New provisions have been introduced to the Italian law concerning the development of FinTech initiatives and the establishment of an Italian Fintech Sandbox. Secondary measures are expected to be enacted by 31 January 2021.

Background

Law Decree No. 34/2019, as converted into law with amendments by Law No. 58/2019 (the "Growth Decree"), introduced specific measures for the development of FinTech initiatives in Italy and directed the Ministry of Economy and Finance (the "MEF") to adopt one or more decrees setting out the criteria for the establishment of an Italian Fintech Sandbox (the "Sandbox") (please see here and here our previous newsflashes).

To this end, a MEF draft decree setting out technical provisions for the launch of the Sandbox and for the establishment of a FinTech Committee was published for consultation in February 2020 (please see our previous newsflash here and our insight on the consultation outcomes here). The final rules have not yet been enacted by MEF.

In this context, certain amendments have been recently introduced to the Growth Decree by Law Decree No. 125/2020, as converted into law with amendments by Law No. 159/2020.

What's new?

The main changes to the Growth Decree are the following:

• the MEF decree(s) setting out the secondary measures is(are) to be adopted by 31 January 2021;
• the participation in the Sandbox is to have a maximum duration of 18 months, but it may be extended for further 12 months in specific cases to be established by the mentioned MEF decree;
• the Bank of Italy, Consob and IVASS (the "Supervisory Authorities") are expressly identified as the authorities in charge of adopting the necessary measures for the admission to the Sandbox;
• without prejudice to mandatory EU rules, the participation in the Sandbox may entail a temporary waiver of supervisory guidelines and/or regulations issued by the Supervisory Authorities.

Next steps

Most of the changes to the Growth Decree reflect the content of the above mentioned draft decree published under consultation in February. The deadline for the adoption of the final version of the secondary measures by MEF is now set at 31 January 2021.

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