FCA to permanently launch Digital Sandbox next month
The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has announced that it is to make its Digital Sandbox permanently available from 1 August 2023.
The FCA is permanently launching its Digital Sandbox
The financial watchdog continues to keep a watchful eye on the early product development strategies of SMEs, something it will now do more effectively with the permanent launch of its Digital Sandbox.
The facility offers a testing environment in which the regulator can support and assist in the early stage development of financial products and services.
Having enlisted the UK-based fintech NayaOne to develop and operate the Digital Sandbox in April this year, the FCA’s resulting offering has, until now, only been available to participants via associated pilots and TechSprints.
The permanent launch of the sandbox has extended access to not only a wider range of developers, but also to data providers, which will now be able to apply to list their data on the platform and consequently generate traffic and insights from its use.
The sandbox’s permanent features include access to approximately 200 different types of data sets and over 1000 APIs, concerning payments and transactions data, social media data, investment, Companies House and credit data, which together will support the testing and validation of new products and services.
Adjoining features include an “integrated development environment” to ensure in-development data security, the ability to connect with other teams, observers and mentors and a so-called “observation deck” to allow for the external observation of in-flight product testing.
The sandbox and its supporting features will be accessible to those working in sectors including banking, investment, lending, payments, insurance and pension, among others.
The FCA has also confirmed that the approval process to participate in the sandbox will take a maximum of four weeks.
