Anthropic brings Claude AI to FCA Supercharged Sandbox as applications surge 51%

Anthropic Brings Claude AI to UK FCA's Regulatory Sandbox

Anthropic will provide Claude AI models to companies participating in the UK Financial Conduct Authority's next Supercharged Sandbox cohort, as the regulator pushes to test AI applications in financial services. Anthropic will provide its Claude AI models to firms participating in the UK Financial Conduct Authority's (FCA) second Supercharged Sandbox cohort, expanding the regulator's effort to help financial companies test artificial intelligence applications in a controlled environment. Participants will receive access to Claude, including Claude Code and Claude Cowork, to develop applications ranging from agent-led payments and fraud detection to compliance automation and AI governance. The second cohort includes 21 organizations, among them Scottish Widows, Money Advice Trust and TrueLayer. The FCA said Wednesday it received 199 applications for the latest group, up 51% from the first round, reflecting growing demand for regulated environments where financial firms can experiment with AI systems. The program builds on the FCA's partnerships with NVIDIA and NayaOne, which provide participants with computing infrastructure and development tools. Alongside the second cohort, the regulator launched a 10-week Agentic Academy with the Centre for Finance, Technology and Entrepreneurship to help firms develop and deploy AI agents in financial services. The Supercharged Sandbox is aimed at firms in the discovery and experimentation phase of AI development, while the FCA's separate AI Live Testing program supports firms that are ready to use AI in live markets.

Anthropic to support AI tests in FCA's Supercharged Sandbox

This content has been selected, created and edited by the Finextra editorial team based upon its relevance and interest to our community. The Sandbox is a controlled environment where firms can safely experiment with advanced AI. The second Supercharged Sandbox received 199 applications in total, with 21 firms selected to take part: calQrisk; Merx Digital Solutions Ltd (SmartDrops); Aegis Trace; Sardine AI Corp; Zquas; Trustie Labs; Welleness; IntelXview Ltd; RMI Agentic; Ubyx, partnering with Amazon; Deepflow; FSCom; GAI Labs; Condukt; Kaption; and Relace. For the second cohort, firms will test applications for safer agent-led payments, fraud detection, AI governance and accountability, streamlining compliance, and for widening access to the financially excluded. Anthropic joins Naya One and Nvidia in providing support for participating firms. "The high level of interest in the Supercharged Sandbox demonstrates the demand for trusted environments where firms can experiment safely and responsibly," says Jessica Rusu, chief data, intelligence and information officer, FCA. "With the support of Anthropic, participants will benefit from the technology they need to accelerate innovation." The FCA has also launched a new Agentic Academy, a 10-week specialist AI programme for selected firms which is delivered by the FCA and the Centre for Finance, Technology and Entrepreneurship.