Global Open Finance Challenge launched by CIBC, Itaú Unibanco, National Australia Bank and NatWest Group

CIBC, Itaú Unibanco, National Australia Bank and NatWestGroup announced the launch of a first-of-its-kind event called Global Open Finance Challenge, promoting innovation for a global financial ecosystem.

The virtual event is the second cooperative initiative carried out by CIBC, Itaú Unibanco, National Australia Bank and NatWestGroup, aiming to develop new solutions for a progressive global banking and financial industry.

The Global Open Finance Challenge encourages entrepreneurs and innovators to work out new solutions to some of the most pressing challenges in the financial services industry. The four banks partnered with Amazon Web Services (AWS) – leader in cloud computing – to cultivate an open finance ecosystem, allowing secure data sharing and enabling banks to provide product offerings tailored according to the customers’ needs.

The representatives of the four banks agreed that “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.”

“Financial services companies across the globe are going through rapid digital transformation. By encouraging builders and crowdsourcing new technological ideas, these forward-looking banks running the Global Open Finance Challenge will be able to develop new technologies to meet people’s rapidly evolving banking needs. We look forward to collaborating with the builders in the challenge to deliver tangible solutions that help people around the world meet their financial goals,” said Werner Vogels, Chief Technology Officer, Amazon.com, Inc.

In order to provide an adequate environment for participating teams, the banks have partnered with Oolys, an API infrastructure platform in FinTech. The platform was used to develop a sandbox environment, replicating the infrastructure of the banks. To further facilitate the work of developers, each bank shares a set of APIs, such as open banking and open finance services. AWS will provide support to participating teams in developing their concepts, who will also have the possibility to test and evaluate solutions while being mentored by leaders within the banks and event partners.

The event will present three challenges for participants to work on:

• Delivering high-value digital services to better serve corporate and business customers, and the public at large
• Developing more convenient and relevant digital channels for new customers to access banking services
• Finding innovative ways to aid decision-making around climate and sustainability

Each challenge will see its winner, while a fourth, overall Challenge winner will also be selected. Winning teams will have the possibility to participate in an incubation programme with the banks.