In order to spur innovation in its regulated sectors, the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) has opened its first cohort under Pakistan’s first-ever Regulatory Sandbox.
The Regulatory Sandbox is a tailored regulatory environment that allows entities/firms to conduct limited scale live tests of innovative products, services, processes, and business models in a controlled environment.
SECP’s Regulatory Sandbox is available for the Insurance sector, Non-Banking Finance Sector, Capital Markets, and overall corporate sector. SECP has already issued Regulatory Sandbox Guidelines 2019.
Under the first cohort, the application window will be open from February 1, 2020 till March 15, 2020 for all eligible persons including registered companies and unregistered startups. The unregistered entities will have to get registered upon a successful experiment.
The application form, eligibility criteria and related documents are provided in the Regulatory Sandbox Guidelines placed at SECP’s website. All the applications will undergo preliminary screening and detailed evaluation. Successful applicants will be allowed to test and experiment with their innovative ideas and solutions for a period of six months.
Upon completion of the experimentation period, the entities registered in Sandbox will submit a detailed completion report to SECP, following which future course of action for the tested solutions will be determined.