HM Treasury's AI Champions for financial services have published a new plan calling for clearer regulation, stronger safeguards, and greater investment in skills to accelerate the safe adoption of AI across the UK financial services sector.

The Financial Services AI Adoption Plan was developed by Harriet Rees, group chief information officer at Starling Bank, and Dr Rohit Dhawan, head of AI at Lloyds Banking Group, following engagement with industry, government and regulators.

The report sets out recommendations designed to help firms adopt AI at scale while maintaining consumer protection and strengthening the UK's position as a global centre for AI-enabled financial services.

Among its proposals, the plan calls for greater regulatory clarity to help firms deploy AI with confidence and recommends updating regulation to reflect the growing use of AI in financial guidance and advice.

It also proposes an industry-led third-party AI assurance scheme, improved mechanisms for sharing information about AI-related incidents, faster implementation of the Critical Third Party regime, greater investment in AI skills and workforce development, and the creation of a trust framework to support the safe adoption of agentic payments.

The report also urges the government to strengthen the UK's sovereign AI capabilities, improve national resilience, and increase cross-sector collaboration to support long-term competitiveness.

Rees said that the industry needs to achieve a better balance between the AI-based tools that regulated entities can offer to their clients and those operating outside the regulatory perimeter.

“We need to focus our ambition to take leading positions in specific areas such as agentic payments, where we have the capability and the digitised customer base we need to solve today’s problems with tomorrow’s technology,” she added.

“And finally, the UK must ensure firms can access the very best AI capabilities and infrastructure, whether on home soil or through strategic global relations, so they can continue to innovate at pace. Together, these steps will cement the UK financial services sector’s position as a global AI leader.”

Dhawan said the UK has a world-leading financial services sector and thriving technology ecosystem, which gives the country an opportunity to harness AI to drive economic growth and improve outcomes for consumers and businesses.

“These recommendations are designed to accelerate the safe adoption of AI across financial services by providing greater clarity, building trust and strengthening the foundations needed for firms to innovate at scale,” he added. “By working together, industry, government and regulators can unlock the full potential of AI to ensure the UK remains a global leader in AI-enabled financial services.”

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