What we learned in the Central Bank of Ireland’s Innovation Sandbox Programme

In June, Narrative completed the Central Bank of Ireland’s Innovation Sandbox Programme. We took part in the second programme, which focused on innovation in payments. Its themes included inclusive access to the digital economy, a question close to our own work with small businesses.

The programme ran for six months and ended with a showcase at the Central Bank in Dublin on 25 June, where each participant presented what they had built and how their thinking had developed.

What we brought

We brought a specific use case: guidance for small business owners based on their own financial data and circumstances. That gave the engagement concrete questions to work through. Why did the system make this suggestion? Can the owner understand it? Where does a person need to take over?

What we learned

The most valuable part was the one-to-one engagement with Central Bank staff. It helped us understand developments such as open finance and what they could mean for a company like ours, and it showed us how much opportunity there is in the regulatory landscape.

It also reinforced choices we had made in the product. Guidance should be traceable to the data behind it. Outputs should be checked before an owner sees them. When a need involves a regulated product or a credit decision, the conversation should move to the institution’s own people.

What comes next

We are carrying that thinking into our work with banks and lenders, where each deployment adds the institution’s own requirements to our guidance framework.

Participation in the Innovation Sandbox Programme does not imply endorsement by the Central Bank of Ireland.