Image Credit: FCA
Anthropic will provide Claude models to 21 organizations in the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority’s second Supercharged Sandbox cohort, adding another technology partner to the regulator’s controlled testing program for financial AI.
The cohort launched on July 13 and will run through December 31. Anthropic is supporting the program rather than participating as one of the firms testing a financial product.
Claude Tools Will Support 21 Selected Organizations
Participants will receive access to Claude, including Claude Code and Claude Cowork, to speed up software development and experimentation.
The firms will test applications involving agent-led payments, fraud and economic crime detection, AI governance, financial access for underserved consumers, compliance, and business automation.
The cohort includes Scottish Widows, Money Advice Trust, TrueLayer, Sardine AI, Condukt and Ubyx in partnership with Amazon. The FCA selected 21 organizations from 199 applications, compared with 132 applications for the first cohort. That represents a 51% increase in demand for the program.
FCA Applications Rise 51% to 199
The Supercharged Sandbox operates through a secure cloud environment supplied by NayaOne. Participants receive access to GPU-enabled computing, synthetic, and curated financial datasets, enterprise AI tools and specialist support.
Nvidia, which supported the first cohort, will continue providing accelerated computing infrastructure and Nvidia AI Enterprise software. Anthropic adds access to its models and coding tools rather than replacing the existing technology partners.
NayaOne and Nvidia Continue Providing Sandbox Infrastructure
The program is intended for companies developing concepts, proofs of concept or pre-deployment systems.
Firms do not need to be FCA-regulated to participate. Their proposed products must still be relevant to U.K. financial services, markets, or consumers.
The structure allows firms to test financial AI ideas in a controlled environment before they reach commercial deployment.
Firms Can Test Pre-Deployment Financial AI Systems
The FCA said participation does not mean it has approved, endorsed or authorized any product or service. Companies remain responsible for meeting existing regulatory requirements before deploying systems commercially.
That caveat keeps the Supercharged Sandbox separate from formal authorization or product approval. It also means participating firms must still clear any applicable compliance, conduct, and consumer-protection rules before launch.
Demo Day is Set for November 26
The Supercharged Sandbox is separate from the FCA’s AI Live Testing program, which supports systems further along in development and ready for controlled use in live markets.
Eight firms, including Barclays, Experian and UBS, entered that program’s second cohort in April.
The Supercharged Sandbox participants will present their results at a demonstration day on November 26. Access to the testing environment will end on December 31.
