Finastra, a financial technology company based in London, has named the winners of its annual hackathon “Hack to the Future.” The virtual event saw hundreds of ideas, proof of concepts (POCs), and apps submitted from across the world, around the themes of reducing systemic inequality, hacking through COVID-19, and embracing technology-enabled change.

“It has been incredible to see over 4,500 global registrations from schools, universities, startups, and fintech — all with the common goal of hacking for good,” said Chirine Ben Zaied, head of Innovation at Finastra. “This has been our most impactful hackathon to date, generating some truly inspiring apps and ideas that have the potential to redefine financial services and drive change. “

Finastra made its open developer platform FusionFabric.cloud (underpinned by Microsoft Azure) along with over 130 APIs and several open datasets available for the hackathon.

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Shortlisted teams presented their ideas to a panel of experts from different industries including banks, fintech, academe, and industry experts. Judging was based on a submission’s ability to solve a real and pressing need, its feasibility and use of technology, and its commercial potential. Winning ideas and POCs benefiting from a range of prizes offered by Finastra and hackathon supporters, such as cash, incubation opportunities, and coaching, include:

• Hacking systemic inequalities: Nest Egg — a gamified banking app for kids that incorporates financial literacy and brings unbanked or underbanked children into financial services
• Technology-enabled change: AI-Powered Mortgage Advisor — using machine learning to predict mortgage loan approval, for a faster turn-around for applicants
• Hacking through COVID: FinFlo — Filipinos can acquire fast loans digitally, enabling locals impacted by the pandemic and in need to apply without leaving home or visiting a bank

Prizes including incubation and internship opportunities were also awarded for the following categories:

• Best Youth Idea: FinED — uses principles of gamification and state-of-the-art technology to impart financial literacy
• Best Student Submission: Handpay — a payments platform designed to address banking exclusion for people with disabilities
• Best SME/Corporate Banking Submission: Romulus for Trade Finance — automates the reconciliation of trade finance documents vs Swift communication
• Best in MEA Region​: Banking4U — a platform that harnesses a customer’s mobile money transaction data to determine loan eligibility
• Best Environmental Impact: ESG AI — smarter sustainable investing through data and Deep Learning
• Best User Experience​: ESG AI — smarter sustainable investing through data and Deep Learning
• Best Social Impact: Fusion CreditSense — leveraging APIs and machine learning to create creditworthiness and micro-loan prediction models, based on a user’s transaction history
• Best Submission from a Fintech: The Responsible Investors — scoring Finastra ESG Funds using fintech, AI, and Natural Language Processing through FusionFabric.cloud