The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has partnered with technology firm Nvidia to launch a ‘Supercharged Sandbox’ to help firms experiment safely with AI.

The sandbox is open to any financial services firm looking to innovate and experiment with AI, with the regulatory saying that it will give firms access to better data, technical expertise and regulatory support.

The new technology will help firms who are in the experimental stage, with an AI live testing service helping those firms who are further along in their development and ready to use AI.

As part of its new strategy, the FCA said it has committed to supporting economic growth by enabling innovation and harnessing technological advances like AI.

Firms can apply to join the Supercharged Sandbox now through the FCA’s website, with successful applicants able to experiment from October.

“This collaboration will help those that want to test AI ideas but who lack the capabilities to do so,” said Jessica Rusu, the FCA’s chief data, intelligence and information officer. “We’ll help firms harness AI to benefit our markets and consumers, while supporting economic growth.”

The move comes after fellow British regulator the Bank of England announced last week that it had collaborated with BIS Innovation Hub's London Centre to complete a pilot exploring how AI can be used to detect financial crime in real-time payment systems.

The Hertha project aimed to find solutions that can protect payment systems from financial crime without compromising privacy, which is often a challenging issue in the payments ecosystem.

The project focused on testing the application of modern AI techniques to identify suspicious behaviour within criminal networks, which often span multiple banks and use numerous accounts to hide illicit behaviour.

Last week, the FCA said that it had joined forces with regulators across the globe to crack down on illegal financial promotions by rogue finfluencers.

During a “week of action”, the FCA made three arrests with the support of the City of London Police, authorised criminal proceedings against three more individuals, and sent seven cease and desist letters.

---