Finastra annual hackathon now open to MENA developers

Finastra’s annual hackathon, ‘Hack to the Future’ is now open to regional developers. This year’s event will be held virtually due to social distancing rules.

Prizes up for grabs include cash, platform certification fees waived, internship and coaching opportunities and the possibility to onboard projects into Finastra’s FusionStore app marketplace.

Finastra is also making its open developer platform, FusionFabric.cloud, and over 130 APIs, available.

Participants will be tasked with developing applications that tackle systemic inequalities, the Covid-19 pandemic and applying emerging technologies such as AI and blockchain to drive social change.

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Several banks, consultancies and technology companies are supporting this event including Accenture, BNP Paribas Personal Finance, Capgemini and Google Cloud. In the Middle East and Africa, supporting companies include UAE-based Mashreq Bank, Morocco-based banks CIH Bank and Attijariwafa Bank as well as Tesselate, an international financial services consultancy with a Morocco-based incubator, BetaCube, a Tunisia-based company builder and Fintech Saudi.

Accenture mentors will support a separate kids’ ‘hackathon’ stream, where young people ages 10-18 years old can get involved and submit their ideas around hacking systemic inequalities by video and presentations, with no coding required.

“The pandemic has intensified some of the world’s most challenging issues such as poverty, inequality and exclusion,” said Chirine Ben Zaied, head of Innovation at Finastra.

“Digital infrastructure and technology are providing the platform to transform financial services, and we have the opportunity to create better, fairer and more inclusive outcomes for people, businesses and communities around the world. We are excited to see the innovative ideas that our global hackathon will generate,” Zaied added.