Innovation Sandbox

Innovation Sandbox provides for a process enabling the existing or potential financial market participants, whose activities require operating authorisation from the FCMC (licence or registration), to test or verify innovative financial products, financial services or business models in accordance with a specific testing plan agreed with the FCMC.

Innovation Sandbox is open to innovative financial solutions that would contribute positively to the sound functioning and development of the financial market, as well as improve and safely expand the options to use financial services for consumers and investors.

An innovative financial service that could be tested in the Innovation Sandbox is a new or substantially improved electronic payment or electronic money service at national level. This service should result in an evident contribution to the user of services. The applicant should be able to demonstrate this contribution focusing primarily on the service users in Latvia, which does not exclude the possibility to offer the service also to other European Union (EU) states. The above contribution could take place in one of the following ways:

• increased competition in the sector; the service would be more advantageous, inexpensive, simpler for the customer; excluding individual inter-stages from the traditional chain of service provision (e.g. excluding the card scheme);
• the idea of innovative service on the market could potentially lead to a response from traditional market participants either by improving their service or by adopting the new innovative business model;
• providing consumers and non-professional customers with access to the market segment, which has not traditionally been available to them.

The application form for the Innovation Sandbox you can find here: INNOVATION SANDBOX APPLICATION form_2020

For further information please contact the FCMC.

Contact details
Phone: +371 67 774 922; +371 67 774 853, +371 67 774 800
E-mail: fintech@fktk.lv