In the realm of rapidly advancing technologies, regulatory
sandboxes have emerged as a promising solution to the regulatory challenges
facing the FinTech industry. As a notable example of soft law, regulatory
sandboxes offer a more adaptable framework for managing complex financial
technologies. However, though the years their implementation across the EU has
revealed several shortcomings.
Furthermore, despite the intention to utilize regulatory
sandboxes for AI regulation across the EU, there has never been a genuine
effort to evaluate their effectiveness. This paper aims to measure the
efficiency of current EU regulatory sandboxes from perspectives of regulators
and participating companies. To achieve that, the research collects information
on the claimed objectives of various EU regulatory sandboxes, categorizes them
into regulator-oriented and company-oriented goals, and ultimately assesses
whether these goals have been achieved from both perspectives.
In addition, this research paper seeks to identify the flaws
in the current regulatory sandboxes and propose potential improvements. By
providing a comprehensive overview of the existing European regulatory
sandboxes, the author highlights practical omissions encountered during their
establishment and explores strategies to address these issues.