Speech by Jessica Rusu, FCA chief data, information and intelligence officer at IFGS.
Speaker: Jessica Rusu, chief data, information and intelligence officer
Event: IFGS, UK FinTech Week
Delivered: 21 April 2026
Note: This is a drafted speech and may differ from the delivered version
Reading time: 5 minutes
Key points
- Agentic commerce will change how financial decisions and transactions are made, demanding a fundamentally new approach.
- We are expanding practical support for firms through the next phase of our AI Lab.
- Open Finance will provide the foundations of a more intelligent financial system.
- We are supporting solo-regulated firms scale, with our Scale-Up unit open for expressions of interest.
Introduction
Twenty-five years ago, e-commerce changed how we buy.
The UK is one of the most digitally mature retail markets, with roughly one in every 4 pounds[3] spent online – among the highest e-commerce penetration rates globally.
That digital maturity extends far beyond retail. UK Fintech contributes more than £11bn annually[4] to the economy. In 2025, it received $15bn deployed across 445 disclosed deals[5], reflecting continued global investor confidence.
Seventy-five per cent of UK adults use fintech services, and Open Banking has reached over 16 million users[6] – a scale few markets globally can match.
Today, against the backdrop of extraordinary acceleration in Artificial Intelligence, we are on the cusp of something far more profound – agentic commerce. Agentic commerce will change how we transact, how decisions are made.
Consumer consent remains central. Instead of clicking 'buy', we will encode our preferences, permissions and constraints – allowing intelligent systems to transact on our behalf, within guardrails – optimising for price, convenience, and even long-term financial wellbeing.
AI is already reshaping financial services, challenging how we think about accountability, trust and control. And that demands a fundamentally new approach.
Supporting innovation and growth
As a regulator, we support innovation and growth, balancing consumer protection and market stability with pragmatic regulation.
Our novel approach to AI, principles-led, and outcome-focused, positions the UK to be the best place in the world to capture the opportunities of AI and build the future of agentic commerce.
Through our AI Lab[7], we've worked with firms at the frontier – offering compute, synthetic data, as part of our regulatory engagement.
Firms told us we helped reduce their development lifecycle from a year to just 3 months. Because in this space, speed is not a luxury – it is a competitive advantage.
The next phase of our AI Lab
Today, I'm pleased to announce the next phase of our AI Lab – a world-leading, novel environment providing support from proof-of-concept to market testing, where firms work through technical and regulatory challenges side-by-side.
First, we’re extending our partnership with NVIDIA and Naya One – more computing power, and support that continues even after firms leave the Lab. Because progress shouldn't stop when the programme ends.
Second, I'm announcing the next group of established firms entering AI Live Testing[8] – working on wholesale and retail use cases, agentic payments, and AI applications in financial advice and credit scores. That cohort includes Barclays, GoCardless, Experian, UBS, Palindrome, Aereve, Co-Adjute, and Lloyds/Scottish Widows.
Third, because of unprecedented demand, we're scaling the Supercharged Sandbox[9] to even more firms with support from NayaOne. The second intake will open on 5 May 2026 so more UK fintech get access to data and NVIDIA compute to build their products.
And finally, on AI policy: no new rules. We will use learnings from the AI Lab to publish examples of good and poor practice later this year – reflecting on all the engagement we’ve had with firms thus far, supporting the safe adoption of AI in UK FS.
The prize is clear: the UK as the best place in the world to build and deploy AI in financial services.
Open Finance roadmap
Underpinning all of this is our Open finance roadmap[10], published last week. Think of it as the infrastructure layer that will enable agentic commerce to scale.
Today, most people's financial lives remain fragmented – current accounts, pensions, mortgages all in different places.
Open Finance changes that.
With Smart Data[11] – your financial data can be securely held in a digital wallet – and used to find better products and services.
Our Smart Data Accelerator[12] will help shape this vision. And critically, ensure it is ready for the emerging world of agentic commerce.
The future of commerce will rely on market infrastructure being ready for a world where trusted digital agents can act, transact and serve consumers safely.
When we talk about Open Finance, we're talking about the foundations of a more intelligent financial system.
The UK can lead that future.
Helping fintechs scale
One final point as we celebrate UK FinTech Week.
Getting started is hard. Scaling is harder. Too many strong UK fintechs hit a ceiling. That's why I'm pleased to announce that the Scale-Up Unit opens for expressions of interest today from solo-regulated firms – practical targeted support at the point it matters most.
Not whether the product works, but how to grow, enter new markets, build resilience, and move from momentum to leadership.
The UK has the talent. It has a world-class fintech ecosystem. It has a pro-innovation, tech-positive regulator.
We are creating a better environment for firms who want to build here, a clearer path to launch here, and a stronger platform for firms who want to scale.
This room is full of leaders committed to building the future of UK fintech. Let's use this week to shape the future of financial services, payments and commerce.
