Regulating to Escape Regulation: The Sandbox Approach | Oxford Law Faculty
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) cleared a proposal to establish a regulatory sandbox for registered entities, joining its sister financial regulators, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDAI) in doing so. Within a span of eight months, all three regulators have established regulatory frameworks to introduce and promote innovation through investor-centric experimentation' to create better financial products. The idea is hardly novel, for the United States established the first known regulatory sandbox in 2012 to encourage consumer-friendly innovation and entrepreneurship for financial products. Internationally, this approach was formalized after the success of the UK's Financial Conduct Authority's sandbox established in 2015. However, amongst non-OECD countries, the decision by India's regulators is still quite timely, even though it might be a stretch to consider it pioneering.
