Supporting innovation in ESG data and disclosures – the digital sandbox

In this Evaluation Paper, we give an overview of the digital sandbox sustainability cohort and discuss the key lessons learned. We also set out our current thinking for the future of the sandbox.

Digital Sandbox Sustainability Pilot Evaluation Report

What we are evaluating

Between November 2021 and March 2022, in partnership with the City of London Corporation, we ran the second digital sandbox pilot focused on solving regulatory challenges related to Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) data and disclosure. Following the successful conclusion of this pilot, we are now building on the lessons learned during the previous two years to inform a future and permanent operating model for the digital sandbox.

We hope this report will contribute to the current dialogue surrounding innovation, as well as interest regulatory peers, as we look to future iterations of the digital sandbox.

Who should read this

  • regulators and policy-making bodies (national and international) 
  • start-ups 
  • RegTechs and FinTechs 
  • financial institutions

Next steps

We are committed to establishing a permanent operating model for a digital testing environment based on the principles, and improved by the experience and feedback, of the Digital Sandbox initiative. We are currently doing further research and industry engagement to ensure that this future service meets the needs of its end-users, and the potential use this initiative could support. 

We are also exploring further potential use for this, including more regulatory collaboration in, for example, developing SupTech (supervisory technology) solutions.

In the market innovation area, we are exploring methods to make the digital sandbox data assets openly accessible in a way that complies with data protection laws.