FCA Expands AI Lab and Launches Scale-Up Initiative for Financial Firms

The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has detailed new regulatory initiatives aimed at supporting artificial intelligence and fintech growth across the financial sector, according to a speech delivered by Jessica Rusu, the regulator's Chief Data, Information and Intelligence Officer, at UK FinTech Week. Speaking at the Innovate Finance Global Summit (IFGS), Rusu announced the expansion of the FCA AI Lab, designed to guide firms through technical and regulatory challenges from proof-of-concept to live market testing. The initiative includes an extended partnership with NVIDIA and Naya One to provide continued computing power and assistance beyond program completion. The FCA named the next cohort of institutions entering AI Live Testing to work on wholesale and retail use cases, agentic payments, AI in financial advice, and credit scoring. The group includes Barclays, GoCardless, Experian, UBS, Palindrome, Aereve, Co-Adjute, and Lloyds/Scottish Widows. Additionally, the regulator will open applications for the second intake of its Supercharged Sandbox on 5 May 2026, widening access to data and computing resources. Addressing regulatory policy, Rusu confirmed that the FCA is not introducing new AI rules at this stage. Instead, the watchdog plans to draw on findings from the AI Lab to publish supervisory examples of good and poor industry practices later this year to support safe AI deployment across UK financial services. The regulator also highlighted its Open Finance roadmap and Smart Data initiatives, pointing to market infrastructure preparations for agentic commerce, where automated digital agents execute transactions within defined consumer parameters. Alongside these technical programs, the FCA has officially opened expressions of interest for its Scale-Up Unit, offering targeted regulatory support to help solo-regulated firms grow, enter new markets, and build operational resilience.