FCA Publishes Landmark AI Review: What It Means for Your Money

Customers could see everyday money services such as banking, mortgages, investing and pensions reshaped by artificial intelligence (AI) by 2030, according to a new review published by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

The UK’s financial watchdog found that financial service providers such as banks and investment firms are likely to delegate more financial decision-making to AI systems.

The Mills Review, led by FCA Board executive director Sheldon Mills, aimed to analyse how advances in AI could transform financial services.

How could AI reshape everyday money services?

The FCA’s review revealed that everyday financial services including banking, insurance and investing, could move towards AI-enabled systems over the next few years/

AI could change how banks and financial firms operate, make decisions and compete on the market.

The Mills Review found that AI could impact the following areas of personal finance in the following ways:

– Banking: customer services could become more personalised and it might be easier to switch bank accounts.

– Insurance: more of the application and claims process could be automated by AI.

– Saving and Investing: there could be more automated guidance about how to manage your portfolio, held in a Stocks and Shares ISA for example, from investment platforms.

– Pensions: AI could help improve engagement with your pension such as nudging you to make contributions and consolidate pots.

– Consumer finance: the application process, document handling and affordability checks for loans, mortgages, credit cards and other financial products could be more automated.

– Payments: there could be more automation for payment systems and monitoring instances of fraud.

What does The Mills Review Propose?

The review makes 7 priority recommendations for the FCA Board to consider:

1. Secure and adapt the regulatory perimeter.
2. Strengthen system-wide coordination and oversight.
3. Monitor the transition to autonomous models and adapt regulatory frameworks.
4. Scale up the FCA’s AI Lab to support AI models and system innovation in financial services.
5. Enable the foundations for agentic finance.
6. Build and adopt an AI-enabled agentic supervisory model.
7. Develop a trusted public-interest AI-enabled financial capability service.

How do customers feel about AI?

The Mills Review found that 1 in 5 UK adults are already open to AI making decisions for them, particularly for debt advice, pensions and investments.

Around 26% trust AI tools such as ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini for financial advice, despite limited awareness that the ability to seek support from organisations such as a Financial Ombudsman won’t apply.

Many customers were concerned about the regulation of AI, with 68% expressing worry about data misuse while 67% were concerned about a lack of protection. Some 65% expressed concern about the concentration of power among a small number of large organisations.

Around 45% of customers saw no benefit of AI in financial services at all.

Let us know your thoughts

We’d love to know what you think about the use of AI for everyday financial services and whether you already use it to help with different aspects of your financial life.

Drop us a comment below or email in to hello@investingisiders.co.uk.