Hackathon aims to break the Open Bank Project this weekend

29 Jan 2015

Ireland’s first dedicated banking hackathon will take place this weekend at the NDRC in Dublin. Organised by Ulster Bank, it aims to bring together more than 120 coders, designers, mentors and investors.

The goal of the hackathon is to provide an environment that fosters intensive innovative thinking and entrepreneurship for new service provision to bank customers.

Through a marathon of brainstorming and software building, hackathon participants will focus on the themes of making banking faster, helpful banking, inclusive banking, open data, and emerging platforms. 

“It’s the first of its kind in Ireland and will bring together a community of people who are energetic, creative and innovative, to challenge the way banks serve their customers,” explained Ulster Bank chief operating officer Chris Davis.

“As an industry, we are going through a significant period of change – our customers are increasingly online, looking to interact with their money in different ways, and we need to make sure that we listen to ideas from a non-banking community out there that is agile and proactive in meeting customer needs. 

“At Ulster Bank we’re aiming to become the No 1 bank for customer service, trust and advocacy and we’re open to all ideas and new thinking on how to best serve our customers.”

The hackathon will begin this Friday and will roll over the weekend to reach its climax on Sunday, 1 February.

Ulster Bank image by Brendan Howard/Shutterstock.com via Shutterstock

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com