NAB has partnered with major banks in Canada, Brazil and the UK in a hunt for the greater fintech innovation.
The Global Open Finance Challenge is a virtual event seeking entrepreneurs and startups with globally scalable solutions for open finance.
NAB is part of the initiative with CIBC, Itaú Unibanco and NatWest Group.
They’re looking for concepts to address three key challenges in financial services, posing them with the following questions:
- How can we better serve our corporate and business customers, and the public at large, by delivering high-value digital services?
- How can we help current and new customers access banking services through more convenient or relevant digital channels?
- How can we find innovative ways to help our customers make better decisions around climate and sustainability?
NAB CEO Ross McEwan said collaboration between established financial services providers, big tech and fintechs is vital to the growth of finance.
“This event will open up new ideas, drawing from a global talent pool, which could provide significant benefits for our customers,” he said.
“The Global Open Finance Challenge will help transform our industry around the world by encouraging innovation and advancing our common goals: to support our clients in an evolving landscape through value-added digital services, more convenient access to the financial ecosystem through the channels customers want, and a continued focus on sustainability.”
API sandbox
The banks are collaborating with AWS and API infrastructure platform Oolys on the challenge, offering a sandbox environment that replicates a bank’s existing infrastructure to enabling rapid testing with third parties.
Each bank will provide a set of shared APIs, including a combination of open banking, open finance, and experimental services for the fintech startups involved.
The top 12 teams will present their ideas to an executive judging panel with the CEOs of the four banks, plus executives from private equity, venture capital, and technology organisations.
They’ll select four winners – one for each of the three key areas identified, and an overall Challenge winner.
The winning teams will each have the chance to participate in a tailored incubation programme with one or more of the banks, giving them the chance to develop their idea to proof of concept and pitch the the VC arms of the banks.
Fintechs, large global organisations, early and late-stage startups, and university teams can join the Challenge, with registration now open at globalopenfinancechallenge.com
The Global Open Finance Challenge grand finale will be held in November 2021.
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