Britain's Financial Conduct Authority plans to become an "agentic regulator" by harnessing AI to automate supervisory and enforcement activities, stopping short of imposing new rules on the sector. Chief Data Officer Jessica Rusu will unveil the FCA's response to AI frontier models in a speech next week, building on recommendations from former executive Sheldon Mills. Wealth managers worry millions already use AI for personal finance advice despite lack of regulation and compensation recourse.
Research by Mills found a fifth of UK adults are open to using AI for financial decisions on savings or borrowing. FCA Chief Nikhil Rathi expresses skepticism, arguing the regulator should demonstrate existing powers before seeking new ones. The regulator plans to "build and adopt an AI-enabled agentic supervisory model" to oversee increasingly autonomous financial activities.
Rusu says AI is particularly effective at analysing unstructured text from companies, with findings to be published next week from firm visits examining AI implementation practices.
Source: Financial Times Companies · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing