Aveni has announced the formation of its Agent Assurance Expert Council (AAEC), a new industry body designed to address what many consider one of the most pressing governance challenges in financial services: how to assure and oversee the next generation of autonomous AI agents.
The inaugural meeting of the council took place in Edinburgh, with future gatherings planned to rotate between London and Scotland.
The creation of the AAEC comes at a pivotal moment for the sector. Organisations are moving rapidly beyond AI tools designed merely to support human decision-making, towards autonomous agents capable of conducting complex interactions and taking consequential actions on their own. That shift is placing traditional assurance models under significant strain, as continuous, machine-led decision-making at scale raises fundamental questions around oversight, accountability and customer outcomes for boards, regulators and compliance leaders alike.
Industry research underpinning the initiative reveals that 99% of firms plan to put AI agents into production, yet only 11% have actually done so — and just 2% report having adequate AI guardrails in place. The gap between ambition and operational readiness is fast becoming one of the defining risks for regulated financial services firms.
Aveni RegTech adviser Kent Mackenzie said, “AI agents represent a step change in how decisions are made within financial services. Assurance models and frameworks built for human-led processes are no longer sufficient. The Agent Assurance Expert Council is about bringing the industry together to define how we maintain control, transparency and trust as these systems scale. Collaboration will be essential to ensuring we meet regulatory expectations while continuing to innovate responsibly.”
The AAEC has been structured as a collaborative forum drawing on senior practitioners from across financial services, advice, risk and compliance. Its focus will be on developing practical approaches to governing agentic systems, including emerging concepts such as machine-led assurance and the evolving lines of defence model. The council’s formation reflects a broader recognition that consistent, scalable frameworks for monitoring, validating and evidencing AI-driven decisions within customer journeys cannot be built by individual firms in isolation.
Aveni’s credentials for leading the initiative were demonstrated through its participation in the FCA’s inaugural Supercharged Sandbox, where it piloted end-to-end assurance spanning pre-deployment stress testing and post-production monitoring, showing how safe deployment of agentic AI in regulated environments can be achieved.
The company’s work centred on evidence-led assurance — using simulated real-world interactions to test AI agent behaviour and demonstrate compliance with safe conduct standards, alongside continuous production monitoring to provide scalable oversight once live.
With regulatory scrutiny increasing and AI agent adoption accelerating across the industry, the AAEC marks a significant step towards establishing the frameworks and machine-based oversight mechanisms needed to support safe, accountable and scalable use of AI agents in financial services.
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