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Commentary: Utah positions itself as a financial tech leader

Utah has joined an elite club making financial services more innovative, competitive and responsive to people’s changing needs.

House Bill 378, sponsored by Rep. Marc Roberts, R-Santaquin, and signed by Gov. Gary Herbert in March, made Utah the third state to establish a “regulatory sandbox” for next-generation financial products.

Services like Venmo, the popular cashless transfer app, are changing things for the better, but some can’t get past regulations designed for another era. Utah’s project could help change that, and bring business and jobs with it.

What is a “regulatory sandbox?” It is a tool that allows firms trying new and innovative things to test their products, for a limited time, on a limited number of willing customers.