Regulatory Updates July 2026

Our regulatory newsletter aims to provide insight into the changes and updates which may have an impact on firms. At Objectivus, we are well positioned to provide context and support for firms working to understand such changes.

In this July issue, we cover Anthropic’s addition to the FCA’s Supercharged Sandbox, the new regulatory structure for critical third parties, as well as several fines and punishments that have been handed out.

 

Anthropic to join the FCA’s Supercharged Sandbox

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has recently announced that Anthropic, the US AI company known for developing Claude, will support the second group of firms in its Supercharged Sandbox.

The Sandbox is a secure cloud environment where firms can test out advanced AI. Twentyone firms have been selected to join the second group out of 199 applications, showcasing strong demand for the service and its growing popularity, with 51% more applications received compared to last time. The firms that have been selected for the second group will have access to Claude functions including Claude Code and Claude Cowork.

This Supercharged Sandbox builds on previous support from NayaOne and NVIDIA by adding dedicated Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) resources, enabling users to efficiently train and use cutting-edge AI models.

 

 Financial Regulators to Start Overseeing Critical Third Parties

The Treasury announced that the first critical third parties (CTPs) will be overseen by the Bank of England, the Prudential Regulation Authority and the FCA from the 13^th July.

Four global cloud services and technology providers have been selected: Amazon Web Services EMEA SARL, Google Cloud EMEA Limited, Microsoft Ireland Operations Ltd and Oracle Corporation UK Limited.

The three regulators will work together, focusing on system-level risks and reducing the risk of disruption spreading across the UK financial sector. The CTPs must, for their part, work on identifying and managing risks to their critical services effectively as well as maintaining communication with firms and regulators, particularly during major incidents.

These changes are aimed at making the UK financial markets more stable, and thus inspiring further confidence in the system. They do not, however, replace existing operational resilience rules for regulated firms who must continue to manage their own third party arrangements and plan for contingencies.

 

FCA Fines and Punishments

The FCA has chosen to ban Alec and Robert Finch after deciding they failed to act with honesty and integrity in their roles at AFL Insurance Brokers Limited. The father and son used client money to fund business expenses and created false financial records when trying to sell the business to make them appear more financially attractive. This decision follows on from a High Court judgement dated 27 September 2023.

The FCA charged Richard Bloomfield with 5 counts of insider trading. It is alleged that in his role as a solicitor, he used insider information obtained during the acquisition of Seraphine Group PLC to deal in securities on 5 occasions between 28 March 2022 and 10 January 2023. He has yet to enter a plea and has been released on unconditional bail.

As part of an investigation into fraud and money laundering, four people have been arrested and search warrants executed in Hackney, Beckenham and Slough. Following the arrests, all four were interviewed under caution and then released on bail. The FCA spearheaded this operation, working closely alongside the police’s Eastern Regional Special Operations Unit and the Southeast Regional Crime Unit.

 

Please contact us at info@objectivus.com if you have any questions or require further clarity on any of the points raised.