From today, innovators in the financial sector can apply to take part in the third Portugal FinLab, a channel for communicating with the regulators of the financial sector.

Places are available on the third Portugal FinLab, an initiative that aims to bring innovators in the financial sector – start-ups or incumbent institutions – and the Portuguese regulatory authorities together.

The third Portugal FinLab was officially launched today at the “Closing the 2nd Edition and Launching the 3rd” seminar, attended by representatives of the three regulatory entities of the financial sector – Hélder Rosalino, member of the Board of Directors of the Banco de Portugal, José Miguel Almeida, member of the Board of Directors of the CMVM (the Portuguese securities market commission), and Manuel Caldeira Cabral, member of the Board of Directors of ASF (the insurance and pension funds supervisory authority).

Similarly to the first two Portugal FinLabs, the third will run in two phases:

· Applications for the first phase will be accepted between 11 December 2020 and 29 January 2021. Assessment and selection for pitch day will take place up to 22 February 2021, after which the applicants will be informed if their application has been selected.

· Applications for the second phase may be submitted between 17 May and 25 June 2021. Assessment and selection for pitch day will take place up to 18 July 2021.

The projects chosen after pitch day will be analysed by the regulatory authorities, which will identify the main regulatory requirements applicable and any obstacles to their implementation.

For more information about the Portugal FinLab and the application process, visit the official site: www.portugalfinlab.org

Report on the 2nd Portugal FinLab published today

At the webinar, the financial regulators also made public the main results of the second Portugal FinLab and discussed with participants their experience at the initiative. The report on the second Portugal FinLab was published today on the official site.

It had 32 applications, eight of which from foreign entities. Among the 10 projects chosen for analysis, the activity sectors represented the most were those from the capital markets, payments and RegTech. Seven projects benefited from analysis by more than one financial regulator.