Financial services AI adoption plan

HM Treasury (HMT) has published the financial services AI adoption plan, setting out next steps to accelerate safe AI adoption and innovation in the sector. The plan describes the UK's existing regulatory framework as a major asset and strong foundation for AI adoption but identifies that the core challenge now is not the absence of regulatory support, but its accessibility, consistency and practical application across the sector. The priority is therefore to establish a clear, authoritative single source of cross-regulator guidance, enabling firms to navigate requirements confidently and scale adoption consistently.

The plan sets out ten recommendations to unlock near-term scaling, support consistent adoption and manage systemic risk and competitiveness. They include:

• A comprehensive review of the consumer, competition and wider impacts of financial guidance and advice-like outputs generated by general purpose large language models.
• Consistent consumer disclosure for AI-driven services.
• Voluntary AI incident and "ear-miss" sharing across the UK financial sector.
• Exploring the development of a sector-wide financial services AI skills plan.
• Leveraging the HMT consultation on modernising payment services to establish a "trust framework" to support agentic payments protocol.

The plan also sets out broader considerations for the government to address cross-sector barriers that impact financial services, such as AI sovereignty and resilience.

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