{"id":118862,"date":"2026-07-25T17:53:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T17:53:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/118862\/"},"modified":"2026-07-25T17:53:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T17:53:08","slug":"anthropic-to-support-ai-testing-in-uk-financial-regulators-supercharged-sandbox","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/118862\/","title":{"rendered":"Anthropic to support AI testing in UK financial regulator\u2019s \u2018supercharged sandbox\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>FCA: the regulator\u2019s latest sandbox, launched last year (inset: coverage from 9 June 2025), aims to helps firms that are in a \u2018discovery and experiment phase\u2019 with AI | Credit: FCA<\/p>\n

The UK\u2019s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has announced that Anthropic \u2013 the prominent San Francisco-headquartered artificial intelligence (AI) company known for developing the Claude large-language models \u2013 will support the second group of firms participating in its \u2018Supercharged Sandbox\u2019.<\/p>\n

The regulator has already been working with another US-headquartered AI technology company \u2013 Nvidia \u2013 on the AI sandbox (test space) initiative, which the FCA unveiled just over a year ago to help firms \u2018experiment safely with AI to support innovation.\u2019 \u00a0<\/p>\n

21 organisations (almost entirely companies) in total are participating in the second cohort of the sandbox, which aims to help organisations that are in a \u2018discovery and experiment phase\u2019 with AI (Global Government Finance lists the second cohort\u2019s members at the end of this article).<\/p>\n

Anthropic will specifically provide the sandbox participants with access to its Claude platform \u2013 including Claude Code and Claude Cowork \u2013 to help participants \u2018speed up\u2019 their development work.<\/p>\n

A range of AI uses is being explored in the sandbox, including the testing of solutions designed to: enable safer agent-led payments and commerce; detect fraud and economic crime more effectively; strengthen AI governance and accountability; widen access to financial services for vulnerable and underserved consumers; and streamline compliance and business automation.<\/p>\n

RELATED ARTICLE UK\u2019s FCA unveils \u2018supercharged sandbox\u2019 to help firms experiment with Nvidia AI<\/a> \u2013 a news story (9 June 2025) on the launch of the sandbox<\/p>\n

Anthropic\u2019s benefits to sandbox participants<\/p>\n

Applications were received from 199 organisations keen to participate in the cohort \u2013 a significant rise from the 132 applications sent in for inclusion in the similarly sized first cohort (which ultimately comprised 11 firms focused on \u2018retail innovation and consumer insight\u2019 and 11 firms focused on \u2018wholesale and compliance innovation\u2019<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\u201cThe high level of interest in the Supercharged Sandbox demonstrates the demand for trusted environments where firms can experiment safely and responsibly,\u201d FCA chief data, intelligence and information officer Jessica Rusu<\/a> said this week (22 July). \u201cWith the support of Anthropic, participants will benefit from the technology they need to accelerate innovation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is central to our commitment to supporting economic growth \u2013 enabling firms to make the most of technological advances while maintaining the UK\u2019s position at the forefront of responsible AI adoption and innovation,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Anthropic triggered political and financial jitters in April this year when it said that its Claude Mythos tool could outperform humans at some hacking and cybersecurity tasks.<\/p>\n

Nvidia itself made global headlines in 2024 when it became the world\u2019s most valuable company\u00a0by market capitalisation. Participating firms in the supercharged sandbox\u2019s first cohort were given access to accelerated computing infrastructure and Nvidia AI Enterprise software to support the development and testing of their use cases. Participants in the newly announced second cohort will continue to have access to Nvidia\u2019s tools.<\/p>\n

The second cohort runs until 31 December 2026. A showcase demonstration day is scheduled for 26 November.<\/p>\n

RELATED ARTICLE US forces Anthropic to shut down latest AI models, citing national security concerns<\/a> \u2013 a news story (16 June 2026) from our sister title Global Government Forum<\/p>\n

NayaOne\u2019s sandboxing support<\/p>\n

The FCA is a big fan of sandboxes, having launched the world\u2019s first regulatory sandbox in 2016. It also operates a\u00a0digital sandbox<\/a>\u00a0and opened a\u00a0\u2018Digital Securities Sandbox\u2019<\/a> alongside the Bank of England in September 2024 (see final section of this article for news on this).<\/p>\n

Just over three years ago the FCA handed a three-year contract with a value of more than \u00a31m (about $1.26m) to NayaOne, a London-based fintech company, to run its digital sandbox as it put the test-space on a permanent footing. NayaOne has also been providing foundational infrastructure for the supercharged sandbox, with Rusu saying in a speech last year that the authority was \u201cextending\u201d its partnership with the company.<\/p>\n

