NAB, CIBC, Itaú Unibanco and NatWest Group have joined forces with Amazon Web Services to run a global open finance challenge, inviting fintechs, universities and other large organisations to prototype and develop new digital banking services.
The banks have collaborated with Oolys, an API infrastructure platform for financial service providers, to develop a sandbox environment that securely runs on AWS. This environment replicates a bank’s existing infrastructure, enabling rapid testing with third parties in a safe and secure environment.
To aid in the development of applications, each bank will provide a set of shared APIs, including a combination of open banking, open finance, and experimental services. Participating teams can test, build and validate their ideas with mentorship from leaders within the banks and event partners.
AWS will collaborate with the four banks to provide participants with advisory support to help them build their concepts in the lead up to the judging event, which includes access to coaching and resources on innovation and product development.
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.
The winning teams will each have the opportunity to participate in a post-event tailored incubation programme with one or more of the banks.
NAB CEO Ross McEwan says: “Collaboration between established financial services providers, big tech and fintechs has never been more important, as we respond to rapidly changing customer needs and expectations.
“This event will open up new ideas, drawing from a global talent pool, which could provide significant benefits for our customers.”
Event registration is open from August 16th with a grand finale event taking place in November 2021.