FCA chief executive Nikhil Rathi called for more assertive use of existing powers and stronger cooperation across regulators in a 22 October Mansion House speech. The published draft links market integrity to increasingly autonomous AI, round-the-clock markets and risks that cross institutional and national boundaries.[1]
Themes in the published speech
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| AI supervision | Use data and intelligence tools while retaining expert judgmentSource 1 |
| Market abuse | Assess when agentic coordination becomes manipulationSource 1 |
| Operational resilience | Invest in recovery as well as preventionSource 1 |
| Regulatory approach | Use existing powers and partnerships to address system-wide harmSource 1 |
The FCA marks the text as a draft that may differ from delivery. It is a statement of supervisory direction, not a new trading rule, a finding of misconduct by an identified firm or a legal definition of prohibited AI coordination.[1]
The practical issue is evidence of decisions
For a broker using AI in an order workflow, the operational question is whether it can reconstruct what the system proposed, what a person authorised and what reached the market. That record is more useful than a broad assurance that a model was supervised. A similar discipline applies when several automated systems interact: monitoring only one component can miss the combined behaviour.[1]
Recovery deserves separate attention. A mechanism that stops new orders does not necessarily restore customer access, reconcile orders already accepted or resolve uncertain execution states. Testing should therefore include how the firm establishes an authoritative account position after a disruption.[1]
These are operational implications of the speech, not additional FCA requirements announced in it. The near-term signal is that supervision will increasingly examine connected outcomes and usable evidence, rather than the volume of documents a firm can produce.[1]
Sources & further reading
- Market integrity in a digital age — speech by FCA chief executive Nikhil Rathi Financial Conduct Authority · 22 Oct 2026 · Accessed 27 Oct 2026