Regulations released to boost ASIC Fintech regulatory sandbox

By John Bassilios and Kai Liu

On 29 May 2020 the Corporations (Fintech Sandbox Australian Financial Services Licence Exemption) Regulations 2020 and the National Consumer Credit Protection (Fintech Sandbox Australian Financial Services Licence Exemption) Regulations 2020 received royal assent.

These regulations implement the changes to the ASIC Fintech Sandbox (Sandbox) which were proposed under the Treasury Laws Amendment (2018 Measures No. 2) Act 2020 (Cth), which we discussed in our previous article here.

While you can find more detail in our previous article, in summary, the key changes to the Sandbox include the following:

• an increase in the length of the exemption from 12 to 24 months;
• broadening the range of financial services for market testing, including:
  • non-cash payment products;
  • insurance;
  • some superannuation products;
  • simple managed investment schemes;
  • listed securities; and
  • consumer credit contracts between $2,000 and $25,000;
• empowering ASIC to attach conditions on the granting of exemptions; and
• allowing the exemptions to apply to specific elements of an existing product or service.

If you wish to take advantage of the Sandbox you will need to submit an application to ASIC to do so, and the changes will take effect from 1 September 2020.  Hall & Wilcox would be happy to assist in preparing an application for relief.