Accelerating Responsible AI Innovation in Financial Services
NayaOne powered the FCA's Supercharged Sandbox, enabling 23 innovative firms to rigorously test AI solutions under real constraints, delivering evidence-based insights for safe deployment.
Outcomes
20 Weeks
Structured, real-world testing
23 Firms
Selected from 132 Applications
100%
Exposure to Real Constraints
25%
Less Post-PoC rework
Overview
Financial institutions are excited about AI’s potential – but too often, that excitement runs into reality. Teams end up choosing vendors before they understand performance, governance requirements, or operational risk. Internal PoCs rarely mimic the constraints of production, and compliance teams are pulled in too late.
The FCA created the Supercharged Sandbox because organisations needed a place to test AI and advanced technologies safely – with real constraints, realistic data sets, and regulatory visibility – before signing contracts or deploying live.
What The Supercharged Sandbox Does
The Supercharged Sandbox gives firms a structured environment to:
Test technology before commitment
Use controlled environments that simulate production constraints.
Compare vendors on real criteria
Evaluate performance, risk, explainability, and governance early.
Reduce delivery risk
Expose gaps before contracts are signed or products go live.
Collaborate with regulators
Gain clarity on compliance expectations before deployment.
From Idea to Evidence with NayaOne
During the Supercharged Sandbox challenge, firms worked over several months to test AI and emerging technology solutions in a secure, regulator-supported environment designed to reflect real operational and governance constraints. Participants brought real use cases, from fraud and compliance automation to customer and operational AI applications, and tested these solutions using realistic data scenarios and structured evaluation criteria.
Rather than running isolated proofs of concept, teams stress-tested vendor tools and models under conditions closer to production, exposing performance, integration, and governance challenges early. This allowed firms to refine or reconsider solutions before making procurement or deployment commitments, while also giving regulators insight into how AI technologies behave in practical financial services environments.
The programme concluded with firms presenting outcomes and lessons learned at the Showcase event, focusing on practical results rather than demonstrations, helping both industry and regulators better understand how AI solutions can be validated safely before moving toward production use. Read more about the FCA Supercharged Sandbox Showcase event.
Impact
Teams using the Supercharged Sandbox reported:
- Faster vendor validation
- Fewer surprises in deployment
- Better alignment between innovation and risk
- Evidence to support procurement decisions
- Reduced governance bottlenecks
Innovation happens faster – and safer.
Who It's For
- Innovation and transformation leads
- AI and data teams
- IT and architecture
- Risk and compliance
- Procurement and vendor management
Validate AI Before You Deploy It
Talk to an expert about running structured testing in a secure sandbox.
