The Capital Market Authority (CMA) announced the start of receiving applications for applicants to obtain FinTech ExPermit for the fifth batch. This comes as a continuation of the series of FinTech Lab successes in its previous four batches and in continuation of the CMA's keenness to regulate and develop the Saudi financial market and make it an attractive environment for local and regional investors by supporting the financial technology industry and developing innovative products in the capital market.
The CMA is looking forward to receive applications for obtaining a FinTech ExPermit for the fifth batch from all those interested in financial technology and entrepreneurs until the date of December 15, 2021, provided that their products meet the requirements, most notably must involve a securities activity, i.e. within the scope of the activities that the CMA regulates and must be at a sufficiently advanced stage of development to mount a live test, in addition to that, promotes significant growth, efficiency at the Kingdom capital. The CMA also clarifies that it receives applications from applicants during the year, and those applications received are evaluated and studied in batches.
The FinTech Lab is a legislative experimental environment that allows providers of financial technology products and services to test their innovative business models within specific criteria, time and regulatory requirements under the supervision of CMA. The lab receives applicants from inside and outside the Kingdom to experiment with financial products and services related to securities activity with innovative business models that are ready for testing in an experimental environment.
In this regard, the CMA has supported the creation of a legislative and regulatory environment for financial technology products in the financial market, and worked on continuous development to attract innovative business models and emerging technologies that open new horizons to facilitate financing and stimulate investment to build economic entities that enhance the depth and diversity of the financial sector and are in line with the objectives of the Financial Sector Development Program, one of the main programs of the Kingdom's Vision 2030.
It is worth noting that the CMA launched the Fintech Lab in December 2018, which is one of the significant steps that aims to support and develop innovation in the Fintech field in the Saudi financial market. In addition, the Fintech Lab enables the Fintech developers to experiment their innovative capital market products and services, within specific controls, parameters and timeframes under the CMA's supervision. Subsequently, CMA opened the first batch of applications for the FinTech ExPermit in February 2018. Since then, the CMA continued its efforts to receive applications in various batches. As a result, CMA Board of Commissioners granted 17 FinTech ExPermits in different business models including Equity Crowdfunding, Robo-advisory, Offering and Investment in Debt Instruments, platform that uses Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) to arrange and offer of securities and custody services, and Social Trading Platform. During the second half of 2021, the CMA has adopted amendments to the instructions for the financial technology experiment permit. The most prominent of these amendments included the addition of definitions to clarify the nature of the FinTech Lab, as well as the addition of instructions for pursuit business in FinTech Lab.
The instructions can be viewed on the CMA's website via the following link:
Financial Technology Experimental Permit Instructions
For more details on the FinTech ExPermit application, please visit the following link:
FinTech Lab