FCA joins cross-border fintech testing initiative
The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has announced its participation in a worldwide cross-border testing initiative.
GFIN has members across five continents
At the heart of the project is the Global Financial Innovation Network (GFIN). The group is a collection of more than 60 organisations geared towards innovation for customers.
The FCA currently chairs the GFIN’s Coordination Group, which sets the overall direction, strategy and annual work of the group.
GFIN is inviting applications from firms to test new financial products, services, business models or regulatory technology across multiple countries.
23 regulators across five continents are taking part in the initiative.
According to the GFIN, firms wishing to participate in testing must carefully consider the jurisdictions they wish to test with and provide a rationale for each.
Different regulators have different requirements in the initiative, but the GFIN has created a “compendium” contained all criteria.
The FCA’s criteria asks for “new or a significantly different” innovations. It requires systems offer potential for benefit to consumers and that the tester have “a genuine need” to use the sandbox.
There is no restriction on the number of jurisdictions that a firm can apply to. Yet GFIN says firms should consider whether they have “the necessary resources” to support large scale testing.
Applicants to the project are encouraged to focus on testing a single solution in a single jurisdiction, though some participants are open to testing multiple systems as once.
Related: FCA survey shows 12 million UK adults struggling with debt payments
