This is Information Sheet 248 (INFO 248).
The Australian Government has introduced the enhanced regulatory sandbox. The enhanced regulatory sandbox (ERS) exemption allows natural persons and businesses to test certain innovative financial services or credit activities without first obtaining an Australian financial services (AFS) licence or Australian credit licence (credit licence). The ERS exemption aims to facilitate financial innovation in Australia and is available from 1 September 2020.
The enhanced regulatory sandbox supersedes the previous regulatory sandbox administered by ASIC. It allows testing of a broader range of financial services and credit activities for a longer duration (up to 24 months). We have provided a comparison between the ASIC sandbox and the enhanced regulatory sandbox (PDF 131 KB).
You must meet eligibility criteria to test in the enhanced regulatory sandbox, including satisfying two new tests – the net public benefit test and the innovation test. There are also limitations on what financial services and products you can provide, and what credit activities you can engage in. There is a $10,000 individual limit on the value of certain financial services that you can provide to retail clients, and an aggregate $5 million total exposure limit for all financial services provided to and credit activities engaged in with all your clients.
If you intend to use the enhanced regulatory sandbox, you must first complete and lodge a prescribed form with ASIC. Which form you use depends on whether you plan to test a financial service or credit activity:
- For financial services, see Notification to use the enhanced regulatory sandbox exemption to test eligible financial services (PDF 207 KB).
- For credit activities, see Notification to use the enhanced regulatory sandbox exemption to test eligible credit activities (PDF 214 KB).
If we confirm that your notification satisfies the minimum requirements, you can conduct testing under the ERS exemption as long as you meet a number of ongoing conditions. These conditions include:
- complying with specified disclosure and conduct requirements
- membership of the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA), and
- ordinarily, holding adequate professional indemnity (PI) insurance if providing financial services to retail clients or engaging in credit activities.
Even if you can rely on the ERS exemption, you will still be required to comply with other applicable laws. For example:
- prohibitions against misleading or deceptive conduct or unconscionable conduct (these prohibitions are administered by ASIC)
- design and distribution obligations (which commence from 5 October 2021) if you issue financial products or credit facilities or make sale offers that require you to give clients a Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) (these obligations are administered by ASIC), and
- anti-money laundering or privacy requirements (these requirements are administered by other regulators).
This information sheet (INFO 248) provides guidance for those who wish to rely on the ERS exemption.
Key features of the enhanced regulatory sandbox
The enhanced regulatory sandbox exempts the provider of an eligible financial product or service, or eligible credit activity, from the relevant licensing requirements for up to 24 months. The exemptions are provided under the Corporations (FinTech Sandbox Australian Financial Services Licence Exemption) Regulations 2020 and/or the National Consumer Credit Protection (FinTech Sandbox Australian Credit Licence Exemption) Regulations 2020 (collectively, the ERS Regulations).
The purpose of the sandbox is to allow testing of innovative services and products.
Under the ERS exemption, you must:
- only provide certain types of financial services and products
- only engage in certain types of credit activities
- not exceed the relevant exposure limits for clients
- only test your product or service for 24 months or less, and
- comply with any make-good orders we issue.
How to determine if you are an eligible person who is able to rely on the ERS exemption
You can qualify for the enhanced regulatory sandbox if you:
- are an eligible person, and
- lodge a valid notification with ASIC (see How to apply for the ERS exemption). The notification must show that you meet certain requirements.
An 'eligible person' is a body corporate or a natural person that satisfies certain requirements.
We have provided more detail about who is an 'eligible person' in Table 2.
How to apply for the ERS exemption
If you want to rely on the ERS exemption, you must first lodge a valid notification form with ASIC. Which form you use depends on whether you plan to test a financial service or credit activity:
- For financial services, see Notification to use the enhanced regulatory sandbox exemption to test eligible financial services (PDF 207 KB).
- For credit activities, see Notification to use the enhanced regulatory sandbox exemption to test eligible credit activities (PDF 214 KB).
Note 1: You may subsequently wish to test eligible financial products and services or credit activities not covered in your first test. If you have not exhausted your total $5 million exposure limit, you can submit a new notification to ASIC for the proposed new test. You must complete the form with all of the information requested in the prescribed format. We may decide not to approve you relying on the ERS exemption if we are not satisfied that the notification complies with the ERS Regulations.
