Fintech software major Finastra has announced the launch of its fourth annual global hackathon event in Thiruvananthapuram with a view to ‘building on the success of its previous hackathons to ‘redefine finance for good and build an unbiased fintech future.’
The announcement coincided with the International Women’s Day to ‘inspire the fintech space to be open by default,’ a spokesman said here. Finastra is making its open APIs available via its FusionFabric.cloud development platform for the hack.
Submissions end on April 10
A number of partners are also supporting this event. These include Hong Kong Cyberport, Betacube, DeFi: Chainlink, DeFi Pulse, Google, Lloyds Banking Group, Mastercard, Microsoft, Scotia Bank and SocieteGenerale-FORGE (for DeFi).
Submissions for the event close on April 10, the spokesman said. Winners will be announced at the end of that month. Aspirants may sign up to hack at #HackToTheFuture, #HackingForGood, and #Openbydefault.
Three key themes
This year, the hackathon encourages engagement beyond the global fintech ecosystem with a focus on financial sustainability, inclusion, and empowerment. According to the spokesman, participants are invited to submit projects under three key themes:
One, sustainable and inclusive finance: financial inclusion and literacy, sustainable and green finance, circular economy, diversity, equity and inclusion, and Sustainable Development Goals. Two, embedded finance: bringing financial services to other industries with Banking as a Service (BaaS), and three, Decentralised Finance (DeFi): Digital assets, Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), cryptocurrencies, Non-Fungible Token(NFTs), metaverse and Web3.
‘Event open to all’
Chirine Ben Zaied, Head of Innovation at Finastra, said this is more than just a hackathon. “It is a fintech movement and we want to ignite a world of financial sustainability, inclusion, and autonomy.” Finastra calls on fintechs, banks, students and more to come forward with innovative ideas. The event is open to all.
“You don’t need to be a technical expert. We believe everyone has a role to play in redefining the future of finance. I‘m excited that we launched our hack on International Women’s Day as it underlines our commitment to inspiring women and girls in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) space to break biases and encourage equity for all,” she added.
Banking as a Service
Speaking at the launch event, TK Jose, Additional Chief Secretary, Kerala, said technology has a vital role to play in solving many of the societal problems, and this event gives talented young developers a chance to produce innovative ideas that can drive positive change.
“In addition, this hackathon will enable entrants to create solutions that could have a real-world impact in emerging areas such as Banking as a Service and DeFi. It’s important that we are able to compete on the global stage in these areas and I encourage our young developers to take part and help showcaseour advanced capabilities,” Jose added.
Rajasree MS, Vice-Chancellor, APJ Abdul Kalam Technical Universtiry, Academic Partner for the hackathon, said “Hack to the Future is an exciting opportunity for students to use their technical and creative talents to help solve some of the biggest challenges faced here in India and around the world.”
Published on
March 15, 2022
