The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has revealed the 29 companies that have made the fifth cohort of its regulatory sandbox.
A total of 99 applications were submitted from firms in the UK and overseas, with the majority of companies looking to operate in the wholesale and retail banking sectors. Types of propositions include digital identity, tokenised issuance of financial instruments, and improving access to financial services.
Having been accepted to the cohort, the 29 companies will be able to test their products, services, business models and delivery mechanisms. Tests will be conducted on both a short-term and small-scale basis, with testing parameters and consumer safeguards being agreed with each company individually.
Diro Labs, which offers identity verification services to authenticate any person or document online. Its platform offers auditable, and reportable evidence of KYC and due-diligence in a central blockchain-based store of information.
Also joining this year’s cohort is Muinmos, an AI-powered provider of client onboarding solutions. Its software is able to classify and categorise a client in accordance to MiFID and KYC regulations around world.
The remaining participants of cohort five include:
Barclays, British Heart Foundation, digital bank Bó, debit card solution Currensea, financial advice platform Digital Wealth Solutions, SME financing solution Fractal, student loan service Funds4Talent, robo-advisor Jammtoday, cash flow management product Karma, L&C Mortgages, London Stock Exchange Group, Fintech Delivery Panel Partners, and financial wellness platform Monergie.
Home contents insurance supplier Moneyline & Aviva, e-commerce payments solution Nuggets, Open Banking Implementation Entity, money withdrawal solution Paypoint & LINK, Post Office, bank accounts for the homeless ProxyAddress, money management support app Quo Money, real estate investment app Renso, micro payments service Shrap, Standard Chartered Bank, SME lending solution Statys, capital raising support company Torca, tax return automaton software united, and POS loan service Zilch Technology.
Last year, the FCA’s fourth cohort also had 29 participants; however, there were only 69 applications in total. Some of the participants included KYC and AML solution Veridu Labs, automated governance solution Hub365 and KYC solution NorthRow.
