FAQ

Any natural person or a company can apply for innovation Hub support, provided your solution falls within the non-banking sectors regulated by the PCMA.  Applications are welcome from existing regulated firms, unregulated firms, firms that are developing new technologies for regulated activities, start-ups, scale-ups, insurers, securities firms, non-bank lending firms, and leasing and factoring firms.

The Innovation Hub support is ideally suited for innovative solutions that are likely to fall within current regulation or laws, but the solution is still considered innovative.  Qualifying firms get support to understand our regulatory expectation and may get help in obtaining a license.  The Regulatory Sandbox, on the other hand, is ideal for solutions where there are no existing regulation for your innovative product or service.  It also assumes that you are at an advanced stage of developing your idea and are ready to test the solution in a live environment with real clients.  We may also ask innovative firms that received Innovation Hub support to test their idea in a Regulatory Sandbox before applying for a full license.

1. Help you understand how regulation relates to your activities in regard to the innovation

2. We can provide regulatory guidance to clear up any “grey areas” of regulation related to your specific solution 

3. Supporting you in understanding the specific regulation that applies and the type of license you will need.

4. Helping you understand our regulatory processes, like licensing, supervision and enforcement, as well as helping you understand your compliance obligations (this may be helpful in designing your business model)

5. For specific specialised firms, we can also help you prepare for licensing or regulatory sandbox testing (beyond Innovation Hub support)

6. For qualifying firms, we can provide post licensing support for up to one year, to help you comply with our requirements.

Whilst our goal of supporting innovation is to drive financial inclusion, we appreciate that some innovative solutions can still provide help for customers who already have a financial account, to get greater access to products and services that they were not able to access before. Even if your solution does not support financial access or financial inclusion directly, in many ways, it could still promote this objective, indirectly. For example, by helping insurers to reduce costs of providing insurance products, and helping them streamline customer onboarding and claims management, you may empower them to promote financial accessibility and financial inclusion.
We are interested in all innovation, so please contact us with any idea, and after discussion, we will be in a better position to advise you if we are able to support you.

We are only able to advise you on the regulatory aspects of your innovation, and not its business viability or market potential. Therefore, we are better able to support you if your product or business idea is already well developed and you are clear on the types of activities that your business will carry out. If you are really early stages of developing your innovative idea in the non banking financial sector, we suggest you make contact with Accelerators and Incubator in Palestine, who can help you shape your idea.