On 5 April 2022, the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) released its second draft of the decree on the FinTech regulatory sandbox for public consultation – nearly two years after the first draft was released. The draft is more comprehensive in terms of the eligibility criteria and licensing requirements for prospective sandbox participants.
Under the draft, the following six product categories are eligible for inclusion in the sandbox: (i) providing credit on a technology platform; (ii) credit scoring; (iii) data sharing via Application Programming Interfaces (APIs); (iv) peer-to-peer (P2P) lending; (v) blockchain or distributed ledger technology in banking activities; and (vi) other technologies in banking operations that implement innovative business cooperation models.
The draft makes it clear that only Vietnam-established organisations can participate in the sandbox. It also makes it clear that only products that are not regulated by Vietnamese law will be subject to the sandbox. This means certain FinTech products for which the Government has developed (or is developing) specific regulations will not be subject to the sandbox (e.g. electronic Know Your Customer (eKYC)).
It remains to be seen when the decree will be enacted, and whether further amendments will be made to this current draft.
