Financial Innovation

• Provide support to developers and financial institutions on regulatory aspects of securities markets that might affect their projects; 
• Create an informal space where developers and financial institutions can share their initiatives in this field;
• Generate criteria on certain relevant Fintech issues in the securities markets.

Contacts through the FinTech portal do not imply the initiation of an administrative procedure. The opinions expressed by the CNMV within the framework of the Fintech portal are exclusively informative, in accordance with Law 7/2020, of November 13, for the digital transformation of the financial system and in no case will be considered a binding resolution or communication. The information provided to the Fintech portal will be treated confidentially.

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Statistical data on the FinTech Portal activity

MiCA Regulation

The rules include the following:

• Transparency and investor protection requirements in the issuance of crypto-assets and their offer to the public or admission to a trading platform;
• Organisational, governance and operational requirements for crypto-asset service providers and issuers of asset referenced tokens and e-money tokens;
• It establishes notification and authorisation procedures for crypto-asset service providers and issuers of asset referenced tokens and e-money;
• Capabilities to act of Supervisory Authorities
• Measures to protect acquirers of cryptoassets in an issuance and customers of service providers;
• Measures to prevent market abuse conduct.

The Regulation includes a relevant number of second and third level regulatory developments that must be approved before the Regulation is implemented. In addition, ESMA is working with national competent authorities on convergence in the authorization and supervision processes.

Updated information on the MiCA regulation and its developments: 

• Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA)
• ESMA clarifies timeline for MiCA and encourages market participants and NCAs to start preparing for the transition (17/10/2023)

MICA form

The purpose of this form is to gather information on projects that are considering carrying out some of the activities listed in the MiCA Regulation and, therefore, to carry out the corresponding authorisation process with the CNMV. Additionally, those projects that so indicate it on this form will shall be informed of the relevant milestones related to the implementation of this regulation and the CNMV's actions in this regard.

This form is intended for entities that are not currently supervised by the CNMV and are not registered in the Bank of Spain's registry of virtual currency for fiat currency exchange and electronic wallet custody service providers. 

Crypto-asset advertising

• Circular 1/2022, of 10 January 2022, of the Spanish National Securities Market Commission, on crypto-asset advertising. 
• Prior-communication form
• Contact email for enquiries: controlpublicidadcriptos@cnmv.es
• Further information on crypto-asset advertising

The regulatory sandbox is a mechanism that allows for controlled and limited testing to be performed, under the supervision of competent authorities (CNMV (Securities Market regulator), Banco de España (the Bank of Spain) and Dirección General de Seguros (the Directorate-General for Insurance and Pension Funds), to analyse the feasibility of new business models or the use of new technologies when providing financial services.

Legislation and Relevant Information

Spanish Law 7/2020, of 13 November, on the digital transformation of the financial system (the Sandbox Law) was passed with a double purpose. On the one hand, to contribute by providing suitable instruments to the financial authorities to appropriately fulfil their purposes within the current digital context and, on the other hand, to facilitate the innovation process in such a highly competitive international technology environment.

The core element to this regulatory framework is the sandbox, or controlled testing area, as a set of provisions safeguarding the controlled and limited testing of a project that can provide technology-based innovations applicable to the financial system.

The controlled testing area is governed by a protocol-law scheme. The regulatory framework applied to the controlled testing area  is  formed by the provisions established in the regulations – that establishes the general regime, including rights and obligations – and by a test protocol containing the specific regime for each test and which will be approved by the authorities in charge of following up the tests and the project owners.

• Spanish Law 7/2020, of 13 November, on the digital transformation of the financial system

How to Access the Sandbox

The Sandbox Law envisages two annual cohorts (in March and September) for sponsors to request their access to the controlled testing area. The period for each cohort is published on the website of the Secretaría General del Tesoro y Financiación Internacional (Secretariat of the Treasury and International Financing). The interested parties must submit their request within the period via the website virtual office of the SGTFI, attaching an explanatory report in accordance with Article 6 of Law 7/2020.

