stability and the efficiency of the financial system. it will enhance legal certainty, particularly with regard to the application of the regulatory framework to innovative proposals. meanwhile, the regulatory sandbox will enable the bank of greece to deepen its knowledge of financial innovation and, where appropriate, fine - tune its regulatory and supervisory approach accordingly. this major project would not have been feasible without funding from the european union, support from the european commission and the ebrd, as well as the technical support received from ernst & young. we owe you a big ‘ thank you ’ for supporting our vision, and it was a great pleasure to have you with us today. again, i wish to thank the bank of greece staff for their hard work in achieving today ’ s milestone and for the support that they will continue to provide now that the regulatory sandbox has become operational. the bank of greece closely monitors developments in the area of innovation in europe and the rest of the world, and will continue to do so in future. the regulatory sandbox was set up drawing on the operational features of similar schemes in other countries, including lithuania, whose central bank we had the privilege of hosting on today ’ s panel. at the same time, the bank of greece is actively involved in european initiatives monitoring advances in financial innovation and reviewing relevant regulatory and supervisory developments. however, the work of the bank of greece in the area of innovation does not end here. as pointed out earlier, in the initial phase the regulatory sandbox will be intended for use only by authorised firms and for services authorised by the bank of greece. further down the road, our goal is to expand the scope of the regulatory sandbox to enable non - authorised financial firms to test their innovative solutions. a future version of the regulatory sandbox could be expanded to institutions established in another eu member state and operating branches in greece, in cooperation with the supervisory authority of the home member state. furthermore, the current version of the regulatory sandbox relies on customised guidance and active dialogue as its primary tools. a future version of the regulatory sandbox could also benefit from other, more drastic tools, for instance the lifting of particular requirements, where permitted by law, or the granting of an authorisation under restrictions. in conclusion, as of today, the bank of greece will be accepting applications from fintech firms for participation in the regulatory sandbox. we look forward to receiving the innovative ideas to be tested under our close guidance and support before they are put on the market. once

existing regulatory framework to a particular innovation. two typical examples of such innovations are the ones based on distributed ledger technology ( dlt ) and the ones based on artificial intelligence ( ai ). regarding the former ( dlt ), in september 2020 the european commission adopted a proposal for a regulation as part of its digital finance strategy. regarding the latter ( artificial intelligence ), a proposal for a regulation was adopted by the european commission just recently. the second objective of the sandbox is to enhance legal certainty, i. e. to clearly delineate the scope of the regulatory framework within which an authorised institution may deploy a service, also identifying possible points of friction or needs for additional regulatory initiatives. the third objective of the regulatory sandbox is to promote knowledge. in particular, collaboration with sandbox participants will provide a two - way opportunity to disseminate and build up knowledge around financial technology. this knowledge will give us additional tools in order to inform our regulatory and supervisory approach, as and where appropriate. this can be done either on the initiative of the bank itself, taking into account the relevant risks and the required risk management mechanisms, or in the context of eu legislation initiatives. by way of illustration, in 2020 the bank ’ s executive committee adopted an act on the terms and conditions for remote electronic identification of natural persons as part of a digital onboarding process. i should stress that the operation of the regulatory sandbox is an innovation, even for the bank itself and a different, supplementary and structured approach to the exercise of its supervisory functions. recognising the challenge that this poses, we will be constantly monitoring and reviewing the procedures that we have put in place, so as to ensure that these objectives are met in the best way possible. in later presentations today, you will have the opportunity to hear details about how to access the regulatory sandbox and how it works. i look forward to your feedback on this new innovation facilitation mechanism that we are launching today. closing remarks 2 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches in closing today ’ s event, i would like to thank all the speakers and participants for their attendance. in summary, the regulatory sandbox will enable supervised fintech firms to test innovative solutions in a protected environment under the auspices of the bank of greece. thus, it will serve as a further driver of fintech and innovation in greece, in addition to the innovation hub. moreover, the regulatory sandbox will foster the market availability of innovative solutions, while safeguarding financial