Innovate Finance is seeking input from UK financial services participants on the establishment of an industry sandbox, creating a neutral space where banks, fintech startups and the wider development community can share and extract data for off-market testing of new applications.
Innovate Finance believes the Sandbox could make it easier for startups to access a wider set of data, technologies or certifications to validate their products and speed up time to market, bridging the gap between proof of concept and production.
The startup membership association further holds that the virtual environment could become a bipartisan space where industry players could come together and resolve challenges the industry faces as a whole, including digital identity, authentication, fraud, and supervising AI algorithms.
The Financial Conduct Authority has already opened up a regulatory sandbox for firms of all sizes to test innovative products and services in a live environment. In April 2016 it invited Innovate Finance to lead a working group to explore options for an industry-led virtual sandbox.
The deadline for responding to the Call For Input is 10 March 2017, with the final view set to be published in April.