Nvidia teams up with UK’s Financial Conduct Authority to launch AI testing sandbox for banks
Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) announced a partnership with Nvidia on Monday, aiming to help UK financial firms safely experiment with artificial intelligence. The new "Supercharged Sandbox" will give banks access to Nvidia’s accelerated computing and AI Enterprise Software starting this October.
The FCA said the initiative targets banks in the early “discovery and experiment phase” of AI development. Companies further along can use a separate live testing service. 
Jessica Rusu, FCA’s chief data, intelligence and information officer, put it straight:
"This collaboration will help those that want to test AI ideas but who lack the capabilities to do so."
"We’ll help firms harness AI to benefit our markets and consumers, while supporting economic growth."
Banks have struggled to roll out AI tools amid privacy and fraud concerns. LLMs from OpenAI and Google send data to overseas servers, drawing regulator scrutiny. Plus, scams using generative AI have heightened risk worries.
Nvidia’s GPUs power many top AI models. CEO Jensen Huang is set to keynote a London tech conference Monday, underscoring Nvidia’s growing influence in financial AI.
Last year, HSBC called out a lot of “success theater” around AI in finance—hinting many hype AI without real products. HSBC’s generative AI lead, Edward Achtner, also warned of new compliance risks with tools like ChatGPT.
The FCA-Nvidia Supercharged Sandbox hopes to cut through those hurdles and push forward AI innovation in UK financial services.
