The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is permanently launching its Digital Sandbox, offering a testing environment to support early-stage development of financial products and services, with access to various data sets and APIs.
Facts
- The FCA is permanently launching its Digital Sandbox, starting from August 1, 2023.
- The FCA will now effectively monitor early product development strategies of SMEs with the permanent launch of the Digital Sandbox.
- The facility provides a testing environment for the regulator to support and assist in the early stage development of financial products and services.
- The sandbox was initially developed and operated by UK-based fintech NayaOne, and its offerings were previously available only to participants through pilots and TechSprints.
- The permanent launch extends access to a wider range of developers and data providers, allowing them to apply to list their data on the platform and gain insights from its use.
- The sandbox grants access to around 200 different data sets and over 1000 APIs, covering payments, transactions, social media, investment, Companies House, and credit data for testing and validating new products and services.
- It features an “integrated development environment” to ensure data security during development, facilitates connections with other teams, observers, and mentors, and offers an “observation deck” for external observation of in-flight product testing.
- The sandbox and its features are accessible to professionals in banking, investment, lending, payments, insurance, pension, and other related sectors.
- The approval process to participate in the sandbox will take a maximum of four weeks, according to the FCA’s confirmation.