In the\u00a0FCA\u2019s \u2018Strategy 2025-2030\u2019<\/a> (published in March last year), the regulator stated that FCA\u2019s innovation services have \u2018already helped over 200 financial firms test AI and machine learning technology services.\u2019<\/p>\n

The following month (April 2025), it published a proposal for\u00a0\u2018AI live testing<\/a>\u2019, as part of its existing AI Lab, to support firms ready to use AI. Rusu announced in April that eight firms were participating in the second cohort of companies live testing AI applications<\/a>. The supercharged sandbox is part of the AI Lab but a different initiative. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Other FCA initiatives on the AI front include a newly announced 10-week specialist programme \u2013 named the Agentic Academy \u2013 for selected firms. It is delivering this in tandem with the Centre for Finance, Technology and Entrepreneurship (CFTE), a global education company headquartered in London\u2019s Canary Wharf.<\/p>\n

RELATED ARTICLE\u00a0UK\u2019s FCA engages fintech company to run permanent digital sandbox<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 a news story\u00a0(28 April 2023)\u00a0on the FCA handing a three-year contract to NayaOne to run its digital sandbox \u2013 see below<\/p>\n

HSBC approved to go live in DSS<\/p>\n

The DSS has been set up to enable regulators to curate the take-up of digital asset technology in financial markets. It effectively ushers in a \u2018test\u2019 regulatory regime for companies to use digital infrastructure such as distributed-ledger technology (DLT) to issue, trade and settle securities in a \u2018live\u2019 setting, and will also enable the authorities themselves to hone regulation.<\/p>\n

HSBC had been approved by the Bank of England as the first applicant to go live in the DSS, it was announced earlier this month.<\/p>\n

HSBC Orion, the London-headquartered global bank\u2019s digital assets platform, will be able to operate within the DSS as a Digital Securities Depository (DSD) for \u2018digitally native bond issuance, servicing and settlement, including the DIGIT or digital gilt instrument, and corporate bonds\u2019, the bank announced<\/a> (15 July).<\/p>\n

A gilt is a government liability denominated in sterling and listed on the London Stock Exchange. They have been issued by the UK Debt Management Office (DMO) on behalf of HM Treasury (HMT) since 1998. \u2018DIGIT or digital gilt instrument\u2019 is a reference to the government\u2019s planned digital bond issuance, for which HSBC Orion was announced by HMT as platform provider<\/a> in February.<\/p>\n

The now-former chancellor of the exchequer Rachel Reeves announced in her recent Mansion House speech (14 July) that the pilot issuance would take place \u201cby early next year (2027)\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A four-page \u2018Sandbox Approval Notice for Gate 2 of the Digital Securities Sandbox\u2019<\/a> for HSBC published on the BoE website the previous day (13 July) states (in respect of activity limits): \u2018UK Government debt: To be confirmed; GBP Corporate Bonds: \u00a3900m.\u2019<\/p>\n

Earlier this month (6 July) the FCA published a 147-page \u2018AI and the future of retail financial services<\/a>\u2019 report (following a review led by executive director Sheldon Mills into how AI could transform retail financial services by 2030 and beyond); and HM Treasury presented the Financial Services AI Adoption Plan<\/a> (14 July) to encourage safe, rapid scaling and keep the UK competitive globally.<\/p>\n

FCA Supercharged Sandbox: second cohort members
Scottish Widows
Money Advice Trust
TrueLayer
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
Relace
Source: FCA announcement (22 July 2026)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FCA: the regulator\u2019s latest sandbox, launched last year (inset: coverage from 9 June 2025), aims to helps firms…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":118863,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[673,3683,1798,1201,53,60153,4365,60154,60155,182,2798,5914,2213,719,313,57732,60156,60157,60158,59273,38918,37225,19826,60159,2858,6293,6658,60160,60161,50,59276,58,60162,56529,50599],"class_list":["post-118862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anthropic","tag-agentic-commerce","tag-agentic-payments","tag-ai-governance","tag-ai-lab","tag-anthropic","tag-anti-fraud","tag-bank-of-england","tag-centre-for-finance-technology-and-entrepreneurship","tag-cfte","tag-claude","tag-claude-code","tag-claude-cowork","tag-claude-mythos","tag-compliance","tag-cybersecurity","tag-digit","tag-digital-securities-sandbox","tag-distributed-ledger-technology","tag-dss","tag-economic-crime","tag-fca","tag-financial-conduct-authority","tag-financial-inclusion","tag-financial-services-ai-adoption-plan","tag-fraud","tag-hm-treasury","tag-hsbc","tag-hsbc-orion","tag-jessica-rusu","tag-machine-learning","tag-nayaone","tag-nvidia","tag-rachel-reeves","tag-sandbox","tag-sheldon-mills"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118862\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}