It is reported that the KYC & AML screening software-as-a-service provider Blockpass has been accepted into the latest cohort of the Financial Conduct Authority‘s (FCA) regulatory sandbox, a system that enables the ability for businesses to test out revolutionary new solutions in a controlled market ecosystem with real users.
Blockpass has passed through the initial selection process – where fewer than 25% of applicants were successful – being one of just 13 accepted from a pool of 58.
Dedicated to establishing honest, fair, and effective financial markets, the UK-based FCA monitors and regulates nearly 60,000 financial services firms and financial markets. To promote this and foster innovation, the FCA provides a regulatory sandbox for companies to develop and test their own cutting-edge solutions.
This has a number of benefits for the companies involved, including providing a controlled environment for testing, assistance in including the necessary customer safeguards, access to finance, and potentially a faster and less expensive time-to-market.
This cohort, the seventh of the FCA’s regulatory sandbox, comes in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic with a particular interest in solutions that deal with the effects of the pandemic and its impact on people and businesses. Some specific aspects that the FCA were looking for in this cohort included:
- The ability to detect and prevent fraud and scams.
- Providing support around the financial resilience of vulnerable consumers.
- Improving access to finance for small and medium-sized enterprises.
As an identity management platform and a provider of KYC and AML solutions, Blockpass aims to address all of these aforementioned issues.
Previously over the course of the pandemic, Blockpass has been working on solutions and partnerships for various sectors and use cases, including the development of ‘Covid passports’ for the healthcare industry.