Technology

Brits are uploading their bank statements directly into Claude, Gemini, and ChatGPT

Ryan Brothwell 3 min read
Brits are uploading their bank statements directly into Claude, Gemini, and ChatGPT

Key Points

  • One in five UK consumers using AI for personal finance upload bank statements or documents to chatbots
  • 13% of all UK consumers would give AI real-time access to their banking data
  • 26% believe tools such as ChatGPT provide reliable financial advice; 36% disagree
  • One in five UK adults are open to AI making financial decisions on their behalf
  • Findings come from the FCA-commissioned Mills Review, published in July 2026

Claude, Gemini, and ChatGPT know exactly how much you spent on takeaways last month – because you told it.

That is one of the key findings buried in the Mills Review, the Financial Conduct Authority’s sweeping study of how AI will reshape retail financial services by 2030, released on Monday (6 July).

Among UK consumers who already use AI to help manage their money, one in five reported uploading personal data or documents, including bank statements, to AI services.

A further 13% of all consumers said they would be willing to hand AI real-time access to their banking and financial data, a figure that climbed to 36% among those already using AI for their finances.

The numbers come from a nationally representative Yonder Consulting survey of 5,026 UK adults, conducted between 21 and 29 April 2026 for the Review, which was led by former FCA Executive Director Sheldon Mills at the request of the regulator’s Board.

Taken together, they show a country that has begun to hand over its finances to AI bots that are not necessarily designed or regulated to receive it.

Brits are handing over everything to their new AI friends

Of the 92% of consumers who undertake at least one personal finance activity, 16% already use AI to assist them, rising to 23% among people who use AI elsewhere in their lives. Notably, 20% of consumers who review investments reported using AI, along with 17% of those managing debt and 16% of those doing tax planning. Bills and subscriptions, the low-stakes drudgery, attracted just 7%.

Britons are not asking chatbots to round up their spare change, but are reaching for AI at the moments they would once have paid a professional. The Mills Review noted that currently 9% of consumers use traditional financial advice.

Into that gap has stepped a generation of general-purpose models with no permissions, no Consumer Duty obligations and no route to the Financial Ombudsman when things go wrong.

Consumers appear at least dimly aware of the bargain. Among users, 75% trusted it to explain things clearly and 71% to provide useful guidance, but only 23% trusted it to avoid misleading them, and just 21% trusted it to handle their personal information responsibly.

In other words

People, in other words, want the brain but do not trust the hands, and then upload their bank statements anyway.

Just over a quarter of consumers (26%) agreed that tools such as ChatGPT provide reliable financial information or advice, against 36% who disagreed. Among those already using AI for their finances, confidence jumped to 57%.

Of note is that one in five UK adults said they were open to AI making financial decisions for them, with 20% of all consumers (and 28% of existing AI users) stating that they would likely use AI that acts autonomously within pre-set goals.

Demand was strongest for debt advice, pensions and investments, the very territory where regulated advice was designed to sit.

Formal review planned

The Mills Review’s first priority recommendation urged the regulator to launch a formal review, within three to six months, into the scale and impact of general-purpose LLMs.

It specifically named ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude as operating outside the regulatory perimeter, including how the advice and guidance boundary operates inside a conversational interface.

Mills framed the underlying question with a line borrowed from his mother, who told him: “Son, that AI is not going away now, you cannot switch it off, can you?”

This is especially true for people who have already uploaded sensitive financial information into these chatbots.

Now read: HMRC is paying informants to turn in wealthy tax dodgers