Financial Conduct Authority
UK financial Conduct regulator since 2013; oversees ~50,000 firms; runs crypto and AI authorisation regimes.
The Financial Conduct Authority named eight firms, including Barclays, Lloyds and UBS, to its second AI Live Testing cohort on 21 April 2026, as sandbox applications rose 49% year on year and the regulator cut SM&CR certification roles by 15%.
Last refreshed: 22 September 2026 · Appears in 4 active topics
Does the FCA's sandbox-first approach to crypto leave UK elections exposed to unregulated donation flows?
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UK Local Elections 2026Background
The Financial Conduct Authority is the UK's Independent financial services regulator, established under the Financial Services Act 2012 and operating since April 2013 as successor to the Financial Services Authority. It regulates around 50,000 firms for consumer protection, market Integrity and competition, working alongside the Bank of England's Prudential Regulation Authority in a TWIN-peaks model, and is funded by industry levies rather than the taxpayer.
Its approach to new technology is consultation-first rather than rules-first: it runs live AI and crypto sandboxes that let firms test services under supervision ahead of full authorisation, a contrast regularly drawn against the European Union's binding MiCA and AI Act regimes. The Bank of England has directed the FCA to do further work on the systemic risk of agentic AI in payments and markets.
The FCA's jurisdiction stops at the UK border: it cannot supervise payment processors based abroad, a structural gap that recurred in 2026 when a Polish crypto processor handling UK political donations fell outside its reach.
FCA expands AI live testing
The Financial Conduct Authority named eight organisations to its second AI Live Testing cohort on 21 April 2026: Barclays, Lloyds/Scottish Widows, UBS, Experian and GoCardless among them, with London AI-assurance startup Advai as technical partner. Applications to its wider regulatory sandbox rose 49% year on year, a sign firms prefer supervised testing to waiting for binding rules.
The same week the FCA and the Prudential Regulation Authority cut Senior Managers and Certification Regime roles by 15%, the first reduction since the regime's 2019 extension, against a stated target of 50%.
FCA probes a donor's crypto stake
The Financial Conduct Authority agreed on 14 April 2026 to review a complaint from Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper alleging a Reform UK politician's undeclared 6% stake in Cryptocurrency firm Stack BTC, held while he promoted The Firm's £2m bitcoin purchase, could amount to market abuse.
The review is the FCA's own contribution to a wider pattern: three separate bodies, the FCA on market abuse, the Standards Commissioner on gift declarations, and the Electoral Commission on donations, now examine the same donor relationship from different statutory angles. None of the three has publicly concluded.