Pursuant to the amended regulatory sandbox regulations, which will take effect on 16 August 2020, more types of businesses are eligible to participate in a regulatory sandbox, covering all activities in the capital market from pre-trading to post-trading. Thus, business operators possessing useful innovations for investors will have the opportunity to participate in a regulatory sandbox in a real-life environment with real customers while complying with the regulations and conditions suitable for the experimenting period, for example, the requirement for standard systems and the maximum number of customers and the investment amount of each client.   

Following the public hearing on the regulatory sandbox amendment conducted earlier this year, which received favorable responses from most respondents, SEC has allowed more types of businesses within the four business groups to participate in a regulatory sandbox, as follows:

(1)  Intermediaries, i.e., securities investment advisory service, private fund management business, derivatives agent business, derivatives dealing business, derivatives advisory service, and derivatives fund management business, and the newly added securities brokerage business, securities dealing business, securities underwriting business, mutual fund management business and securities borrowing and lending business (SBL);

(2)  KYC providers, gathering and assessing clients’ information;  

(3)  Post-trading service providers, i.e., securities clearing house, securities depository centre, securities registrar, and the newly added derivatives clearing house;  

(4)  Trading system service providers, i.e., Electronic Trading Platform (ETP), and the newly added securities trading center and derivatives exchange.

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