TL;DR:

  • Coadjute — a compliance platform backed by Lloyds Banking Group, NatWest and Nationwide — has been accepted into the FCA’s AI Live Testing Sandbox to trial AI-driven anti-money-laundering compliance for UK conveyancing.
  • The move comes as the FCA prepares to take over from the Solicitors Regulation Authority as the single professional-services AML supervisor, moving from guidance-led to enforcement-driven oversight.
  • Coadjute’s entry sets an early reference point for how UK regulators expect firms to demonstrate AML “effectiveness in practice” under the new regime — AI-native workflows with audit-ready reporting rather than policy-document compliance.

Coadjute, a governance, risk and compliance platform backed by Lloyds Banking Group, NatWest and Nationwide, has been accepted into the Financial Conduct Authority’s AI Live Testing Sandbox. The firm will use the sandbox to trial AI-driven anti-money-laundering compliance for the UK property sector, at a moment when AML supervision is moving from the Solicitors Regulation Authority to the FCA.

Why the timing matters

In October 2025 the UK government confirmed that the FCA will become the single professional-services AML supervisor, replacing the SRA. Industry observers expect the transition to bring more frequent “skilled person” reviews, greater enforcement activity and rising compliance costs. The regulatory bar on Source of Funds and Source of Wealth due diligence is also expected to rise — regulators will want evidence-based client risk understanding, not just document collection. Coadjute’s sandbox entry puts it at the front of the queue for demonstrating what AI-native compliance looks like under the new regime.

Coadjute’s platform combines automation, a property-market risk engine, and human compliance expertise to deliver identity verification, Source of Funds analysis, enhanced due diligence and audit-ready reporting. Its digital human assistant “Clara” guides buyers and sellers through AML workflows. CEO John Reynolds said conveyancers are entering “a new era of AML regulation — one that demands demonstrable effectiveness, not just good intentions”.

What the FCA sandbox actually does

The AI Live Testing Sandbox allows firms to test AI solutions in a controlled live-market environment with direct regulator engagement. FCA chief data, information and intelligence officer Jessica Rusu said the service is for firms “ready to use AI in live markets” and framed it as helping ensure “AI is developed and deployed safely and responsibly in UK financial markets”. The sandbox is a deliberate UK regulatory innovation — positioned as a lighter-touch, faster alternative to the EU’s AI Act compliance workstream.

The broader UK context

Coadjute’s accession fits a larger pattern. LSEG disclosed this week that 150 customers are connected to or integrating its MCP server; Microsoft and Moody’s announced a Copilot-grounding partnership the same day; and the Bank of England summoned City firms to discuss AI-cyber resilience. UK financial-services regulators and incumbents are moving together to bring AI into compliance workflows, not just customer-facing channels. The Solicitors Regulation Authority is expected to retain AML responsibilities through 2026, which introduces a transition-period risk of overlapping investigations — another reason conveyancing firms are being pushed to modernise early rather than late.

Looking forward

The next sandbox cohort announcements will reveal whether Coadjute’s acceptance is the start of a broader move toward AI-native compliance tooling in UK regulated sectors. UK conveyancing firms should be assessing AML partner readiness before year-end, particularly around audit-ready reporting and evidence-based client risk scoring. Expect the FCA to publish early findings from the sandbox programme before the Autumn Budget — those will set expectations the entire profession will be measured against.

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