The Austrian Financial Market Authority (FMA) is required to publish participants in the Regulatory Sandbox pursuant to Article 23a para. 4 of the Financial Market Authority Act (FMABG; Finanzmarktaufsichtsbehördengesetz) on its website. In an FMA administrative decision dated 28.02.2022, ASSETERA GmbH (Commercial Register no. FN 448308b) was the first entity to be granted a licence by the FMA within the scope of the Regulatory Sandbox.
The entity is therefore authorised as a licensed investment firm as defined in Article 3 of the Securities Supervision Act 2018 (WAG 2018; Wertpapieraufsichtsgesetz 2018), to provide the services of investment advice (Article 3 para. 2 no. 1 WAG 2018), portfolio management by managing portfolios for individual customers with a discretion in the form of power of attorney of the customer (Article 3 para. 2 no. 2 WAG 2018) as well as the receiving and transmitting of orders (Article 3 para. 2 no. 3 WAG 2018) with regard to the financial instruments pursuant to Article 1 no. 7 lits. a to j WAG 2018.
However, the provision of the investment services of investment advice pursuant to Article 3 para. 2 no. 1 WAG 2018 as well as portfolio management pursuant to Article 3 para. 2 no. 3 WAG 2018 according to the application relates exclusively to professional clients pursuant to Article 1 no. 35 WAG 2018 in conjunction with Article 66 WAG 2018 and the provision of all investment services pursuant to Articles 3 para. 2 nos. 1 to 3 WAG 2018 in relation to financial instruments pursuant to Article 1 no. 7 lits. e to j WAG 2018 relates according to the application exclusively to professional clients pursuant to Article 1 no. 35 WAG 2018 in conjunction with Article 66 WAG 2018.
ASSETERA GmbH was admitted on 17.02.2022 to the Anlegerentschädigung von Wertpapierfirmen GmbH investor compensation scheme subject to the condition precedent of a licence being granted by the FMA. With this condition having been met, the entity is authorised following the legally effective delivery of the administrative decision granting a licence to provide the aforementioned investment services requiring a licence from 28.02.2022.
ASSETERA GmbH was the first participant to be admitted to the Regulatory Sandbox by means of an FMA administrative decision dated 13.01.2021. The FinTech plans inter alia to establish a digital trading platform for the distribution of tokenised financial instruments based on blockchain technology. During the process of the platform-based provision of services, buy and sell orders in relation to digital securities (so-called “security tokens”) as well as other blockchain-based financial instruments are intended to be bilaterally brokered. In this regard, the scope is both the primary and secondary markets. In addition, portfolio management and investment advice services for professional clients are also intended to be offered.
The issuing of the administrative decision granting a licence marks its entry into the test phase (phase 3) of the four phase process in the Regulatory Sandbox. During the course of this stage, the entity provides services that require a licence or a registration and is supervised in doing so. In this phase, the test parameters and milestones that were drawn up will be regularly discussed in the management meetings with the FMA’s FinTech Supervisory Team.
An entity’s participation in the Regulatory Sandbox is time-limited to a period of two years.