Technology
By Steven Anderson
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Four Shifts Driving the FCA's Concern. The Mills Review doesn't just flag AI as a vague future problem. It gets specific.
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Seven Recommendations on the Table. Mills didn't just describe the problem — he handed the FCA Board and Executive a list of seven…
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What the FCA Is Already Running. It's worth noting the FCA hasn't been sitting still.
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The FCA dropped a major report last week. Sheldon Mills, the regulator's executive director, led what's now being called the Mills Review — a deep look at how artificial…
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The headline number is pretty striking. Around 11 million UK adults — roughly a fifth of the country — say they'd be open to using AI for personal finance decisions.
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The Mills Review doesn't just flag AI as a vague future problem. It gets specific. The report lays out four concrete shifts it sees coming for the financial sector, and none of…
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First, firm operations. AI is going to change how financial companies run themselves internally — faster processing, automated decisions, reduced headcount in some areas.
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So the FCA isn't just excited about AI. It's worried too.
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Mills didn't just describe the problem — he handed the FCA Board and Executive a list of seven things to do about it. Securing the regulatory perimeter is first.
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Beyond that, the review calls for scaling up the FCA's AI Lab, enabling what it calls agentic finance — AI that can act on a consumer's behalf within pre-set goals — and building…
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More context: Bank of England Pushes New Retail Payments Overhaul With Open Stakeholder Consultation
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Ashley Alder, the FCA's Chair, welcomed the report and said the regulator wants to keep up with how fast agentic AI is moving.
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It's worth noting the FCA hasn't been sitting still. The AI Lab already exists, and it includes AI Live Testing — a way for firms to try out AI tools under regulatory supervision…
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The FCA has also previously put out an AI Discussion Paper and run an AI Sprint. So the infrastructure for engagement is there.
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Later this year, the FCA plans to publish a separate piece on AI good and poor practice. That publication will pull in insights from firms directly, trying to get a clearer…
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