The UK's Financial Conduct Authority said regulation cannot keep pace with AI, with CEO Nikhil Rathi telling a conference that legislation will never keep up and the watchdog must rethink what effective regulation means in the AI age. Rathi said the FCA is exploring agentic AI as a “first responder” to speed how it monitors wholesale markets and reacts to market abuse, shifting part of its role toward stewardship and acting before legislation catches up rather than relying solely on detailed rules. He likened the challenge to BNPL firms, which took roughly six years to come onto the FCA's regulatory perimeter, noting the authority didn't wait another six years to respond. The FCA plans to publish the Mills Review on AI in retail finance soon and a guide on good and poor AI practice later this year, while offering a Supercharged Sandbox for firms to build and test AI with partners like Nvidia and Google.