• Requests for the controlled testing area (Financial Sandbox)  | Treasury

Status of the Accepted Projects

The controlled testing area is divided in the following stages:

• Submission of applications: the interested party can submit the request via the website of the Treasury during the 30 working days of the period established by resolution of the Treasury, which will be published on its website.
• Prior assessment: once the period for acceptance of applications concludes, the supervisory authorities have one month, which may be extended an additional month, to assess the applications submitted. The Treasury will publish the list of projects provisionally accepted on its website.
• Protocol negotiation: the sponsors of the projects accepted and the supervisory authorities will commence the negotiation of the protocol, which details the conditions under which the tests are to be carried out, such as their duration, the participants, the aspects to be tested, the possible risks and their mitigation or the guarantees provided, and the supporting documentation.
• Testing period: the informed consent of the participants must be collected before commencing the tests and, where applicable, the guarantees must be activated. During the tests, the  sponsors will provide the documentation established in the protocol and the CNMV will monitor their development.

Once the tests conclude, the sponsors will draft a result assessment report and the CNMV will publish a report on the conclusions reached.

Contact us:

Please contact us if you have any queries regarding the procedure or the Sandbox entry requirements, or if you wish to make any enquiry regarding the project before submitting a request by sending an email to the Fintech Innovation hub at fintech@cnmv.es

Projects in which CNMV is the Competent Authority:

Cohort	Promoter	Project	Project description	Status	Findings document
One	Renta 4 Banco, S.A. Renta 4 Gestora SGIIC, S.A. Allfunds Bank, S.A.U. Allfunds Blockchain, S.L.U. Onyze Digital Assets, S.L.	Issuance and custody of tokenized shares	A platform that uses distributed ledger technology for the issue, subscription and reimbursement of tokenised units of an investment fund, along with the infrastructure for the custody of the cryptographic keys of said units. The net asset value is published daily and the CNMV has a monitoring mode from which it has access to information regarding the issue and activity	Completed
One	Sociedad de Bolsas, S. A.	Market Place	Platform for issuing and placing tokenised equity loans with the intervention of an Investment Firm, using distributed ledger technology	Completed
One	Sunblock Urban Token S.L.	Realfund	A platform that tokenises a participating loan that aims to finance a virtual reality system that improves the marketing of real estate products. Such platform provides the technical and legal means to issue the token, payment of interest on the loan and repayment of the principal at the maturity of the loan	Completed
Two	Imantia Capital, SGIIC, S.A. Onyze Digital Assets, S.L.	Creation of an investment vehicle in decentralized lending protocols	Creation of a hedge fund that acquires stablecoins registered on public blockchains and earns returns by investing in decentralised lending protocols, based on a defined investment and risk management strategyCreation of an investment vehicle for decentralised lending protocols	Completed
Three	Securitize, Inc.	Securitize	Infrastructure based on distributed ledger technology that enables the issuance and trading of crypto-assets with MIFID II financial instrument status. It offers issuers certain services for the management of such digital financial instrument assets	Tests completed
Four	Allfunds Bank S.A.	NEXTGEN	Multilateral trading system based on decentralized registry technology, in which shares of IICs type UCITs will be traded and the members of the market will be the trading companies	In tests
Four	Renta 4 Banco, S.A. Grupo Lar Inversiones Inmobiliarias, S.A. Iobuilders Blockchain Tech & Ventures, S.L.	Open Brick	Platform based on decentralized registry technology for the issuance, negotiation and settlement of financial instruments focused on the real estate sector. In this market, the promoters of real estate projects will be the issuers of shares or bonds	Pending start of tests
Four	Adventurees Global Group S.L.	Token City Exchange	Platform based on decentralized registry technology for the issuance, negotiation and settlement of financial instruments issued by companies linked to any sector, especially aimed at small and medium-sized companies	Pending start of tests
Five	DEVTEAM, S.L.	Bit2me Security Tokens Exchange (STX)	Platform for the issuance and trading of negotiable securities registered using DLT technology, aimed at start-ups	Pending start of tests
Five	CRIPTOSASUN ENERGIA, S.L.	Quantum Markets	Platform that uses neuro-quantum technologies for the issuance and negotiation of negotiable securities	In tests
Five	GRUPO FERNET INVERSIONES SL	TOKN1	Platform for the issuance and negotiation of negotiable securities registered using DLT technology, aimed at projects in the e-sports field	Pending start of tests
Six	MARKETS PROLIVE 360, SL.	DIDIT	Technological solution for the identification and verification of digital identity by incorporating user identification data into a wallet	In tests
Six	GPT ADVISOR, S.L.	GPTadvisor	Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence to be used in the different phases of the provision of investment services	In tests
Seven					No project admitted
Eight					Application submission period from September 2 to October 11