Anthropic joins UK FCA’s AI regulatory sandbox as second cohort launches

Anthropic will provide its Claude AI models to firms participating in the UK Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) second Supercharged Sandbox cohort, expanding the regulator’s effort to help financial companies test artificial intelligence applications in a controlled environment.

Participants will receive access to Claude, including Claude Code and Claude Cowork, to develop applications ranging from agent-led payments and fraud detection to compliance automation and AI governance. The second cohort includes 21 organizations, among them Scottish Widows, Money Advice Trust and TrueLayer.

The FCA said Wednesday it received 199 applications for the latest group, up 51% from the first round, reflecting growing demand for regulated environments where financial firms can experiment with AI systems.

The program builds on the FCA’s partnerships with NVIDIA and NayaOne, which provide participants with computing infrastructure and development tools. Alongside the second cohort, the regulator launched a 10-week Agentic Academy with the Centre for Finance, Technology and Entrepreneurship to help firms develop and deploy AI agents in financial services.

The Supercharged Sandbox is aimed at firms in the discovery and experimentation phase of AI development, while the FCA’s separate AI Live Testing program supports firms that are ready to use AI in live markets.