Lessons from FMA’s Regulatory Sandbox: Innovation, Risk and the In House Legal Role   

This session brings to life what it was like for the inhouse legal team to be "close to the fire" of the FMA’s regulatory sandbox pilot and how that reshaped their role as inhouse lawyers.  

In 2025 the FMA launched the sandbox pilot, to assist firms deploying novel technology with innovative business models. Along with the FMA's small Fintech and Innovation team, the legal team played a key role in delivering the pilot. This required the team to think and work differently as inhouse lawyers, and step into a leadership role in developing novel approaches to unfamiliar and difficult legal and regulatory challenges, often at pace.  This included embracing new, more hands-on and accessible ways of working, developing a streamlined governance structure for the project, considering cultural te āo Māori issues, and finding ways to develop a shared organisation risk appetite where (much like the start-ups the team was helping in the pilot), change was constant. Working outside of our comfort zones became the norm.  

Through real life examples, attendees will hear about the tools the team used, the lessons learned and how working on a pilot like this sharpened the team’s approach as inhouse lawyers.  Attendees will hopefully recognise familiar challenges and opportunities in their own inhouse roles and embrace a mindset where lawyers are not just advisers but active leaders in the delivery of complex, high-impact initiatives.