Regulatory sandbox: first product launched

The first product has been successfully tested in the regulatory sandbox of the Bank of Russia. It is the service that enables remote management of authorities to perform transactions over corporate accounts in banks’ subsidiaries.

The application for testing was submitted by Sberbank. According to experts, this service will help significantly decrease current banks’ costs associated with servicing corporate clients.

The project was piloted together with professional associations of market participants and relevant government authorities. The Bank of Russia and expert councils established as part of the regulatory platform recognised that the implementation of the service in the market would be feasible considering the regulator’s recommendations.

‘The Bank of Russia launched the regulatory sandbox this April and it is already gaining traction. As a result of the pilot launch, we intend to make amendments to Bank of Russia regulations so that the service could be implemented by any interested market participants to facilitate their customer servicing and lower their costs’, noted Ivan Zimin, acting Director, Financial Technology Department of the Bank of Russia.

As of today, the Bank of Russia regulatory sandbox has received more than 20 applications from financial institutions, fintech and other companies. Projects that are being prepared for testing are related to digital financial assets and the implementation of new technologies in financial institutions.

Any organisation can initiate piloting a project in the sandbox by submitting an application to the Bank of Russia.