic Growth Enabler

As the FinTech industry matures, so do the expectations place on these companies. What was once a fast-moving, experimental space is now tightly regulated, highly scrutinized, and deeply integrated into the broader financial ecosystem. In this new environment, Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) is no longer aback-office function. It is a core driver of customer trust, enterprise value, and market readiness.

To stay competitive, FinTech companies are rethinking how they approach compliance — not as a hurdle, but as a foundation for trust and speed. That shift is reshaping what a strong GRC platform looks like today.

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1. The Expectation Shift: From Speed to Stability

FinTech organizations aren’t just competing on features or UX. They’re being evaluated on how well they can protect sensitive data, demonstrate resilience, and align with the same regulatory frameworks as the legacy institutions they serve. Today’s financial customers don’t wait for vendors to catch up. If your GRC program can’t support their risk standards, that  conversation may end before it begins.

As a result, more companies are building audit readiness, control mapping, and security governance into their foundation instead of bolting it on after go-to-market.

Stripe, a global FinTech leader that processes billions in online payments. As Stripe rapidly scaled, it wasn’t enough to simply offer fast, developer-friendly payment solutions. Their clients included  large enterprises, banks, and highly regulated industries, all requiring  rigorous data protection, compliance, and audit readiness.
Stripe baked GRC into its infrastructure from the ground up — not as an afterthought. They:

·       Built a dedicated  security and compliance engineering team

·      Invested early in SOC 2, PCI DSS, and ISO 27001 certifications

·      Launched a public-facing security portal showing controls, processes, and certifications

·      Developed internal tools to automate control mapping and audit trails— similar to what many GRC platforms now offer

Because of this proactive approach, Stripe gained immediate trust with enterprise buyers and partners. Their stability and compliance posture became a competitive differentiator — not just a legal checkbox.

2. The Reality: FinTech’s Stakeholder Network is Inherently Complex

Unlike traditional software companies, FinTechs operate in an environment where regulators, infrastructure providers, end users, and third parties all influence compliance priorities. This complexity increases the need for shared clarity across teams and systems about how risk is being managed and communicated.

Robinhood, [AD1] a trading platform that offers commission-free stock and crypto investing, has had rapid growth putting the company under pressure from regulators, clearinghouses, and public investors all at once. During the 2021 GameStop short squeeze incident[AD2] , it faced operational strain and regulatory scrutiny over liquidity requirements and trading restrictions. This exposed how many different parties shape compliance expectations in FinTech.

To address this, Robinhood increased its legal and compliance hiring, improved risk monitoring systems, and began communicating operational decisions more clearly to users and regulators. It also built stronger coordination between product, legal, and customer support teams. These changes helped Robinhood respond to future risks more effectively and build credibility with a broader set of stakeholders.

3. The Strategy: Use GRC to Accelerate, Not Slow Down

GRC is often viewed as a regulatory requirement. But for FinTech, it is increasingly a go-to-market enabler. A well-structured GRC program can:

·      Shorten security reviews with potential partners or enterprise customers

·      Prevent launch delays due to last-minute audit surprises

·      Increase investor confidence through measurable risk maturity

Square, a digital payments company that started by helping small businesses accept card payments, has expanded beyond payments into services like Cash App, banking, and crypto. Each of these areas introduced new regulatory obligations. Rather than letting compliance delay product rollouts, Square built GRC into its product development model.

It added compliance staff to product teams, secured certifications like PCI DSS and SOX early, and implemented real-time risk monitoring. The company also created systems to  manage new regulatory requirements as it entered different verticals. These steps allowed Square to keep moving quickly without exposing itself to unnecessary risks or delays.

4. The Breakthrough: Automation as a Maturity Multiplier

Manual audit prep is a non-starter in high-growth environments. Spreadsheet-based compliance workflows drain engineering time and create unnecessary friction across every audit cycle.

By automating evidence collection, risk monitoring, and control mapping, FinTechs can:

·      Eliminate duplicate work across overlapping frameworks

·      Reduce reliance on manual documentation

·      Keep engineers focused on product development instead of audit support

·      Centralize knowledge for both internal stakeholders and external assessors

PayPal operates in more than 200 markets and must meet a wide range of regulatory requirements. It uses automation to manage this complexity without slowing down its operations.

PayPal built  centralized compliance dashboards, automated risk alerts, and integrated real-time fraud detection. It also set up systems to automatically collect and map evidence for frameworks like GDPR, PCI, and SOX. These tools reduce manual work, speed up audits, and give internal teams better visibility into compliance performance.

5. The Long Game: Build a Program That Scales Across Markets

FinTech companies often expand across geographies faster than their GRC programs can keep up. The patchwork of global regulatory frameworks makes it critical to start with a flexible, scalable foundation.

Those that succeed often adopt a layered approach:

·      Core control sets built to align with international standards

·      Adaptable components for local and regional requirements

·      Continuous evaluation to detect emerging gaps as expectations evolve

By investing early in a resilient structure, FinTechs avoid costly redesigns later and position themselves to stand out in high-stakes customer evaluations.

Wise (formerly TransferWise), a global money transfer platform, expanded into over 70 countries and needed a GRC program that could handle local differences while maintaining global consistency.

The company built abase compliance model around international standards like GDPR and AML. It added local controls where needed and set up regional teams to manage specific regulatory obligations. Wise also invested in a centralized platform to track licenses, audits, and control updates across all markets. This helped the company scale faster and avoid starting from scratch each time it entered a new country.

Conclusion: GRC is No Longer Optional. It's Strategic.

The future of FinTech belongs to companies that can move fast without cutting corners. GRC, when embedded into strategy and supported by automation, becomes a competitive advantage rather than a cost center. It is how companies earn trust at scale, enter regulated markets confidently, and differentiate in a crowded field.

For FinTech leaders, the question is no longer whether to prioritize GRC. It is how quickly and intentionally it can be built into the business. LockThreat can help you strategically cover all angles of your GRC Journey. Book a Demo with our experts and see LockThreat in action.