On 3 February 2020 the Ministry of Economy and Finance launched a public consultation process on a draft decree setting out the rules for a fintech sector regulatory sandbox.
The draft decree aims to promote technological innovation by allowing fintech companies to test new IT services and products in the financial, credit and insurance sectors under the supervision of the competent authorities for a limited period of time (the so-called 'sandbox'). Each project admitted to the scheme will have a maximum 18-month duration.
The draft decree implements Article 36, 2bis and 2octies of Decree-Law 34 of 30 April 2019, converted, with amendments, into Law 58 of 28 June 2019 (also known as the Growth Decree) which:
- provided that a fintech committee be appointed within the Ministry of Economy and Finance; and
- delegated to the Ministry of Economy and Finance – following consultation with the Bank of Italy, CONSOB (Italian Companies and Exchange Commission) and IVASS (the Italian insurance regulator) – the adoption of a framework setting out the conditions and methods required to carry out a test period for the various fintech initiatives.
The draft decree defines such fintech activities as "all techno-finance activities aimed at pursuing, through new technologies, the innovation of services and products in the financial, credit and insurance sectors".
In particular, Section I of the draft decree lays down a framework of operational guidelines for the abovementioned FinTech Committee. Bringing together representatives of various authorities and administrations, this body will mainly be responsible for:
- observing and monitoring the fintech evolution in order to identify the main goals, define programmes and implement actions to promote the development of techno-finance;
- facilitating contact between fintech operators and institutions and authorities;
- coordinating collaboration and information exchange activities with competent foreign institutions; and
- carrying out activities in the field of fintech experimentation.
The second (and final) Section of the draft decree deals with the operational provisions that govern the fintech sandbox, including:
- identifying activities where experimentation may be allowed;
- identifying its subjective and objective admissibility assumptions;
- listing the application requirements and submission procedures;
- illustrating:
- the admission assessment process;
- the experimentation operational progress and supervision instruments; and
- experimentation conclusion processes.
The Ministry of Economy and Finance's public consultation aims to generate comments and contributions from interested stakeholders and operators in the sector. To this end, the draft decree includes questions both guiding and facilitating active participation in the consultation process.
