FCA taps Anthropic for AI Supercharged Sandbox
The Financial Conduct Authority has partnered with US-based artificial intelligence company Anthropic to support the second cohort of firms taking part in its Supercharged Sandbox programme.
Anthropic, which develops the Claude family of AI models, will provide participants with access to Claude, including Claude Code and Claude Cowork, to help firms build and test AI applications in a controlled environment.
A total of 21 organisations have been selected for the second cohort, including Scottish Widows, Money Advice Trust and TrueLayer.
The FCA said the programme received 199 applications, up 51% from the 132 applications submitted for the first cohort.
Participants will explore a range of AI use cases, including agent-led payments, fraud and financial crime detection, AI governance, improving access to financial services for vulnerable and underserved consumers, and streamlining compliance and business automation.
FCA chief data, intelligence and information officer Jessica Rusu said: “The high level of interest in the Supercharged Sandbox demonstrates the demand for trusted environments where firms can experiment safely and responsibly.
“With the support of Anthropic, participants will benefit from the technology they need to accelerate innovation.
“This is central to our commitment to supporting economic growth – enabling firms to make the most of technological advances while maintaining the UK’s position at the forefront of responsible AI adoption and innovation.”
Alongside the second cohort, the regulator has launched the Agentic Academy, a 10-week specialist AI programme delivered with the Centre for Finance, Technology and Entrepreneurship.
The initiative is designed to help selected firms build expertise in developing and deploying agentic AI.
The Supercharged Sandbox was launched in 2025 to help firms safely experiment with AI during the discovery and development phase.
It builds on the FCA’s Digital Sandbox infrastructure provided by NayaOne and continues to offer participants access to NVIDIA’s AI computing infrastructure and enterprise software.
Anthropic is the latest technology partner to join the initiative.
