The latest compliance news: regulatory developments, punishments, guidance, permissions and authorisations for new product and service offerings.

The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority says in a report entitled “The Mills Review” that as many as 11 million adults – about a fifth of the population – are likely to use AI that can autonomously act within pre-set goals.

However, consumers in the FCA’s survey for the report worry about trust and control over AI. 

The report is led by FCA director Sheldon Mills – hence its name. The watchdog said the review is the first work of its kind initiated by a regulator globally.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the report concludes that AI is likely to become a defining force in retail financial services, transforming how firms operate, how consumers make financial decisions and how markets function. While AI has the potential to improve access, personalisation and efficiency, it could also amplify risks associated with fraud, cyber security, consumer harm and market concentration, it said. 

The report recommends seven actions: 
-- Secure and adapt the regulatory perimeter; 
-- Strengthen system-wide coordination and oversight; 
-- Monitor the transition to autonomous models and adapt regulatory frameworks; 
-- Scale up the FCA's AI Lab to support AI models and system innovation in financial services; 
-- Enable the foundations for agentic finance; and 
-- Build and adopt an AI-enabled agentic supervisory model.

To prepare the Review in April 2026, Yonder Consulting conducted a survey of more than 5,000 UK retail financial services consumers, defined as individuals holding a day-to-day bank account, such as a current or savings account. 

As part of the survey, consumers were presented with a range of plausible near?term use cases for AI in financial services. The findings show that 20% of consumers would be likely to use AI capable of acting autonomously within pre-set goals.

Running in parallel to this work, the FCA will launch an AI good and poor practice publication later this year, it concluded.

This publication has continued to probe use cases for AI and wealth management, and topics such as clients’ use of AI and the approach that advisors and bankers should take.