CMS selected to participate in UK's fintech regulatory sandbox

CMS selected to participate in UK's fintech regulatory sandbox

UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) selects the law firm, making it the second firm after DLA Piper as a member of its seventh cohort

UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has selected the European international law firm CMS to participate in its regulatory sandbox to drive innovation in the fintech sector.

CMS is among the 13 successful applicants from a list of 58 applicants from the UK and abroad to join the FCA's sandbox as a member of its seventh cohort. It got admitted to the project in collaboration with client VALK, a digital transaction startup.

CMS is supposed to provide VALK with legal advice on corporate and intellectual property issues and other areas during its tenure in the sandbox, as part of the latest cohort.

CMS follows DLA Piper to become only the second law firm to be selected for the sandbox since its launch in 2016. DLA Piper was selected in the sixth cohort in 2020 to develop its regtech solution related to the digital management of regulatory compliance for the issuance of digital assets.

According to CMS corporate partner Tom Jameson, the firm's inclusion in the sandbox was a reflection of its deep sector knowledge and expertise operating in the fintech market.

"Successful sandbox applicants are required to demonstrate ground-breaking or original innovation with identifiable consumer benefits. The success of CMS and VALK's collaborative application demonstrates the firm's position at the very centre of developments in the regulatory space," CMS financial services regulatory partner Sam Robinson said.

FCA had set before it the task to hunt for firms developing solutions fit for adapting to life in the post-COVID world. Its focus was on innovation and testing for firms developing businesses, products or services related to fraud detection, consumer support, and improving access to finance for SMEs.

FCA which runs the project on a cohort basis has said that it hopes to move to an always-open model later on this year. The idea behind this is to make admission to the sandbox possible year-round.

Since its successful launch, the sandbox has been credited with providing impetus to the UK's burgeoning fintech sector by allowing the testing of new products in a controlled environment. It has ever since stimulated the creation of similar projects, including the LawTech Sandbox, a government-backed initiative aimed at driving innovation in the UK legaltech space.