Mauritius is proposing a comprehensive regulatory framework for Fintech service provider licences, news that has been generally welcomed in the industry.

The country’s Financial Services Commission (FSC), which regulates the non-banking financial services sector and global businesses, has begun to solicit input from the public and industry stakeholders regarding the proposed framework.

It wants input by 5 March 2021.

“The proposal for me shows the right thinking from the regulator, regarding a space that many regulators around the world are not sure about,” said Michal Szymanski, a Board Member at Africa Fintech Network.

Fintech Network brings Africa Fintech players together at country level to foster innovative technologies interactions and deployment across Africa.

Szymanski added: “It's always a tough balance and no one can get it right the first time, but I like the fact that they are willing to listen to various views from around the world and are keeping themselves open to input.”

He hopes the Fintech license finds the right balance of regulations/innovation and does not stifle the industry moving forward.

According to Suyash Sumaroo, the Co-Founder of Horizon Africa Blockchain and Founder of Codevigor, the proposed framework will help develop the country’s Fintech space and set the ground-rules for other countries to establish businesses in Mauritius.

“...I think that it is a good initiative by the FSC in trying to set up a regulatory framework for FinTech Service Providers,” said Sumaroo, but warned that the framework should support the development of early stage start-ups.

“The final version can, of course, be very different, but the Fintech sector is full of young promising start-ups with little or no capital, and which only have their intellectual property as an asset. Should this be addressed, I believe that this could be the first step in establishing Mauritius as a centre of innovation in the Fintech sector, especially with the emergence of Decentralized Finance (DeFi).”