Jemima Kelly, Financial Times | November 11, 2018
Fragmented US rules landscape has put off many early-stage companies.
Arizona, often associated with golf-playing pensioners and selfie-taking Grand Canyon visitors, might not seem the most obvious place to look for cutting-edge financial technology.
Yet in March this year, Arizona became the first US state to set up a so-called regulatory sandbox for fintech start-ups — essentially a test environment in which early-stage companies that are innovating in the financial sector are given limited access to the market under regulatory supervision, without having to be fully licensed.
It is a step towards opening up the fintech industry in a country whose regulatory landscape has until now put off many start-ups with its perceived heavy-handedness, and could make it easier for companies from outside the US to test their products on the market.