Palantir won a three-month, £30K+/week trial to access the UK FCA's intelligence data to tackle financial crime, a source says raising concerns inside the FCA

The Guardian 2026-03-23 Robert Booth

Context & Ripple Effects

The FCA trial extends Palantir's UK public-sector footprint beyond its three-year Ministry of Defence software contract into a regulator handling sensitive intelligence. It also follows earlier reporting that examined concerns over Palantir's work with European public agencies during COVID.

The immediate controversy lands while Palantir faces public and political pressure around its NHS work, including a potential 2027 break clause in its NHS England contract. That makes governance of access, rather than the trial's price alone, central to the story.

First-order effects

Palantir gains a three-month opportunity to work with FCA intelligence data on financial-crime use cases, while the FCA must manage internal concerns over that access.
The reported £30K-plus weekly trial puts the FCA's procurement, data controls and vendor oversight under closer scrutiny.

Second-order effects

The concerns could force more explicit safeguards, review processes and accountability requirements for vendors seeking access to sensitive regulatory data.
For Palantir, scrutiny at the FCA can compound the political pressure surrounding its UK health contract, making trust and governance material to future public-sector bids.

Third-order effects

If regulators continue to bring specialist data-platform suppliers into core intelligence workflows, public procurement will increasingly turn on auditable data access and exit arrangements, not just technical capability.
The pattern points to a durable tension in state technology buying: agencies want integrated analytical tools, while public acceptance depends on credible limits over how private suppliers handle sensitive data.

The trend: This is one data point in the expansion of state-compatible data platforms into sensitive public functions, alongside rising demands for procurement and data-governance accountability.

Discussion

@andrewfeinstein Andrew Feinstein on x
Palantir extends reach into British state as it gets access to sensitive FCA data: Allowing US tech firm to analyse intelligence in name of tackling fraud raises fresh concerns over privacy https://www.theguardian.com/ ...
@johnobrennan2 John O'Brennan on x
How on earth can governments let a company like Palantir into so many sensitive areas of state activity? https://www.theguardian.com/ ...
@openrightsgroup.org @openrightsgroup.org on bluesky
The UK's reliance on US Big Tech is a national security issue ⚠️ — But the UK is giving the controversial spyware company Palantir more contracts and more access to our data. — We're increasingly vulnerable to companies that lock us in to proprietary systems, creating depende…
@duncanrobertson Dr Duncan Robertson on bluesky
Well, this seems courageous, as Sir Humphrey would have said. — www.theguardian.com/technology/ 2...
@yanisvaroufakis Yanis Varoufakis on bluesky
From Gaza's killing fields to the NHS, now to Britain's Financial Conduct Authority, Palantir's ghastly tentacles have penetrated every pore of the British state. The UK's demos is now well and truly expelled from the UK's democracy-in-name-only www.theguardian.com/technology/ 2…
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Palantir extends reach into British state as it gets access to sensitive FCA data

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