AI that your board, your regulator and your customers can live with.
Banks, building societies and specialist lenders are under pressure to use AI and automation to cut cost and speed up decisions, and most have pilots running with little measurable return to show for them. They also answer to Consumer Duty, the Senior Managers regime and operational resilience rules that were not written with AI in mind. Noviform helps you move quickly on the work that pays back, with accountability, evidence and controls designed in from the start.
Our founder led automation across savings, development and specialist finance at a UK specialist bank, redeploying the equivalent of seven roles to higher-value work and cutting decision times from seven days to one.
The problem
There are no AI rules for financial services. That is exactly the problem.
The UK regulators have chosen not to write AI-specific rules. Instead, the rules you already follow apply to AI:
That sounds simple until someone asks which Senior Manager is accountable for a model nobody built in-house, or how you evidence good customer outcomes from a tool that drafts its own answers.
The result is two kinds of stuck. Some firms hold back because nobody can say yes with confidence. Others press ahead in pockets, and the risk function finds out later.
Accountability is unclear
There is no prescribed Senior Manager for AI. Without a clear owner, decisions drift or stall, and the evidence trail is thin when it matters.
Model risk was written before generative AI
Existing frameworks assume models you build, validate and control. Large language models and supplier AI do not fit neatly, and most AI use case inventories do not yet include them.
Customer outcomes are the test
Under Consumer Duty, speed and efficiency only count if customers are treated fairly. Any automation that touches lending decisions, vulnerable customers or complaints needs to show it.
How we help
Move quickly on what pays back. Be ready to show your working.
Every engagement uses the same five building blocks. For a bank or lender, they look like this.
AI MOT for financial services
A short, structured check across operations, lending and servicing, finance, customer experience, people and knowledge, and data and systems. We look at volumes, decision points, controls and accountability, not just appetite.
A scored view of where automation and AI will pay back first, where the regulatory exposure sits, and a sequenced plan your executive and risk committee can approve.
AI 101 for operational teams
Practical training for the people who will work with automation and AI every day, using real lending, savings and servicing examples.
Teams who use AI tools safely with customer data, know when to escalate, and can spot the next good use case.
AI 102 for process owners and change teams
A deeper session for those who will own, design or test automations, including how to write a requirement that risk and compliance can sign off.
Well-defined use cases with owners, controls and success measures attached from the start.
AI for boards and Senior Managers
A focused session for board members, Senior Managers and committee chairs on opportunity, accountability and what good oversight of AI looks like under SM&CR.
Leaders who can challenge with confidence, agree who owns what, and evidence reasonable steps.
AI Assurance
One front door for every AI tool you want to switch on, including supplier and embedded AI, tested against seven areas and mapped to Consumer Duty, model risk, resilience and third-party expectations. Set up in weeks, proved on a pilot, run as a service, then handed to your team.
A clear, evidenced view of what is controlled, what is exposed and what to fix first, and a running record of decisions, conditions and overrides, written for your risk committee and ready for internal audit.
Where it helps, we go further. We deliver the first automations alongside your teams, set up the governance to run AI as a managed portfolio, and stay involved until your people can run it themselves.
Our experience is that the strongest business cases free people from repetitive processing so they can spend time on customers, complex cases and growth. We design for that from day one, and we measure it.
Controls are design inputs
Regulation shapes the design. It does not arrive at the end.
The rules you already follow apply to AI. We build them into every use case from the first workshop.
Experience
Built inside regulated lenders, not just advised from outside.
These are not Noviform clients. They are organisations where our founder led change, in roles held before Noviform, including as a Material Risk Taker under the SMF24 Chief Operations function at a UK specialist bank.
Automation across specialist lending
Led automation across savings, development finance and specialist finance, including AML checks and originations. Capacity was redeployed to higher-value work rather than removed.
Faster decisions
Cut decision latency by redesigning the flow of work and automating the steps that did not need judgement.
Platform change without customer harm
Delivered a core platform migration under FCA and PRA oversight with no customer detriment.
Banking delivery beyond the UK
Earlier delivery work for banks and superannuation funds in Australia and for a major Chinese bank, bringing a wide view of how different institutions run operations and technology change.
Figures relate to roles held before Noviform was founded. Client names are withheld unless the client has agreed to be named.
Financial services FAQ
Questions banks and lenders ask us.
Are there specific AI rules for UK financial services?
Not as such. In October 2026 the FCA published good and poor practice examples instead. The failing it named first was senior managers who could not show what steps they had taken, because decisions were poorly documented with thin audit trails. The FCA and PRA have said existing rules apply to AI, including Consumer Duty, SM&CR, model risk, operational resilience and third-party risk. That makes AI governance a question of applying what you already have, consistently and with evidence. We help you do that.
We have several AI pilots running. How do we know which to scale?
Score them. The AI MOT looks at each use case for return, exposure and ownership, so you scale the ones with a measurable return and a named Senior Manager, and stop the ones that have neither.
Who should be accountable for AI under SM&CR?
There is no prescribed Senior Manager for AI, so firms need to decide and document it. Typically accountability follows the business service the AI supports, with a clear owner for each use case and oversight at committee level. We help you set that up so it is proportionate and defensible.
Does generative AI belong in our model inventory?
In most cases, yes. Model risk expectations predate generative AI, but the principle of knowing what you use, tiering it by risk and monitoring it still applies. We help you extend your existing framework rather than build a parallel one.
We use AI inside supplier products. Is that our risk?
Yes. AI embedded in the systems you buy still affects your customers and your resilience. We help you ask the right questions at procurement and keep a record your risk function can rely on.
Can automation work alongside Consumer Duty?
It can strengthen it. Faster, more consistent processing helps customers, provided the design checks for vulnerable customers, fair outcomes and clear communication. We build those checks into each use case and capture the evidence as we go.
Where does strategy fit in the AI MOT?
Across all six areas, rather than as a box of its own. The MOT finishes with a roadmap that ties your scores to what you do first, next and later.
What does AI Assurance give our board?
Evidence that keeps up. Every AI tool is reviewed the same way before it goes live, and every decision, condition and override is kept in a living register. The monthly report shows what was reviewed and approved, what is still open and how long decisions took, written for a risk committee and internal audit, not a technical team.
Move faster on AI and automation, with the evidence to back it up.
Start with a 30-minute conversation. We will talk through where you are, what your risk and compliance teams need, and whether an AI MOT or AI Assurance is the right first step. No obligation and no sales pitch.