By Hinza Asif

ISLAMABAD : The SECP Chairman Aamir Khan said that the Commission has instituted various reforms to develop a comprehensive and coherent industry policy to share regulatory thinking and promote a conducive FinTech environment in Pakistan, and the regulatory sandbox initiative is part of this agenda.

Khan was addressing a webinar on “Second Cohort of SECP’s Regulatory Sandbox”, organized by SECP to create awareness regarding the concept of Regulatory Sandbox and describe its benefits to industry and working modalities.

Aamir Khan said that the FinTech industry is growing significantly in Pakistan and can play a vital role in expending financial inclusion. However, he added, the innovations brought about by this growth, pose a challenges for regulators and financial supervisors, who are tasked with reducing the uncertainty. In order to address this challenge, Khan said, SECP has introduced the concept of Regulatory Sandbox, which provides a tailored regulatory environment to conduct limited-scale live tests of innovative products, services and business models under the regulator’s oversight.

The SECP Chairman told participants that in the second cohort of Regulatory Sandbox, preference would be given to innovation in the areas of digital assets / security token offerings (STOs), non-bank financial companies, blockchain / distributed ledger solutions for capital markets, digital identity / AML / KYC, AI, machine learning and robotic processes automation-based solutions.

SECP officials gave a comprehensive presentation on Sandbox’s mechanism, including details of eligibility criteria, application procedure, evaluation process and answer the participants queries. Successful candidates of the first cohort of Regulatory Sandbox shared their experience of working within the Sandbox environment. They appreciated the continued support and guidance from SECP during the testing period of the first cohort.

At the conclusion of the well-attended webinar, SECP officials addressed various queries to the satisfaction of participants. Participants appreciated SECP’s efforts of public engagement and called for continuing such initiatives of public and stakeholder awareness.