The form requires you to provide information on:
- the probity, fitness and propriety of you, your officers, your controllers, the officers of your controllers and your significant decision makers
- the net public benefit test – you must adequately explain why exempting each eligible financial service, financial product or credit activity will result, or be likely to result, in a benefit to the public. The benefit must outweigh any detriment to the public that will result, or be likely to result, from exempting that service, and
- the innovation test – you must adequately explain why each eligible financial service, financial product or credit activity is considered either new or a new adaptation or improvement of another service.
Some of the questions we ask in relation to the net public benefit and innovation tests are listed in Table 3.
The conditions that apply under the ERS exemption
If you are relying on the ERS exemption, you must comply with the conditions set out in Table 4.
Length of the exemption period and what to do when it ends
The ERS exemption applies to you for a maximum of 24 months for each eligible service you provide for a particular product.
If you are able to rely on the ERS exemption, the exemption period commences on the 31st day after you lodge the notification with ASIC.
The exemption period cannot be extended, paused or reset. It applies for each exemption notification we approve.
Alternatives to the ERS exemption
There are other alternatives to test your business without relying on the ERS exemption. You may wish to consider the exemptions available under legislation and the exemptions provided by ASIC.
Exemptions available under legislation
Acting on behalf of an existing licensee
As an alternative to obtaining an AFS or credit licence, you may be able to provide financial services or engage in credit activities on behalf of a licensee as that licensee's representative. That licensee must have an authorisation to provide the financial services or credit activities that you intended to provide.
This option is only available to you if you are providing financial services or engaging in credit activities on behalf of the licensee. It is not suitable if you intend to provide the services or engage in the credit activities on your own behalf as a principal.
Products and services that do not require a licence
Some products are not subject to the licensing requirements in the financial services or consumer credit laws. For example:
- a foreign exchange contract that settles immediately is not regulated under the Corporations Act
- some electronic funds transfers, where there is no standing arrangement between the client and the person sending the funds, are not regulated under the Corporations Act
Note: See regulation 7.1.07G of the Corporations Regulations.
- payment products where payments can only be made to one person are not regulated under the Corporations Act, and
- credit provided to businesses, or for business purposes, is not regulated under the National Credit Act.
As a result, if you wished to provide these products, or services relating to these products, you might not need a licence from ASIC. However, the consumer protection laws in Division 2 of Part 2 of the ASIC Act still apply.
Exemptions provided by ASIC
ASIC has statutory powers to exempt a person (or class of persons) from the requirement to hold:
- an AFS licence under the Corporations Act, and
- a credit licence under the National Credit Act.
ASIC also has relief powers to:
- provide exemptions from the licensing requirements for products or services (or classes of products or services), and
- modify some of the laws we administer.
Our policy on granting relief is set out in Regulatory Guide 51 Applications for relief (RG 51).
For example, we have given relief from the requirement to hold a licence when providing:
- financial services in relation to 'low value' non-cash payment products, where the maximum balance on any one product is $1,000 and the maximum aggregate balance on all facilities in the class is $10 million (see Regulatory Guide 185 Non-cash payment facilities (RG 185) and ASIC Corporations (Non-cash Payment Facilities) Instrument 2016/211)
- financial services in relation to mortgage offset accounts (see Superseded Class Order [SCO 03/1048] Mortgage offset accounts), and
- generic financial calculators (see Section D of Regulatory Guide 167 Licensing: Discretionary powers (RG 167) and ASIC Corporations (Generic Calculators) Instrument 2016/207).
Many of these exemptions are subject to certain conditions. These conditions are intended to promote good outcomes and reduce the risk of consumer harm.
More information on other exemptions is available in our existing guidance. We encourage you to review:
More information
Important notice
Please note that this information sheet is a summary giving you basic information about a particular topic. It does not cover the whole of the relevant law regarding that topic, and it is not a substitute for professional advice. We encourage you to seek your own professional advice to find out how the applicable laws apply to you, as it is your responsibility to determine your obligations.
You should also note that because this information sheet avoids legal language wherever possible, it might include some generalisations about the application of the law. Some provisions of the law referred to have exceptions or important qualifications. In most cases, your particular circumstances must be taken into account when determining how the law applies to you.
Information sheets provide concise guidance on a specific process or compliance issue or an overview of detailed guidance.
This information sheet was issued in October 2024.