FCA open finance framework puts AI agents at centre of UK fintech shift

The Financial Conduct Authority has launched a Smart Data Open Finance Framework intended to extend regulated data access beyond bank accounts into pensions, insurance and SME lending, according to a Finextra opinion post by Nanne Parmar, chief executive of Easemoney. Parmar said the shift comes as UK fintech funding reached £2.1 billion in the first half of 2026, with 64% of venture capital directed to late-stage enterprise AI infrastructure, orchestration platforms and automated wealth management networks.

The framework marks a move from open banking dashboards toward systems in which authorised AI agents can carry out approved financial tasks, Parmar wrote. Under that model, customers and businesses grant consent for data access and activity through secure rails, while banks and fintech providers record permissions, decisions and transactions for audit and verification.

From data access to authorised action

Open banking gave third parties access to current-account information with customer permission. Parmar said the new approach broadens that principle to a wider set of financial products and allows software agents to act on information rather than only display it.

According to Parmar, the UK’s Data Protection and Digital Information framework supports secure access to pensions, insurance and business finance data. That wider pool of information would allow AI systems to handle tasks such as transaction optimisation, underwriting and routine financial administration, subject to authorisation and compliance controls.

Parmar wrote that trust, rather than automation alone, will determine adoption by financial institutions. He said banks will require every instruction, consent and transaction to be auditable before allowing agentic systems to operate at scale.

Capital shifts toward infrastructure

The investment data cited by Parmar points to a preference for more mature fintech businesses. Early-stage UK fintech deals fell 38% in the first half of 2026, while enterprise AI funding rose 23%, he wrote.

Average growth-stage rounds reached £42 million in the same period, according to Parmar. He also said enterprise fintech companies with secure consent and compliance systems achieved valuations as much as 1.9 times higher at Series B than consumer-focused fintech apps.

Enterprise AI, wealth management automation and financial software-as-a-service attracted £1.34 billion, Parmar wrote, making those categories the largest fintech investment segments. He said the UK remained Europe’s largest technology hub by venture capital, drawing more investment than France, Germany and the Netherlands combined, and accounted for more than 40% of European fintech venture funding.

London’s startup ecosystem recorded an 11.4% increase in total venture capital compared with the previous half-year period, according to the same post.

Operational pressure on banks

The move toward AI-driven finance is increasing demands on bank infrastructure, Parmar said. Automated AI-led API requests rose 142% in the past six months and exceeded manual customer logins for the first time in the UK, according to figures cited in the post.

Parmar wrote that some financial institutions are investing in systems capable of processing AI requests in less than 10 milliseconds. He also said pre-verified, cryptographically secure data pipelines can shorten venture capital due diligence by up to 21 business days.

In credit markets, smart data-enabled AI underwriting reduced small-business loan approvals from five business days to about 14 minutes, according to Parmar. The FCA Digital Sandbox supported 114 AI-powered underwriting projects in early 2026, he wrote, making compliance controls a prerequisite before commercial deployment.

Parmar said the 2027 open finance framework will favour banks and fintech companies that build compliance-first, AI-ready platforms. His post was published as external opinion content on Finextra and was not edited by the publication.

This story draws on original reporting from Finextra Research.