Speech by Nikhil Rathi, FCA chief executive at techUK’s Agents of Change: Generative and Agentic AI in Financial Services 2026. On joining the FCA over five years ago, I said we would become as much a data and tech regulator as financial services regulator.Being invited to speak here today reflects that.We’re building the future together, and nowhere is that clearer than on AI.Studies suggest more than 80% of financial services firms are already adopting AI.So the question now is about scale.And if we are serious about being a leading AI economy, financial services have to sit at the heart of our approach.Only financial services can provide the investment, infrastructure, and trust that will accelerate AI adoption across the economy.But with the pace of change brought about by AI challenging many of the assumptions on which our markets and regulation were built, the question isn’t simply how we regulate for AI.It’s how do we preserve trust, competition, and resilience when technology is moving markets dramatically faster than the frameworks governing them?
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What is FCA? We protect people by helping them understand some of the most common risks they might come across when using financial services.
We publish warnings about firms that are doing business without our authorisation, and we encourage consumers to report scams, potential harm or bad conduct to us.
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We want to help consumers protect themselves, so we work with consumer organisations to raise awareness of what we do. These organisations also help inform our approach to regulation.