The Financial Conduct Authority has published a press release confirming the acceptance of 29 firms to begin testing in the fourth cohort of its regulatory sandbox.

The FCA's regulatory sandbox is part of Project Innovate, the FCA's initiative for encouraging innovation in the interest of consumers. On its launch in June 2016, the FCA sandbox was the first in the world and has since been emulated by regulators globally. The sandbox is open to authorized and unauthorized firms of all sizes and provides a controlled live environment for participating firms to test product and service innovations on a time-limited basis. Applicants to the sandbox must satisfy strict eligibility criteria to be able to test in the sandbox and testing is subject to appropriate safeguards for consumer protection which are set on a case-by-case basis. Cohort 4 had 69 applicants, which is the largest number of applicants to date.

In its press release, the FCA notes that there has been an increase in the number of firms testing wholesale propositions. In Cohort 4, over 40% of the propositions are using distributed ledger technology and a small number of propositions involve crypto-assets.

Testing in Cohort 4 will run for six months. The application window for Cohort 5 will open later in 2018.

View the FCA press release.