Minister of State Carroll MacNeill welcomes today’s announcement by Governor Gabriel Makhlouf at the Central Bank Financial System Conference on the launch of its consultation Paper ‘Open and Engaged: Consultation on how the Central Bank engages with Innovation’
This issue of support for the innovation sandbox has been advocated for continually by Minister Carroll MacNeill. The importance of this innovative approach was raised by the Minister of State with the Governor of the Central Bank at a meeting on 3 July 2023.
Minister Carroll MacNeill said:
“The announcement by the Central Bank of the intention to establish an innovation sandbox is particularly welcome.
This is something that has been repeatedly discussed within the Joint Committee on the Ireland for Finance strategy, and more recently last month when I hosted a fintech specific roundtable workshop with invited companies and public sector stakeholders where valuable discourse took place on the strengths and possible improvements to Ireland’s fintech ecosystem.
I now encourage the fintech sector and the financial services industry more broadly to engage with the Central Bank consultation process, open from today, 8 November 2023 until 8 February 2024.
I am resolute in supporting the development of the fintech ecosystem in Ireland and will look at other practical measures in the future so that the system can fully harness the opportunities technological innovation presents to finance.
I am working towards Ireland having its own dedicated Fintech Hub to foster innovation and help fintech companies with their speed to market and capacity to scale.
This week I visited 'Station F' in Paris on Monday – one example of supports for start-ups, especially those in the Fintech space. This visit follows earlier visits to fintech events abroad such as Money 20/20 in Amsterdam in June 2023 and precedes the Singapore Fintech Festival next week at which I am supporting many Irish Fintech companies.
