Context
The FCA has published a speech given by Nikhil Rathi, FCA Chief Executive, at techUK’s Agents of Change: Generative and Agentic AI in Financial Services 2026. Rathi comments that the financial services industry and the regulator are “building the future together”, and that “nowhere is that clearer than on AI”. Rathi states that, if we are serious about being a leading AI economy, financial services must sit at the heart of our approach. Only financial services, Rathi said, can provide the investment, infrastructure, and trust that will accelerate AI adoption across the economy.
Key points to note and next actions
- Financial services will be central to making the UK a world-leading AI economy, by providing the capital, infrastructure, and trust needed for AI to scale across the wider economy.
- As AI evolves faster than traditional regulation, the FCA is re-thinking what it means to be an effective regulator, with greater emphasis on competition, collaboration and system-wide risk awareness.
- As AI reshapes markets and increases interconnection, understanding how competition is evolving – and where that may impact resilience – will become more important than ever.
- The speech includes commentary on what scaling looks like, a different approach to regulation (including the regulator’s use of AI), resilience, and how the FCA is supporting innovation.