The findings of a global industry sandbox consultation have been published, emphasising that a successful sandbox must be “accessible to all key players, from startups to big banks”.

The consultation, which was chaired by Innovate Finance on invitation from the FCA, brought together over 200 representatives from financial institutions, large technology firms, data vendors and startups to identify where and how an industry sandbox can add value.

The report identified use cases and design requirements for a successful sandbox development environment that could enable FinTech players to validate innovations as well as to partner in developing new solutions in a neutral ‘off-line’ environment before accessing the market.

The consultation found there was a demand for an industry sandbox in the following areas:

• Helping to show how new financial products would work

• Making it easier for Industry to resolve shared problems together

• Supporting knowledge sharing with regulators early in product life cycles

Industry sandboxes could provide access to data, APIs, common technical requirements and other technologies to help build and test financial products, according to the report. It also highlighted that users should be able to certify against industry standards and best practices to give their potential clients more comfort. A sandbox governance structure could also make collaboration on common industry challenges such as passporting Know-Your-Customer checks or adopting RegTech less complicated.

Lawrence Wintermeyer, consultation chair, said: “The findings collate all the feedback from the consultation process and conclude that a successful industry sandbox must be open to an entire ecosystem on a voluntary participation basis, connected to shared testing environments and accessible to all key players, from startups to big banks.”

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