Reports take hours to collate and draft
Suitability reports, reviews and file notes are built by hand from information that already exists somewhere in your systems.
AI for regulated businesses
AI for regulated businesses
Minibit, founded by Steven Minnikin, helps FCA-regulated financial advice firms, wealth managers, fintechs and other regulated businesses integrate AI without putting client data or compliance at risk. My approach comes from 11 years’ experience in regulated financial services, including seven years running technology inside a £1bn+ advice firm and building a live UK structured-products investment platform.
The problems
Where it usually hurts
These six problems come up again and again in regulated firms. If three of them sound familiar, there is probably a measurable win waiting.
Systems that do not talk to each other
Client data sits in the back office, the platform, the CRM and a dozen spreadsheets, and someone re-keys it between them.
Shadow AI
Staff are already using consumer AI tools, and nobody can say where the client data went or what was retained.
A messy book
Client or product linking issues, duplicates, gaps in the MI, and board packs that take a week to produce.
A migration or an acquisition
A new back office, a platform change or a firm you have just bought, and a painful data move nobody wants to own.
You want AI, not a compliance problem
The board wants progress and the compliance officer wants evidence. Both are right, and both can be satisfied.
Services
What I do for regulated firms
The four Minibit services, with the regulatory controls that go with each one.
AI-readiness discovery
A fixed-fee look at how work flows and where the time and risk sit, written up with costed options. Includes a data map showing where client data goes today and an inventory of any AI already in use.
About discoverySafe AI rollout
Approved business tools under a data-processing agreement, a written AI policy covering Consumer Duty, record keeping and senior manager accountability, assistants set up for your templates, and a sign-off step for anything that reaches a client.
About safe rolloutBook clean-up, MI and migrations
Every plan linked to its client, gaps and duplicates fixed, and reports that stay current inside Intelliflo Office. When you change systems or acquire a firm, I move the data and produce a reconciliation report that proves it matches.
About data workAgents and integrations
Assistants and MCP connectors that let authorised staff work in your systems from an AI, with permission checks, an audit log and personal data redacted where it is not needed. Scoped and tested against your firm’s requirements.
About integration
Controls
How I approach AI controls in your firm
I scope these controls with your compliance team for each workflow. The pilot checks that they work and that the evidence is useful before any wider rollout.
How I handle human approval- Human approval on every output that reaches a client, with who, what and when recorded.
- Audit trail of every AI action, prompt and source document.
- Workflow-specific checks agreed with your compliance team before customer use.
- UK GDPR record keeping, data-processing agreements and personal-data redaction.
- Consumer Duty evidence: what was checked, against which criteria, with what outcome.
- Permission checks so an AI can only do what the signed-in person could do.
- Spend caps and metering so a runaway process cannot run up a bill.
- Prompt-injection defence for anything that reads documents or email.
- Evals that prove the assistant still behaves after every change.
- Portability: every vendor behind a seam, every byte of data with an owned copy.
Financial advice firms
For advice firms: cut the admin, clean the book, bring in AI your compliance officer will sign off
I spent seven years as Head of Software Development at Lowes Financial Management, an FCA-regulated advice firm with over £1bn under management, on Intelliflo Office. I took a legacy estate of 44 applications and 45 databases in mixed technologies and unified it into one platform. I rolled out a React onboarding platform to more than 80 staff including 18 advisers that cut application processing time by over 90% and removed paper applications entirely, then led the Lowes post-sale integration into the acquiring group. I also served as Deputy Data Protection Officer, with GDPR Foundation / Practitioner training from IT Governance (2022). Accountable for six-monthly client valuation reports and annual costs and charges reporting for over 4,000 clients, ensuring accuracy before issue.
That is the background I bring to your firm: the systems, the data, the people and the regulator's expectations, from the inside.
>90%
reduction in application processing time after the onboarding platform rollout
80+
staff onboarded to it, including 18 advisers, with paper applications removed entirely
Fintech and regulated products
For fintechs and regulated products: ship AI features with the controls already in
Autocalls — Hamilton Thomas. Designed, built and now operates a UK structured-products investment platform for retail investors and their advisers. Delivered in under a year and live on the web with its first investors.
Read the Autocalls case studyDefine the needAgree the user journey and desired business outcome
DiscoveryAgree responsibilitiesSet clear ownership across product, technology and compliance
PlanningPlan the deliveryPrioritise a manageable first release and a measured rollout
DeliverySupport adoptionHelp the team use and maintain the delivered product
TrainingResponsibilities
How I work with your compliance function
Clear lines from the first call, so nobody has to guess who is responsible for what.
Your firm keeps responsibility for advice
I make the technology safe and efficient. I do not give financial advice, and nothing I build makes a recommendation to a client without a regulated person approving it.
Client data stays under your control
In your systems or in approved business tools, under a data-processing agreement, in UK or EU regions where that matters. Personal data a task does not need is redacted before any model sees it.
A person approves every AI output before it reaches a client
The approval is a step in the workflow, not a policy sentence, and it is logged with who, what and when.
Insured and documented
Professional indemnity, public liability and cyber insurance in place. Every engagement produces the written policy, data map and evidence trail your compliance officer needs.
FAQ
Questions regulated firms ask
Can an FCA-regulated firm use AI at all?
Yes. The FCA has been clear that existing rules apply to AI as they do to any technology: Consumer Duty, SM&CR accountability, data protection and record-keeping. The practical question is governance: which tools, what data, who approves, and what evidence you can show. That is what a safe rollout sets up. I am Steven Minnikin, and I ran exactly that governance for seven years inside an FCA-regulated advice firm.
Will AI write our suitability reports?
It can draft them from your templates and your file notes, and check them against your criteria. An adviser or paraplanner reviews and signs every report before it reaches a client, and the system records who approved what. The firm keeps responsibility for the advice.
What happens to client data?
It stays in your systems or in approved business tools under a data-processing agreement, in UK or EU regions where that matters. Nothing goes into consumer AI accounts. Personal data that a task does not need is redacted before any model sees it.
Do you integrate with Intelliflo Office?
Yes. I ran Intelliflo Office for seven years at an FCA-regulated advice firm. I build integrations with it, reconcile client books inside it and build reporting that stays current in the system rather than in spreadsheets.
Who is accountable if the AI gets something wrong?
The same people who are accountable today, which is why a person approves every output that reaches a client. The approval and the source it was checked against are logged, so your compliance team and, if needed, the regulator can see the chain.
Are you insured?
Yes. Minibit Ltd carries professional indemnity, public liability and cyber insurance, and I work under a data-processing agreement.
Bring your compliance officer to the first call.
Thirty minutes on what is slowing the team down and what the regulator would need to see. No cost, no obligation and no financial advice.
steve@minibit.co.uk · Newcastle upon Tyne, working across the UK