multifi Completes FCA AI Sandbox Programme with Solution to Improve Open Banking Data Quality
UK fintech multifi develops AI approach to enhance transaction categorisation, supporting faster credit decisions for UK businesses
multifi, the UK fintech platform dedicated to simplifying business finance for SMEs, today announces the successful completion of the Financial Conduct Authority’s AI Supercharged Sandbox programme, having developed an AI solution that significantly improves the quality and usability of open banking transaction data.
Addressing an Industry Challenge
Open banking has transformed access to financial data, but challenges remain around data quality and consistency. Transaction information often arrives uncategorised or incomplete, requiring significant manual review before it can be used effectively in credit assessment processes.
Through the three-month FCA Sandbox programme, multifi developed and tested an AI-powered approach to address these challenges, improving transaction categorisation accuracy from approximately 10% to over 85%.
“The FCA Sandbox provided an invaluable environment for rigorous experimentation,” said Kris Makuch, Director of Marketing & Communications at multifi. “Over 900 hours of development, we tested multiple approaches to understand what works and what doesn’t when processing complex financial data with AI.”
The resulting solution uses a multi-stage process that sanitises raw transaction data, identifies patterns through clustering, and applies AI to enrich records with accurate categorisation and metadata.
Practical Applications
The improved data quality enables:
- Faster processing: Reduced credit assessment times
- Enhanced accuracy: More complete transaction insights for credit decisions
- Better customer outcomes: Improved ability to assess businesses with complex financial patterns
- Operational efficiency: Reduced manual review requirements
“This development supports our mission to make business finance more accessible for UK SMEs,” Makuch added. “Better data quality means we can make more informed decisions more quickly, which ultimately benefits the businesses we serve.”
Technical Approach
The solution operates entirely within multifi’s secure infrastructure, with no customer data transmitted externally. The system combines multiple AI models in a structured workflow designed specifically for financial transaction data.
Key learnings from the programme include insights into effective data sanitisation techniques, the importance of pattern clustering before applying AI, and methods for maintaining data privacy while processing at scale.
Next Steps
multifi is now implementing the solution in its production environment and developing feedback mechanisms to continuously improve accuracy. The company is also exploring how the enhanced data processing capabilities could support additional product developments.
Programme Recognition
The FCA’s AI Supercharged Sandbox, developed in collaboration with NVIDIA, Amazon Web Services, and NayaOne, provided participating firms with computing resources, secure datasets, and regulatory guidance to support responsible AI innovation.
multifi presented its findings at the FCA Sandbox Showcase on 29th January 2026 alongside other participating firms demonstrating AI applications across financial services.
“The programme represents an important step in understanding how AI can be applied responsibly within regulated financial services,” said Makuch. “We’re grateful for the opportunity to contribute to this learning alongside the FCA and other innovating firms.”
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