An app designed to help Filipinos plan for a financially secure retirement emerged as the top proof-of-concept (POC) at the “Race to the Future: The Open Finance PH Hackathon,” organized by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) in partnership with the International Finance Corp. (IFC).
The hackathon took place from July 15 to Aug. 7, 2024, hoping to promote innovative solutions within the framework of Open Finance.
The winning app, named Pensyon PH, was developed by Team Atram. The platform is designed to assist users in projecting how close they are to their retirement financial goals, providing personalized advice and educational resources on how to achieve these goals. The Pensyon PH app offers a seamless platform for customers and employers to manage Personal Equity and Retirement Accounts (PERA). The app leverages Open Finance principles, enabling consent-driven data-sharing and fostering collaborative partnerships among financial institutions that adhere to strict data security and privacy standards.
“Open Finance is best implemented in tandem with the industry, and this hackathon offers great examples of open, interoperable, and scalable applications that can address the evolving needs of Filipino consumers,” said Jean-Marc Arbogast, country manager for the Philippines, IFC.
Open finance use cases
The hackathon featured three key use cases for participants to develop solutions around: next-generation financial management through account aggregation, reducing barriers to MSME lending, and digital payments innovation.
Pensyon PH addressed the first of these use cases, standing out among the 37 POCs submitted for the first round of judging on July 30, 2024. The top teams were invited to present their solutions to the judging panel during the Demo Day on Aug. 7, 2024.
Team Atram, composed of Bea Charmelyn T. Lambitco, Jan Franz A. Palngipang, Aaron Lemuel C. Reyes, and Alvin G. Usigan, was awarded an all-expense-paid trip to the Singapore Fintech Festival in November 2024. There, they will have the opportunity to learn from global fintech experts and potentially refine their winning concept further.