Treasury has released for consultation exposure draft legislation for the FinTech regulatory sandbox announced in the 2017-18 budget.

The draft legislation and regulations are designed to allow a broad scope of innovative financial service activities to be tested without the need for full compliance with ASIC’s existing licensing requirements.

This will extend the scope of activities and the timeframe beyond that of the regulatory sandbox launched by ASIC in December 2016. Background.

The enhanced legislative sandbox will be broad – to whom it applies to, what can be tested and how long businesses can remain in it. It will include financial advice, the issuing of consumer credit contracts and facilitating crowd-sourced funding.

The Treasurer intends to introduce the legislation to Parliament by the end of the year, with the regulations to come into effect in the first half of 2018.