IoRS is a mechanism to facilitate testing of innovative hybrid financial products / services falling within the regulatory ambit of more than one financial sector regulator viz.RBI, SEBI, IRDAI, IFSCA and PFRDA
IoRS has been prepared by the Inter-Regulatory Technical Group (IRTG) on FinTech . The said Group was constituted under the aegis of the Sub‐Committee of the Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC‐SC) for inter‐regulatory co‐ordination among the financial sector regulators on FinTech related issues. The group, in addition to the members from financial sector regulators, had representation from the DEA, Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.
To obviate the need of innovators to engage with different regulators, regarding their hybrid product, common window has been made available for testing of innovative products/services under the IoRS, for those innovators whose business models/activities/features fall within the remit of more than one financial sector regulator.
Financial products / service providers whose business models / activities / features fall within the remit of more than one financial sector regulator, shall be considered for the testing under IoRS.
The Application for IoRS shall be governed by Prinicpal Regulator (“PR”) and Associate Regulator (“AR).
The regulatory sandbox (RS) framework of the regulator, under whose remit the ‘dominant feature’ of the product falls, governs it as PR and the regulator/s under whose remit the other features apart from the dominant feature of the product fall will be the AR.
Two sets of factors would be considered or deciding the dominant feature:
Firstly, the type of enhancement to the existing products like loans, deposits, capital market instruments, insurance, G-sec instruments, pension products, etc., and
Secondly, the number of relaxations sought by the entity for undertaking the test under the IoRS.
Based on the dominant features of the product, the eligibility criteria and networth criteria as applicable for the RS of the concerned regulator (PR) shall be applicable to the applicant entity for participation in the IoRS
Where the applications from Indian FinTechs having global ambition and foreign FinTechs seeking entry to India, the IoRS application shall be referred to IFSCA, for taking forward the proposals, as IFSCA will be the Prinicpal Regulator for all such applications.
FinTech Department of RBI shall act as nodal point for receiving applications under IoRS and hence all application form complete in all aspects shall be submitted at Based on the minimum eligibility criteria of the regulator under whose remit the dominant feature of the product falls, the Coordination Group (CG) (FinTech, RBI) shall conduct preliminary scrutiny of the application and forward the same to the concerned PR and AR(s) under whose purview the innovation falls.
Please click here to down the application form for IoRS. The application form complete in all aspects shall be submitted at iors@rbi.org.in, through electronic mail. The SOP applicable for IoRs can be referred by clicking here.
Post successful exit from the IoRS, the entity shall approach PR and AR(s), for authorisation and for seeking regulatory dispensation before launching the product in the market. The decision of respective regulator shall be binding on the entity.
The International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) has been established to regulate and develop financial services in the International Financial Services Centres (IFSCs) located in India.
