The Bank of Ghana has launched a regulatory and innovation sandbox pilot in collaboration with EMTECH Service LLC to enable the smooth, safe, secure, controlled and regulated testing of innovations by startup FinTechs in the country.
A statement from the central bank said the initiative is in line with its commitment to evolve an enabling and inclusive regulatory environment that promotes FinTechs and supports innovation.
Several FinTechs and startups have sought, without success, for banks to give them access to experiment their innovations. The banks are usually apprehensive, either due to concerns about the security threat such access can pose to them or the competition it gives them.
But the sandbox will serve as a regulated universal platform where FinTechs and startups can plug in and experiment their innovations in a more regulated environment.
“Within the financial sector, a regulatory and innovation sandbox is a supportive and controlled policy environment that enables firms to test innovative products, services and business models under the supervision of a regulator,” the BoG statement said.
It said the the regulatory and innovation sandbox will provide a forum for financial sector innovators to interact with the sector regulator to test digital financial service innovations while evolving enabling regulatory environment.
“In this regard, the Bank and the innovator are able to assess the usefulness, viability and safety of innovations through shared understanding of their respective interests,” the statement pointed.
The central bank further said the innovation will be made available to banks specialized deposit-taking institutions and payment service providers including dedicated electronic money issuers as well as unregulated entities and persons that have innovations that meet the sandbox requirements.
Below if the full statement from BoG:
