Financial Planning firm 1825’s proposed robo-adviser for retirement options has been added to the FCA sandbox.

The Financial Planning arm of Standard Life was added to the testing process alongside 28 other firms revealed by the FCA.

The regulatory sandbox allows companies to test innovative products, services or business models in a live market environment, while ensuring that “appropriate” protections are in place.

The scheme is part of 'Innovate' an initiative which started in 2014 to promote competition in the interest of consumers.

Since its inception Innovate has had more than 1,200 applications and has supported more than 500 firms.

The FCA received 69 applications to cohort four of the regulatory sandbox, an increase on the number of applications to cohort three.

The FCA says the sandbox was “a first for regulators worldwide, underlining the FCA’s commitment to innovation in financial services.”

Christopher Woolard, executive director of strategy and competition at the FCA, said: “I am pleased to say that this is the largest sandbox cohort to date with a record number of applicants meeting our eligibility criteria.

“Cohort 4 has seen a large increase in the number of firms testing wholesale propositions including firms that are aiming to increase the efficiency of the capital-raising process.

“Alongside these we can see significant use of distributed ledger technology (DLT), some experimentation with cryptoassets which will help inform our policy work and propositions aimed at helping lower income consumers.”