Barclays tests regulation technology under FCA programme

Barclays is testing technology that ensures the bank implements changes to regulation correctly as part of an innovation drive by the Financial Conduct Authority.

The bank, which has paid more than £500m in UK regulatory fines since 2009, is putting the technology through its paces in the latest round of a programme run by the FCA.

The regulatory technology "tracks updates to regulations within the FCA handbook and aligns their implementation to Barclays’ internal policies", the FCA said. Barclays is seeking to put a series of fines and disagreements with regulators behind it – though it is waiting for the FCA to pass judgement on chief executive Jes Staley's attempt to identify a whistleblower.

Barclays' tech test is one of 18 approved from 61 submissions for the FCA's 'sandbox', which lets firms test innovations in a live market environment with safeguards in place. It is the third batch of technologies to go into the sandbox since the FCA launched an innovation drive in 2014.

Other technologies given sandbox approval include a means of monitoring movement of money through the economy to help prevent financial crime, a new, more transparent auction book-building method for share offerings, and a money transfer platform that lets customers send healthcare services with remittances.

The FCA said its efforts to attract innovators from outside London were paying off. More than 40% of firms testing in the third cohort are from outside London compared with 25% for the first group.

Christopher Woolard, executive director of strategy and competition at the FCA, said: “Since we first opened the sandbox, it has supported almost 70 firms in testing innovative new products and services. It is particularly encouraging that we are now seeing more applicants from outside London and a broader range of firms testing in the sandbox."