Two hours with the FCA - “a breath of fresh air”
On Wednesday 18th June, we were hearing words from the community that traditionally haven’t been associated with the FCA - is this the dawn of a new era? It just might be.
After brief intros from Rob Branch of EY and Stuart Harrison, we gave over the floor to Sebastian Ricketts and John Macauly from the FCA to describe the FCA Innovation Services.
The agenda was thorough, describing the 2025 five year strategy and several ways in which firms can engage with the FCA to explore the best way for them to deliver a new product and service.
Sebastian explained how the fundamental aspects of the FCA have not changed, namely protecting customers of financial services, particularly consumers. However, the approach is becoming “smarter” and more agile with 99% of authorisations now achieved on time, launching their AI Lab and generally providing a safer industry for all.
John described how they are supporting the full innovation lifecycle from early stage ideas to prototyping and on to production and how the different services supplied by the FCA can be applied. Firms can apply to the “Innovation Pathways” if they are still in the early stagtes of development or working through “grey areas” of their business model. The “Regulatory Sandbox” is there for those with an MVP and wish to test their offering in a live market with real consumers. John also took us through the journey for applications to these two areas.
There are some impressive stats as to the benefits gains from the Sandbox including reduction of time getting to market, greater likelihood of gaining funding and more likely to find success in the market.
The FCA have partnered with Nvidia to ensure the Digital Sandbox can support cutting-edge AI experimentation too via the AI Lab. Applications are now open and testing starts in October 2025.
After all that, Sebastian and John then took questions from the audience for about an hour! No wonder we were all so engaged and impressed. And, this won’t be the last visit to the South West, it was in fact just the first.
Thanks also go to Rob Branch and EY for hosting.