Britain's FCA Palantir Contract Faces Backlash Over Sensitive Financial Data Access
8 Sources
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Britain's FCA defends Palantir contract award before lawmakers
LONDON, March 24 (Reuters) - U.S. data analytics firm Palantir, which won a contract to supply AI systems to Britain's Financial Conduct Authority, will not have access to regulatory intelligence, an FCA official said on Tuesday, as the deal came under criticism from lawmakers. Palantir
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The U.K. Has a New Partner in the Fight Against White Collar Crime: Palantir
A new Guardian report indicates that sensitive financial data in the U.K. will soon be handed over to Palantir. It's not an auspicious moment for the U.K. government to make such a deal. To be absolutely clear from the jump, there is no evidence that Palantir has anything whatsoever to do with the
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'Very significant privacy concerns': UK hands over financial regulation data to Palantir to help tackle financial crime
* Palantir awarded three-month contract ahead of potential extension * The US data company would have access to seriously sensitive information * Critics have linked Palantir to ICE, Israel's military and broader human rights concerns The UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has awarded
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MPs urge UK government to halt contract giving Palantir FCA data access
Awarding US spy-tech company deal involving sensitive financial data is 'huge error of judgment', Liberal Democrats say MPs have urged the government to halt its latest contract with Palantir, after the Guardian revealed the US spy-tech company is to gain access to a trove of highly sensitive UK
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FCA deal gives Palantir yet more access to inner workings of power in Britain
Palantir extends reach into British state as it gets access to sensitive FCA data Palantir's latest UK contract takes the AI and data analytics company into the heart of one of Britain's biggest industries: financial services, which accounts for 9% of the economy. The Miami-based company embedded
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Palantir extends reach into British state as it gets access to sensitive FCA data
FCA deal gives Palantir yet more access to inner workings of power in Britain Palantir is to be granted access to a trove of highly sensitive UK financial regulation data, in a deal that has prompted fresh concerns about the US AI company's deepening reach into the British state, the Guardian can
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FCA criticised over using sensitive data in AI trial with Palantir
This content has been selected, created and edited by the Finextra editorial team based upon its relevance and interest to our community. The Miami-based company, co-founded by the billionaire Donald Trump donor Peter Thiel, has been appointed for a three-month trial, paying more than £30,000 a
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Britain's FCA defends Palantir contract award before lawmakers
LONDON, March 24 (Reuters) - U.S. data analytics firm Palantir, which won a contract to supply AI systems to Britain's Financial Conduct Authority, will not have access to regulatory intelligence, an FCA official said on Tuesday, as the deal came under criticism from lawmakers. Palantir
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The UK's Financial Conduct Authority has awarded Palantir a 12-week trial contract to analyze internal intelligence data using AI to combat financial crime. But MPs are raising alarm over the Peter Thiel-backed company's access to highly sensitive regulatory data, questioning whether the deal creates dangerous reliance on US tech firms and poses risks to privacy and national security.
Palantir Wins 12-Week Contract to Tackle Financial Crime
The UK financial regulator has handed Palantir a contract that grants the US data analytics company access to two years' worth of internal intelligence data to help detect money laundering and fraud
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. The FCA Palantir contract, worth upwards of £30,000 per week for a 12-week trial period, will deploy the company's AI system called Foundry to analyze information across all FCA datasets3
. This sensitive financial data includes phone recordings, emails, social media posts, bank reports, consumer complaints, and personally identifiable information related to fraud, money laundering, and insider trading cases2
.Palantir Technologies, co-founded by billionaire venture capitalist Peter Thiel—an early supporter of President Donald Trump—secured the deal through what the FCA described as a "blind" procurement process, meaning the regulator did not know the winning bidder's identity until it concluded
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. The Palantir government contract adds to the company's growing footprint in Britain, where it has already secured more than £500 million in public sector contracts across the National Health Service (NHS), policing, and the Ministry of Defence4
.Data Access Concerns Spark Parliamentary Scrutiny
Lawmakers have expressed serious reservations about the arrangement during a parliamentary Treasury committee hearing. Conservative MP John Glen voiced concern that Palantir could "become ubiquitous across government" and questioned whether safeguards exist to prevent the spy-tech company from becoming a monopoly
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. Liberal Democrats called the deal "a huge error of judgment" and demanded a government investigation, while the Green Party urged blocking the trial contract over Palantir's ties to Donald Trump and concerns about national and economic security4
.FCA insiders have raised questions about whether sufficient safeguards exist to prevent the regulator's "data lake" from being exploited. One anonymous FCA agent told the Guardian: "Once Palantir understands how we detect money-laundering threats, how do we know that they are ethically reliable enough not to go to share that information?"
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. The regulatory data could potentially include information about high-profile investigations, raising concerns about how this intelligence might be handled by a company with extensive US government connections4
.FCA Defends Decision as Essential for White Collar Crime Detection
FCA Chief Executive Nikhil Rathi defended the contract before lawmakers, acknowledging "a big strategic question around the deployment of big technology across public functions" but insisting the UK financial regulator needs best-in-class tools. "We also want to be the most effective enforcer against financial crime and money laundering, and that requires us to use data intelligence more effectively," Rathi told MPs
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.Jessica Rusu, the FCA's chief data, information and intelligence officer, emphasized that Palantir will act as a data processor rather than a data controller, meaning it can only act on instructions from the regulator
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. She stated that the US CLOUD Act, which obliges US tech firms to provide data to US authorities under certain circumstances, would not apply to this arrangement. The FCA said it would retain exclusive control over encryption keys for the most sensitive files, with data hosted and stored solely in the UK, and Palantir must delete all information after the contract expires4
.Related Stories
AI to Combat Financial Crime Raises Privacy and Security Questions
The decision to deploy AI to combat financial crime through Palantir's technology has sparked warnings about "very significant privacy concerns" given the sensitivity of the data involved
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. Critics have questioned why the FCA chose to use real data in the pilot rather than synthetic data for testing purposes. The regulator aims to use AI-enabled network analytics to identify harmful networks of firms and individuals involved in money laundering and fraud, which accounts for about 40% of all crimes in the UK5
.However, legal experts warn that as regulators adopt AI detection methods, criminals may respond with countermeasures. Christopher Houssemayne du Boulay, a financial crime specialist at law firm Hickman & Rose, noted that bad actors could potentially use techniques like invisible "white text" in documents to instruct AI systems to ignore incriminating material
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. The contract also raises questions about the UK's growing dependence on US tech firms, particularly as the FCA itself has previously warned the financial services industry that heavy reliance on a small number of large technology providers could create systemic risks1
.Palantir CEO Alex Karp has publicly stated that Americans should tolerate privacy invasions in pursuit of US AI dominance over China, and that tech companies should not take moral stances opposing US government objectives
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. The company reported sharp revenue growth in the fourth quarter of 2025, boosted by US government contracts including work for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which has drawn public criticism and prompted Karp to defend the firm's surveillance technology1
. A Palantir spokesperson said the company was "proud" the FCA is using its software and emphasized that it is "legally and contractually" precluded from commercializing data processed during its work in Britain1
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