Hackford, a London-based RegTech startup, has launched a new software platform aimed at making the UK’s FCA Register more usable for compliance and sales professionals.
The platform combines machine learning with human expertise to categorise over 70,000 FCA-regulated firms into clear market and submarket segments.
The product launch addresses a major usability issue within the current FCA Register. While the Register is a robust source of regulatory data, its website interface lacks fundamental search and categorisation tools, making it difficult for professionals to find the firms and individuals they’re looking for. Hackford aims to fill this critical data gap.
Founded to improve regulatory intelligence in the UK financial services sector, Hackford specialises in using artificial intelligence to transform public regulatory data into actionable insights. Its mission is to help professionals navigate the regulatory landscape more efficiently.
The newly launched platform allows users to search all UK FCA-regulated financial services firms by intuitive categories, regulatory permissions, and associated key individuals. Users can save specific companies and people to watchlists and receive weekly email alerts highlighting changes in permissions or personnel.
Hackford’s segmentation includes both broad sectors like Credit and Insurance and detailed subsegments such as hedge funds, investment managers, and holistic financial planners. This level of granularity allows compliance professionals, regulatory consultants, and RegTech sales teams to more effectively target firms that need their services.
Commenting on the launch, Hackford founder and CEO Dan Robinson said, “The FCA Register is a haystack and Hackford is a metal detector. The register is broken for search. The compliance and regtech professionals I talk to share the painful experience of spending hours trawling the register to find firms that need their help.
“While the FCA has put a lot of time and money into optimising the register to protect consumers, less attention has been given to creating a data asset that serves the UK’s financial services industry. At Hackford, we’ve classified all firms into searchable categories, so professionals can rapidly find exactly the firms they can assist and visit profiles enriched with key firm information. Plugging the data gap isn’t just about convenience. It helps the whole UK compliance ecosystem function better, enabling firms to spot risk, drive best practice, and respond to regulatory change faster.”
Nick Bayley, former FCA regulator and adviser to Hackford, added, “When I was in regulatory consulting, we’d have jumped at a tool like Hackford. Having seen the FCA Register from the inside, I know just how much untapped value it holds for consultants and compliance teams—if only you can unlock it. Hackford does exactly that. It turns a static public record into real intelligence, finally making the Register work for the people who find it most useful.”
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