Following a freedom of information request from Bridging & Commercial, the FCA stated that of the £1.67m spent on total staff costs for Project Innovate, only £90,184 had gone towards the regulatory sandbox.

In total, some £1.85m had been spent on the project since its launch in October 2014.

Besides the sandbox, £119,660 was spent on external consultancy and communications fees to support the FCA in launching, operationalising and broadening the scope of the project.

A further £31,795 was dedicated to events and staff training, while catering, printing and subscriptions to publications accounted for the remaining £11,399.

Project Innovate

As of early November, the FCA’s Innovation Hub has received over 600 requests for support from Project Innovate.

The scheme, which also includes an advice unit, was designed to provide firms with the support necessary to navigate the regulatory system, while reducing barriers to innovation.

On 22nd September, Christopher Woolard, director of strategy and competition at the FCA, updated audiences at the BBA FinTech Banking Conference about the progress of Project Innovate.

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“Traditionally financial regulators around the world have tended to look upon disruption and innovation with suspicion, at best a risk to the prudential security of the models of existing incumbents,” Christopher admitted.

“In the UK, both we and the Prudential Regulation Authority have begun to change that analysis and focus on the long-term benefits for the strength of markets of greater competition.

“We want UK firms to feel that both established players and start-ups can bring new ideas to market, invest and be able to grow.”

Regulatory sandbox

As part of Project Innovate, a regulatory sandbox was set up to provide a safe space for businesses to test new products, services, business models and delivery mechanisms in a live environment without the normal consequences.

As of 22nd September, of the 69 that have applied, just 24 firms had been accepted into the first cohort of the sandbox. 

Of these, four came from retail banking, four from insurance firms and three covered advice and profiling.

A further three came from initial public offering businesses and seven related to payments and blockchain.

“The range of sandbox applications we have seen is truly impressive, and we are really pleased with the response,” Christopher added.

“This is as much an experiment for us as it is for firms.

“It is the first time we are allowing firms to test in this way, so naturally some pilots will go better than others.”

The regulatory sandbox will open for a second round of applications in mid-November.