FCA launches ‘safe space’ for AI as City firms rush to deploy new tech December 3, 2025 The City’s top regulator has opened the doors to its first-ever ‘AI live testing‘ scheme, giving major financial firms a controlled environment to trial AI without fear of tripping regulatory wires. NatWest, Monzo, Santander, Scottish Widows, Gain Credit, Homeprotect and fintech Snorkl are among those in the inaugural cohort. The FCA says the scheme is [...]
Revolut and LSEG join growing list of OpenAI customers December 3, 2025 Fintech juggernaut Revolut has joined a host of banking giants in leveraging OpenAI tech to beef up their financial crime protections. The digital bank is one of the latest to partner with the ChatGPT maker as it seeks to enhance its fincrime agent and customer services. The $75bn fintech is also using OpenAI’s large language [...]
Smiths Group strikes deal to offload detection business for £2bn December 3, 2025 London listed Smiths Group is set to offload another of its businesses, as it works to streamline its operations after bowing to increasing investor pressure. The FTSE 100 company has agreed to sell its Smiths Detection division to private equity firm CVC Capital Partners in a £2bn deal. The business manufactures threat detection technology, including [...]
Powervault: London Mayor-backed Tesla battery rival collapses December 3, 2025 Battery storage firm Powervault, which had been tipped to become the UK rival to Tesla, has collapsed into administration, City PM can reveal. The London-based company, which had been backed by the Mayor of London’s Greater London Investment Fund as well as the British Business Bank, has appointed administrators Menzies to oversee its wind-down, according [...]
AI powers UK’s startup surge as founder numbers soar December 3, 2025 While Britain is trudging through another tax-heavy Budget, LinkedIn data has revealed signs of a founder boom, with AI doing much of the heavy lifting. As Rachel Reeves attempted to boost startup and scale-up appetite in her Budget, LinkedIn revealed that the number of UK professionals adding ‘founder’ to their profile has jumped 69 per [...]
Silicon Valley has invented its own form of central planning December 3, 2025 With so much capital focused on a small select group of companies like OpenAI and Microsoft we’ve created our own form of central planning, just with corporate overlords instead of government ones, says Lewis Liu The US stock market continues to march toward record territory, with everyone from Big Tech CEOs to Goldman Sachs speculating [...]
Imperial College and Thomson Reuters bring AI lab to London December 2, 2025 London is staking its claim as a world-leading hub for AI research with the announcement of a new Frontier AI Lab, a partnership between Imperial College London and Thomson Reuters. The lab promises to bring cutting-edge AI development, until now largely the preserve of a handful of tech giants, to the heart of Britain’s capital. [...]
Valentino proves AI has no place in advertising December 2, 2025 Italian fashion house Valentino has received mounting backlash after posting a series of AI-generated adverts on Instagram. What was billed as a ‘digital creative project’ instead set off a minor revolt in its comments section, where followers lined up to dub the visuals as “cheap”, “tacky”, “lazy”, and perhaps the most cutting barb for a [...]
Legora CEO: Troubled Robin AI ‘had two parallel business models’ December 2, 2025 The boss of legal tech firm Legora says troubled Robin AI had ‘two parallel business models’. Last month, City PM revealed London-based legal firm Robin AI was put up for sale on an insolvency marketplace after fundraising ambitions fell short. In the same month, it was hit with a winding-up petition by HMRC. The legal [...]
Legora CEO: Law degree is not enough -‘AI knows the law’ – what do you bring? December 2, 2025 AI has turned the business world on its head and no more so than in the legal sector, where knowledge-intensive roles going toe-to-toe with knowledge-based tech is driving a significant shift in the industry. A lot of the attention has been on the implications of the surge in investment in AI for jobs, especially at [...]
