Our Compliance Group Director, Yoab Bitran, and Senior Associate in the Public Law and Regulated Markets Group, Ramiro Araya, spoke with LexLatin in a special report on the challenges of 2026 in corporate governance.
In 2026, companies in Latin America face a turning point in corporate governance: the convergence of digitization, electronic auditing, and new environmental requirements has transformed regulatory compliance into a strategic business factor.
The adoption of artificial intelligence, data management, access to critical resources such as water, obtaining sectoral permits, and structuring investments can no longer be addressed as isolated agendas. Today, these decisions are subject to a narrower, more dynamic regulatory framework with less tolerance for error.
In this new scenario, compliance is no longer a reactive or purely administrative function, but has become a cross-cutting risk management system capable of integrating technology, regulation, and corporate strategy.
From data protection and cybersecurity, through digital and energy infrastructure, to foreign trade, environmental oversight, and public-private partnership models, companies must anticipate regulatory volatility and redesign their internal processes to operate with traceability, resilience, and real-time control. This regional landscape shows how, from Mexico to Chile, and from Peru to Colombia and Panama, the challenge is no longer just to grow or invest, but to do so with legal certainty in an increasingly demanding environment.
Technology governance and compliance: AI, data, and cybersecurity
Yoab Bitran, director of the Compliance Group at Albagli Zaliasnik, defines the current scenario as the Digital Compliance Triad, consisting of the Cybersecurity Framework Law, AI regulation, and the entry into force of the Personal Data Protection Law in December 2026.
“The main line of defense in these matters is the human factor. Therefore, it is essential to build digital awareness in organizations. A culture that, without affecting innovation and necessary risk-taking, promotes responsibility in data protection, information security, and ethics in the implementation of AI. Chile is adopting very advanced standards in data protection. The challenge of adapting, identifying data processing activities, issuing accessible and reasonable policies, and training the entire organization requires the fundamental support of the company’s leadership,” says Bitran.
Sectoral permits and critical resources: when compliance shifts the risk to the operator
In Chile, the Framework Law on Sectoral Authorizations seeks to reduce bureaucracy but introduces new compliance risks. Ramiro Araya, senior associate in Albagli Zaliasnik’s Public Law and Regulated Markets Group, explains that the regulation establishes a gradual implementation mechanism whose main milestones must be achieved during the first half of 2026.
“As is usually the case with major legal reforms, both the enactment of new regulations and their practical application cause uncertainty among all market players, which will lead to cultural change and even internal organizational change. This will force companies to strengthen their compliance and technical due diligence processes to minimize their exposure to potential criminal and administrative liability,” warns Araya.
According to the lawyer, the regulatory change also affects risk assessment by financial institutions and investment companies. Under the new scheme, the analysis is no longer based on obtaining prior sectoral permits as a guarantee of legality, but on sworn statements or certificates of positive silence issued by the SUPER platform.
This transition, says the specialist, eliminates the regulator’s preventive control and transfers responsibility to the holder, who is subject to subsequent reviews and possible summary invalidation of the permit if errors or falsehoods are detected.
“Finally, due to the exclusion of environmental permits from the new regulation, it is very likely that medium and large companies that must enter the Environmental Impact Assessment System will not experience a substantive improvement in their current situation,” he adds.
You can read the full report here.
