UK Government Endorses 10-Point AI Blueprint for Financial Services Drawn Up by Starling and Lloyds Executives #

The UK government has backed a ten-point artificial intelligence adoption plan for the financial services sector, developed by two senior banking executives appointed as the government’s independent AI Champions.

Harriet Rees, Group Chief Information Officer at Starling Bank, and Dr Rohit Dhawan, Head of AI and Advanced Analytics at Lloyds Banking Group, produced the plan after their appointment in January 2026. HM Treasury named both to serve voluntarily and report directly to Economic Secretary to the Treasury Lucy Rigby MP. Their brief was to identify barriers to AI adoption across the sector and propose concrete steps for government, regulators, and industry to accelerate safe deployment.

The ten recommendations cover five areas: the regulatory framework, AI-powered financial advice and the regulatory perimeter, operational resilience, skills and talent, and agentic payments. The government said it accepts all recommendations directed at government and will work with regulators and industry on next steps.

Among the regulatory recommendations, the champions called on the Financial Conduct Authority to assess the consumer and competition impacts of financial guidance generated by large language models, noting that general-purpose AI tools are increasingly operating at the boundary between financial information and regulated advice.

The plan also addresses technological concentration. UK banks currently have no viable alternative to a small number of global AI and cloud providers, which the champions describe as a strategic vulnerability for the sector’s long-term competitiveness. Rees has separately said the UK should broaden its relationships with AI providers beyond US companies, including firms in France and China.

The appointment of the two AI Champions followed a recommendation in the government’s AI Opportunities Action Plan, written by Matt Clifford, which called for sector-specific champions in growth-driving industries. Financial services joins other priority sectors in that initiative. The government said the plan’s recommendations will also be considered alongside other ongoing regulatory work in the AI space.

Source: GOV.UK