The FCA, the UK’s financial services regulator, has published a landmark review examining how AI could transform retail financial services for consumers, firms, markets and regulators by 2030 and beyond.
Known as The Mills Review, the study was commissioned by the FCA Board and led by executive director Sheldon Mills. It is the first piece of work of its kind to be initiated by any regulator worldwide. Gathering perspectives from across the financial services industry, it pinpoints four significant AI-driven shifts on the horizon: changes to how firms operate, the evolution of consumer journeys, a reordering of competition and market power, and heightened fraud and cyber threats.
Appetite for autonomous AI in personal finance is already evident. Research commissioned by the FCA suggests that one in five people, around 11 million UK adults, would be likely to use AI capable of acting independently within goals they have set, although survey respondents voiced worries about trust and control.
The review concludes that AI is set to become a defining force in the sector, altering how firms function, how consumers reach financial decisions and how markets behave. Although the technology could widen access, deepen personalisation and boost efficiency, it may equally magnify dangers around fraud, cyber security, consumer harm and market concentration.
The FCA is the regulator responsible for overseeing the UK’s financial services sector, which the report describes as world-leading.
The Mills Review sets out seven recommendations for the FCA Board and Executive to weigh up. These cover securing and adapting the regulatory perimeter, strengthening system-wide coordination and oversight, monitoring the shift towards autonomous models while adjusting regulatory frameworks, expanding the FCA’s AI Lab to back AI model and system innovation, laying the groundwork for agentic finance, building an AI-enabled agentic supervisory model, and creating a trusted public-interest AI-enabled financial capability service.
FCA executive director Sheldon Mills said, ‘Artificial intelligence will transform financial services by 2030. It creates significant opportunities for consumers, firms and the wider economy. This report sets out a roadmap for how industry regulators and government can prepare for the next phase of AI-driven change in our world-leading financial services sector.’
FCA chair Ashley Alder said, ‘The Board is enormously grateful to Sheldon for the rich, comprehensive report he’s delivered. His work anticipates the fundamental change agentic AI will bring to financial services. It highlights how consumers and firms can reap significant potential benefits as well how risks can be managed.
‘As is clear in the report, we need to keep pace with a rapidly changing environment and the principles-based, outcomes focussed approach we’ve taken on AI – relying on the Consumer Duty and Senior Managers Regime – has been critical to us doing so. The recommendations build on work the FCA has been doing – not least allowing firms to test their use of AI with us – and our own use of AI to be a smarter regulator, more efficient and effective.’
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