FCA's Palantir Data Deal Faces Parliamentary Scrutiny Over US Government Backdoor Access Risks to UK Financial Data

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is under political pressure to demonstrate that its data-processing arrangement with US technology firm Palantir will not expose sensitive UK financial and citizen data to the Trump administration. Martin Wrigley MP, a member of the House of Commons science and technology select committee, has warned that US law — specifically referencing the USA Patriot Act and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) — could compel Palantir to disclose information held on behalf of the FCA to American authorities. The FCA has stated that Palantir does not 'control' the data but acts as a 'data processor' in its arrangement to help detect financial crime. Critics, including Wrigley, have disputed whether that distinction provides adequate legal protection, with one characterisation describing the arrangement as pushing UK residents' data 'into the meat grinder of the Trump administration'. The debate raises direct questions about the legal boundaries of data processor obligations under UK data protection law and the extraterritorial reach of US intelligence statutes.

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