Our Approach to Innovation
At Central Bank of Ireland, we are committed to playing our part in fostering an innovative and resilient financial sector– one that will serve the evolving needs of households and businesses into the future.
Our mission is to serve the public interest by maintaining monetary and financial stability while ensuring that the financial system operates in the best interests of consumers and the wider economy.
Innovation in financial services is important to ensure the continuous effective functioning of the financial system in supporting the economy and delivering for consumers.
We need to be able to harness the benefits of innovation while also managing the risks.
This is a key priority for us when we authorise and supervise innovative firms.
Engagement with innovation
In order to play our part in fostering innovation, and in ensuring effective risk management, it is important that we have deeper engagement with innovative firms across all aspects of the financial services ecosystem.
We provide a range of enhanced engagement initiatives that will enable us to:
- Deepen our understanding of innovation in the financial services sector, so that we can better understand the opportunities and risks for consumers and the economy
- Better inform our regulatory approach, allowing us to ensure that our regulation is aligned with a well-functioning financial system based on good levels of competition and innovation
- Better explain to innovative firms what being regulated entails – so firms can build regulatory requirements and safeguards into their early stage development
- Embed a regulatory culture in fledgling and fast-growing firms – to ensure they are properly prepared for the responsibilities that come as regulated firms, as well as properly run once authorised.
Our Innovation Hub offers an informal engagement process to support innovators to gain a deeper understanding of our regulatory and supervisory expectations. This includes pre-engagement to outline expectations and provide relevant information, a standardised form for efficiency, meetings with our subject matter experts and follow-up engagements to track progress.
To reach the wider innovation ecosystem, we also run an outreach programme, which includes roundtables and annual workshops to discuss emerging trends and risks. Additionally, we participate in sector-specific programmes and international forums to stay informed.
Our Innovation Sandbox Programme offers regulatory advice and support to a wide range of innovators. Through workshops and mentorship, we aim to foster innovation while ensuring regulatory compliance and consumer protection.
Miriam Dunne (Central Bank of Ireland): We are here, today to showcase our first Innovation Sandbox Programme, but I’ll certainly say it's more than a showcase. It's certainly a celebration of creativity, participation and really deep, purposeful collaboration. And really today is all about the participants.
Dr. Rachel O'Connell (TrustElevate): It's been super exciting to be part of the sandbox because we're bringing innovative technology, we're verifying children's ages, and we verify when somebody says that they’re the parent of the child so we've solved an unsolvable problem. And it was fantastic to meet with the regulators to discuss our innovation.
David Tighe (Central Bank of Ireland): It's been really collaborative and actually, one of the things that I've really seen in this is that open and engaged approach, both from the firms themselves and how they've engaged with us but also from our own people in the Central Bank, the subject matter expertise, the sandbox champions and how they've been open and engaged with the projects that have come through the sandbox program.
Michael O'Keefe (Central Bank of Ireland): What our hub tries to do is support innovators who are developing new technologies to navigate that regulatory environment. And we do this by supporting new ventures and new businesses. So it's a really exciting avenue for the Central Bank and a really wonderful event.
Rob Leslie (Sedicii): By the end of this year, financial crime will account for $10.5 trillion globally. The innovation that the crooks get up to is phenomenally good, so we need to start implementing tools that are going to start catching them. Mary-
Elizabeth McMunn (Deputy Governor): Our experience with the Sandbox has demonstrated the benefits of innovation and looking at things from new perspectives, which will be critical in tackling financial crime in the coming years.
David Tighe (Central Bank of Ireland): Financial crime is really important to our mandate, and when you think about it the impact on consumers and the impact on financial stability as a whole, and what you've seen in this programme is the seven projects who've recognised that importance, are collaborating with the Central Bank and others across the innovation ecosystem to solve a really big challenge.
