Financial Regulation Innovation Lab

The Financial Regulation Innovation Lab (FRIL) is an industry-led collaborative research and innovation programme focused on leveraging new technologies to respond to, shape, and help evolve the future regulatory landscape in the UK and globally. FRIL provides an environment for participants to engage and collaborate on the dynamic demands of financial regulation, explore, test, and experiment with new technologies, build confidence in solutions, and demonstrate their ability to meet regulatory standards worldwide.

The FRIL Story

Innovation Calls

As part of its programme, FRIL has launched a series of industry-led calls. These bring together financial institutions and innovators from across the fintech community and beyond to develop new solutions to key financial regulatory challenges.

AI and compliance – Utilising emerging technologies to simplify compliance process and monitoring.
Consumer Duty – Supporting consumer duty obligations and enhancing financial inclusion outcomes.
Financial Crime - Addressing future challenges of financial crime.
ESG - Meeting new regulatory requirements, leveraging new data and new technologies.

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Latest Financial regulation Case studies

Fintech firms

13 August 2025

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Research

Actionable Research

FRIL integrates academic research with an industry relevant agenda, focused on enabling knowledge on cutting-edge topics such as generative and explainable AI, advanced analytics, advanced computing, and earth-intelligent data as applied to financial regulation. The approach fosters cross sector learning to produce a series of papers, actionable recommendations and strategic plans that can be tested in the innovation environment, in collaboration across industry and regulators.

Actionable research is realised through:

Clearly framing complex problems
Identifying new perspectives and discovering new insights
Creating a framework for solutions and highlighting potential industry applications
Utilising testing environments that enable further collaboration and understanding

Latest Financial regulation White papers

Regulation

26 September 2025

Supply Chain Intelligence: Actionable Risk Assessment of Brazilian Commodity Supply Chains Using Geospatial Data

Geospatial data is transforming sustainability risk assessment in Financial Services. Driven by mandatory regulations such as the EU’s CSRD and …

Regulation

21 April 2025

Large Language Model Application for Regulatory Horizon Scanning: Case Study on ESG Greenwashing Regulations

This white paper explores the application of Generative AI, specifically Large Language Models (LLMs), to enhance regulatory horizon scanning within …

Regulation

02 April 2025

Sustainable Financial Products and UK Pension Schemes

Sustainable financial products have gained significant traction in the financial world as climate change and social responsibility concerns continue to …

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Skills

Skills Development

The lab designs and implement an industry relevant skills and education programme tailored to needs of professionals in regulatory risk and compliance. It focusses on emerging technologies and how these technologies are applied in financial services.

The programme provides:

Inspiring and challenging courses aimed at bridging the skill gaps
Access to high-quality resources and guest lectures from across the industry.

Knowledge

Knowledge exchange

FRIL facilitates collaboration and knowledge exchange around the topic of innovation in financial regulation through a series of industry engagement actions, including:

Insightful communications on innovation impacting regulation
Workshops and discussion forums bringing together diverse participants embracing regulation innovation
Roundtables to develop specific financial regulation innovation themes
Innovation demonstration events, exploring potential partnerships for specific innovations
International engagement activities to learn from global innovation developments

Upcoming Financial regulation events

29 October 2025

A Blueprint to Double Credit Union Lending by 2030 – Scottish Webinar

Online

10 – 11:15am

In 2023, 9 million people were declined for credit and a further 5 million were too worried to apply. Drawing on insights from £1.5bn in annual lending decisions across 50+ credit unions, NestEgg’s new white paper sets out a practical roadmap to scale sector lending to £4bn by 2030, while staying true to the co-operative mission of building financial resilience. Why Scotland matters Despite most applications coming from more deprived neighbourhoods, Scottish credit unions achieve higher average credit scores and lower bad debt than the UK average, a “credit union difference” that points to significant growth potential. What you’ll hear – Key findings from the white paper and implications for growth – Why Scottish credit unions outperform on credit quality and arrears – Practical steps to scale ethical lending while managing risk – Partnership and policy levers on the path to 2030 Who should attend – Credit union leaders, lending and risk teams – Community finance partners and fintech collaborators – Policymakers, regulators and sector bodies

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03 September 2025

Horizon Scanning for Financial Leaders

Glasgow

9:30 am – 4:30 pm

Future Finance, led by the University of Bristol and co-funded by Innovate UK and the ESRC, is hosting a hands-on strategic foresight workshop for senior financial services leaders. This expert-led event will showcase horizon scanning techniques to transform uncertainty into a strategic advantage. Workshop highlights • AI 2027 case study: Explore a real-world example of effective horizon scanning and the potential impact of AI on financial services. • Capability benchmarking: Identify critical performance gaps and spot disruptive technologies. • Scenario planning: Use proven methods to explore future uncertainties and avoid common forecasting biases. • Scenario-adjusted strategic roadmaps: Turn insights into action with tools to balance innovation with risk. Who should attend? This workshop is open to UK-based financial service providers and FinTech organisations seeking to increase efficiency and growth. Expert-led workshop This workshop will be led by industry and academic experts: • Dr. Felix Honecker, Glasgow University Business School (FinTech & Deep Tech Research) • Adrian Shedden, Financial Innovation Specialist

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03 June 2025

Opportunities from the Advice Guidance Boundary Review

Other

9.00am – 11.45am

This quarterly series of networking and thought leadership events, brings together industry professionals to discuss key topics shaping the financial sector. Our upcoming session will focus on the Financial Conduct Authority’s Advice Guidance Boundary Review, and delve into the detail explored through our whitepaper. This review has been billed as ‘game changing’ in the way firms would be able support the financial lives of consumers, with the potential to vastly increase the scope of advice beneficiaries, beyond just high net worth individuals.

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