GFIN reviews progress to date and sets out future priorities
The Global Financial Innovation Network (GFIN) was established last summer by the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) together with eleven other financial services regulators. The aims of the participating regulatory authorities were to (i) provide a more efficient way for firms to navigate on a cross border basis in scaling and testing new ideas and (ii) work together on innovation related topics. In January we reported on the opening of the window for the first UK cohort to use the "global sandbox" established through GFIN. This summer, one year on from the establishment of the GFIN, the GFIN has published a review looking back over its initial 12 months and setting out its future priorities.
Milestones achieved
- GFIN's membership has now grown to 35 financial services regulators with full membership status and GFIN now has seven observers, including the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.
- The first cohort of 8 participants for the "Global Sandbox" was admitted in May (over 40 applications were received so demand was strong).
- three main work streams have been established focusing on:
- cross border regulatory collaboration - enabling regulators to share experience of innovation, discussing lessons learned and providing guidance on regulatory approaches to innovation;
- a forum for joint work on RegTech, sharing experiences in this area and looking at issues of potential common interest (such as machine executable regulations), secondments and joint regulatory trials
- providing an environment for firms to test products and solutions across borders i.e. the "global sandbox"
Future Priorities
Over the coming months GFIN proposes the following areas of focus:
- Formalising its approach for cross-border testing based on the learnings from the pilot programme. In particular it is looking to enable testing in a quick and efficient manner, recognising that speed to market is key for innovative firms.
- In its RegTech workstream, working to create cross-jurisdictional tests and proofs of concept regarding supervisory technologies or technologies that facilitate compliance for regulated firms. The hope is that members will learn from the trials and be able to implement the technology utilised.
- supporting emerging markets to help define, shape and develop their respective regulatory markets approach to innovation. The GFIN intends to encourage regulators in those markets to join it, so that they can benefit from the information sharing and collaborative working.
The GFIN is pleased with progress to date commenting that:
The GFIN Members strongly believe that cross-border cooperation through the network will work not only to facilitate firm testing through our current pilot project. but also to enable the regulatory community to develop an increasingly collaborative approach going forward.
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