Nuggets selected for latest FCA regulatory sandbox

Blockchain-powered payments and ID venture Nuggets has been chosen as one of the fifth cohort of businesses in the UK Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) regulatory sandbox.

It will be testing out its platform that saves individuals and businesses from having to store KYC documents with third parties. Alastair Johnson, CEO and Founder, Nuggets, comments: “Right now, we’re stuck with a system that forces customers to duplicate key processes. As a result, sensitive personal documents are stored in multiple locations with multiple services. That’s a poor experience for customers. More seriously, it greatly increases the risk of data breaches. Recent years have proved – with increasing frequency – just how severe those risks are.”

He flags up the infamous Equifax disaster of 2017 and the 500 million customers of the hotel group Marriott International who were affected by a data breach in 2018. “What we need is a system that enables individuals to stay in control of their personal documents. That means they can use them to verify their identities without having to store them in numerous third-party locations. This is what we will be testing in the FCA sandbox,” Johnson adds.

Also in the mix

Other blockchain ventures that have been accepted into cohort five include Fractal, a platform that facilitates SME financing and securitisation of SME debt, by digitising credit applications and connecting loan issuances to the underlying financial data, using distributed ledger technology and artificial intelligence technology.

And Torca, which uses DLT to streamline the capital raising process, providing a one-stop-shop for issuing securities, including onboarding, raise-management and token issuing services. The aim is to increase transparency and speed of execution for both security issuers and investors.