UK FCA Proposes Expanding Authority Over AI Giants Including OpenAI and Anthropic

According to Sheldon Mills, the UK Financial Conduct Authority's executive director, the FCA warned recently that unregulated financial AI services are creating a regulatory gap. The report noted that 20% of British adults are willing to let large language models make savings and lending decisions, yet these services lack consumer protection safeguards available under traditional regulated financial advice.

The FCA report recommends urgent regulatory review and proposes expanding legislative authority through a 'critical third party' mechanism to oversee core AI providers including OpenAI, Anthropic, Amazon, Google, and Microsoft. The authority also suggested developing AI-assisted public financial literacy services to address the gap.