The discussion around the use and regulation of AI is intensifying. Industry voices are raising concerns that the EU AI Act does not explicitly cover agentic AI; at the same time, UK regulators have issued a joint statement calling on financial institutions to plan for and mitigate against cybersecurity risks posed by frontier AI.
We took a closer look at how AI is rewiring the trading desk during the TradeTech conference in Amsterdam last month, alongside other key industry debates on 24/5 trading, retail participation in trading, auction mechanisms, public markets and the consolidated tape. All insights are below!
Last month, we also had the pleasure of organising and hosting the PowerWomenNetwork conference in London, which brought together some of the industry’s most senior women, their male allies and their organisation’s rising stars to discuss ‘Leadership, AI, the WorkForce and Society’.
Finally, we’re proud to be joining Jobs2030 – a new industry coalition led by Zopa Bank and ClearScore that aims to upskill 100,000 banking and fintech professionals in AI disciplines by 2030. As AI continues to transform financial services, initiatives like Jobs2030 will play an important role in ensuring the industry develops both the technical and human capabilities needed for long-term success.
As always, client campaigns continue at full speed as we support their product launches, help them win awards and profile their senior executives with the media.
If you have any questions about our work, we’d love to hear from you. In the meantime, I hope you find the insights below valuable.
Kind regards,
Ian Stirling, CEO
The latest blog from CEO, Ian Stirling explores how European and UK capital markets can bridge the gap between private growth and public liquidity. He argues that the traditional Initial Public Offering model requires a holistic ecosystem approach rather than isolated fixes to retain innovative businesses.
The evolution of the consolidated tape in European equities is the subject of the latest blog by Director, Sybille Mueller. The piece examines why this infrastructure cannot serve as a standalone solution, analysing the data hurdles and structural shifts required to unify a fragmented trading landscape.
The contentious issue of 24/5 trading is tackled in a further blog from CEO, Ian Stirling. Weighing the arguments for round-the-clock equity access against the risks of thin overnight liquidity, the piece explains why the overwhelming majority of market participants remain heavily opposed to the shift.
An impending ten trillion euro generational wealth transfer and urgent pension reforms are driving a massive structural shift in European retail investing. Our Director, Sybille Mueller, is exploring the critical regulatory and product innovations required to cultivate a thriving retail investment culture.
AI on the institutional trading desk has transitioned completely out of the pilot phase into live production workflows. In this blog, Ian Stirling cuts through the industry hype to analyse how firms are embedding alternative intelligence across the pre-trade, execution, and post-trade lifecycle to intelligently manage data complexity.
The concentration of equity volume into the final minutes of the trading day is fundamentally reshaping execution strategies. Sybille Mueller examines the mechanics behind the European closing auction, exploring how trading desks can navigate structural fragmentation, internalisation, and the rising implicit costs of trading the close.
Our Director, Sybille Mueller, caught up with Steve Plestis, Head of Sales at G.H. Financials, during TradeTech Amsterdam.
Our Director, Sybille Mueller, caught up with Elliot Banks, Chief Product Officer at BMLL, during TradeTech Amsterdam.
Regulatory Updates
The discussion around the use and regulation of AI is intensifying. Industry voices are raising concerns about the fact that the EU AI Act does not explicitly cover agentic AI. This leaves fast‑learning “agents” in a legal grey area, placing compliance departments under pressure as we are witnessing increasingly complex multi-agent architectures. At the same time, the Bank of England, HM Treasury and the Financial Conduct Authority have issued a joint statement on the need for financial institutions to plan for and mitigate cybersecurity risks posed by frontier AI. Meanwhile, in the US, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission said it may write new rules to govern the use of artificial intelligence as the technology moves into higher-risk deployments such as trading and financial advice.
Musk Vs. Altman, Musk Vs. Musk
During federal court testimony accusing Open AI’s Sam Altman of “stealing a charity”, Elon Musk admitted under oath that Tesla is not currently pursuing artificial general intelligence (AGI). This directly contradicts a post he made on X (Twitter) where he said “Tesla will be one of the companies to make AGI.” The case, brought by Musk against Open AI, for transitioning OpenAI from a non-profit to a for-profit structure, he also revealed that his startup xAI partly trained its Grok chatbot using ‘model distillation’ on OpenAI’s technology, defending the shortcut as standard industry practice.
Anthropic’s Valuation Could Reach Almost $1 Trillion
As Anthropic’s revenues are expected to hit $45 billion this year, a 5x increase on last year’s numbers, the company is said to be considering a multi-billion dollar fundraise this summer. Sources state that the makers of Claude are considering raising $50 billion to invest in more compute power, which would give the company an eye-watering valuation of around $900 billion ahead of a potential ‘blockbuster’ IPO toward the end of this year. This valuation would surpass Open AI’s valuation of $825 billion following its closing of a $122 billion fundraise earlier this year.
Adoption Continues for Financial Firms
KPMG’s “AI in Finance 2026” report reveals that active AI adoption among senior finance leaders has more than doubled over the past two years to 75%. The research highlights that the strongest performance gains are concentrating in judgment-heavy areas like forecasting and decision-making quality rather than transactional cost-cutting, effectively positioning AI as a critical ‘decision-engine’. However, a distinct performance gap is widening, as ‘assurance-ready’ organisations with robust governance and audit trails are significantly outperforming lagging peers and scaling with greater confidence.
The UK fintech and financial services industry has come together to launch Jobs2030, and we are delighted to be a founding member. A new coalition aiming to upskill 100,000 banking and fintech professionals in AI and GenAI disciplines by 2030, Jobs2030 is driven by a shared recognition across financial services that AI upskilling cannot be solved by individual organisations alone. Founded by Zopa Bank and The ClearScore Group, the initiative now brings together 24 organisations spanning banking, fintech, academia, venture capital, education and policy in one of the UK’s largest coordinated industry responses to the rapid rise of AI.
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