Your Mission
The Universe of Financial Services is at War. For the last decade, The Bank Empire has been shaken to its core by the Disruptors Alliance who continue to grow stronger with new propositions. The Bank Empire now has 3 critical worlds under attack. The Rise Hackathon seeks to bring a league of supercharged developers, startups and game changers to reclaim these 3 worlds and create a path together in unity, for the future of financial services, now.
The Battle has spread across all of the universe. You can choose your battleground in Manchester, UK or Mumbai, India.
It is your mission to find a crew and reclaim one of the 3 worlds for massive prizes where only one champion will be victorious per world.
The time is now. May the code be with you.
Which world will you reclaim?
World I: The Consumer Cosmos
By 2018 European banks will have to give 3rd parties access to their customer data. This new regulation may increase competition, innovation and transparency across the European payments market. The impact will be felt in 2 areas in particular, presenting both opportunities and threats to financial institutions:
Aggregators: The majority of people today have multiple bank accounts (i.e. bank with more than one bank). The new regulation will lead to the emergence of aggregators – providing consumers with a portal to view all of their bank details in one place. The aggregator will be able to build valuable insights on consumers offering a number of opportunities (e.g. being able to suggest products and services that most closely meet a consumer’s needs).
Payments: When a consumer buys something online, the merchant has to go through intermediaries to receive money from the consumers bank account. The new regulation will bypass this process to allowing merchants to request the payment directly from the consumers bank account if the consumer has given permission.
It is your mission to explore how these changes can transform the way consumers think, behave and engage with banking services (current accounts, savings accounts, credit cards etc.) as part of their day-to-day lives:
How can you reimagine the way people will consume financial services in the future?
How can you delight customers (e.g. through front end differentiation, value added features etc.) whilst generating a commercially viable product?
How can consumers be rewarded/incentivised to use the new products/services?
What types of aggregators will there be in the future and what data sources will they use that will provide value to the day-to-day life of a consumer?
How might a payment solution form part of this product?
Are the days of the bank as we know it numbered? Can you create the future?
World II: Rebellion of the Corporate Treasurer
Corporate Treasurers are rebelling against the traditional methods adopted to manage risk. Rather than using historic balance and transactional data from their bankers, they are looking to drive innovation as a result of new European regulations around account aggregators and payments.
Large Corporate companies today typically have multiple bank accounts with different banks. Each of these accounts will be accessed via separate banking platforms; some are online, some are offline, and all require time and effort to access/analyse. Accounts are often in multiple currencies and across several geographies and require complex payment instruments to send and receive money. The new regulation will allow corporates to view all of their bank accounts on one platform, enabling treasurers to make sure their money is in the right place at the right time and in the right currency.
Corporate Treasurers produce a range of reports for internal and external audiences. These reports take a long time to compile and rely on data from multiple financial and non-financial sources, which can be out of date. The new open banking regulations will potentially allow for real-time data accurate to the second, giving Treasurers the tools to make informed decisions and making it far easier to manage their risks and balances in the short, medium and long term timeframes.
It is your mission to simplify and consolidate the daily banking needs of Corporate Treasurers, by providing a single view experience and simplified payments process:
How would you display all balance and transactional data/information, from multiple banks, multiple geographies and in multiple currencies, all in one place and in real-time?
How can financial and non-financial information be presented in a way that helps manage balances in a range of currencies and minimise risk?
What advanced data/information analytics and predictive analytics can be used to forecast future currency positions in real-time?
How could historic trend analysis and market/peer group data be used to help Treasurers make more informed decisions?
How can you simplify/automate the payment process, while giving Treasurers end-to-end control and visibility?
Can you conquer the Corporate Treasurers’ rebellion and create a consolidated solution that will meet their needs?
World III: The Payments Parallax
With the rise of bots, virtual assistants and IoT devices, many believe that the app is evolving to almost extinction. In a world where 70% of the adult population has a smartphone, internet traffic is driven by mobile users and digital consumers interact almost exclusively through social media and messaging services, how will people consume banking services in the future?
Organisations are realising the importance of the changing nature of customer behaviour – people are less and less willing to step out of their favourite channels to carry out transactions. For example, when web chatting with an airline company why do you have to revert to their website or app to make a payment? Or when talking to a client on social media, why can’t they view and pay their invoice there and then? ‘Zero UI’ allows users to do what they want, when they want, by allowing them to interact with the devices around them in more natural ways.
Zero UI is an emerging trend which reflects a change in consumer behaviour. The majority of face time with apps is now spent using social media, instant messaging or watching videos. Virtual assistants are now embedded into every smartphone device (e.g. Siri, Google Now and Cortana) and over 10% of searches online are initialised through voice requests. Traditional digital platforms such as the retail service Alibaba and message service WeChat now process more payments than PayPal and other dedicated payment services combined.
It is your mission to explore how banking services will change to meet changing customer behaviour and demands, by identifying new interaction models and providing the trust, security and support people expect from their banking services.
How would you build an interaction flow that allows users to access the services they require, when they want them?
How can you build a Zero UI model that creates and gives users a sense of trust and security?
How would you enhance the customer experience while still providing the traditional services users expect from financial transactions, such as audit, and conversation recording?
How can you simplify the authentication process for transactional services while allowing the customer to remain in their preferred channel?
How would you make a payment seamlessly through your favourite social media channel that was powered by your bank?
Can you predict the future and change the way customers will interact with banking services?
Bring your forces together to solve any one of our three world challenges. . Begin by uploading your idea at www.risehackathon.com.
Last date to submit your ideas is September 20, 2016