Building upon the success of previous editions, Open Banking Hackathon – CEE Edition, launched on the historic date of 14 September 2019 when PSD2 went live in Europe, is preparing its fourth edition of the innovation challenge competition.

The hybrid event will be held between the 26th to 30th of September 2022 and will involve important resources from Central and Eastern Europe, interested in pushing fintech innovation.

Open Banking is still relatively nascent on its journey to transforming financial services and there is still work to be done to educate players on the opportunities it provides to extend their reach and help them improve their offerings to consumers.

“I am incredibly excited by the opportunities Open Banking has uncovered and believe it will greatly improve competition, transparency and pricing across the financial services landscape and will lead to greater financial inclusion in the future, making information and capital more accessible to more people.” states Cosmin Cosma, Co-Founder and CEO of Finqware, a middleware financial API aggregation platform to interconnect businesses and fintechs with banks.

Already at its 4th edition, Open Banking Hackathon – CEE Edition will take place in a hybrid format between the 26th to 30th of September 2022.

Teams from 10 European countries (Poland ??, Romania ??,Bulgaria ??, Hungary??, Austria ??, Croatia ??, Slovenia ??, Slovakia ??, Czech Republic ?? and Greece ??) are invited to take part in the challenge and build value creation applications on top of the battle tested Open Banking data aggregation platform provided by Finqware. Registrations for projects are open until the 12th of September 2022 on https://openbankinghackathon.com/#register.

“We aspire to have Open Banking Hackathon be the “Eurovision Contest” for innovation in Open Banking. Our partners are interested in helping us make this CEE Edition a big success, in order to lay the foundations for awareness growth of the event in the coming years” added Cosmin Cosma.

Supported throughout the years by important technology companies like Google Cloud, and financial institutions such as National Bank of Romania, Alpha Bank Romania, Banca Comerciala Romana, Raiffeisen Bank International, Banca Transilvania, OTP Bank, Varengold Bank, BRD SocGen and Unicredit Bulbank the event has managed to grow year by year into a relevant resource hub and a launching platform for starting fintechs.

Other supporting partners who have continuously contributed to the success of the event are fintech associations, innovation communities and startup accelerators like BNR Fintech Innovation Hub, Eleven Accelerator, Elevator Lab, OTP Lab, InnovX-BCR, Techccelerator, Romanian Fintech Association, Bulgatian Fintech Association, Slovak Fintech Association, Czech Fintech Association, and many more are joining the club each day.

“Open Banking Hackathon was exactly the opportunity we were looking for to explore, experiment, and improve our product. It was great to see so much support for open banking innovation in the industry, both when it comes to feedback and availability for further collaboration.” Dan Cobeanu, ProxyCash Romania, OBH 2021 Competition Winner

During the 5 days of the hackathon, the teams will cover 3 main challenges in open banking::
• Individuals – personal finance management applications; robo-advisory for increasing financial health; increase financial inclusiveness; next level payment solutions.
• Business – optimising treasury management for corporates; smart financial management for SMEs; cross border FX hedging for corporates; bulk payments scenarios over payment initiation
• IoT – using wearables to manage financial life; automotive software applications; smart cities

The 4th edition of Open Banking Hackathon – CEE Edition brings forward awards adding up to 10,000 € in cash prizes, partner benefits and services, plus PoC partnerships. On top of this, participating teams will experience 5 days of networking and 1to1 mentor feedback sessions, to further refine their ideas and improve on their products.

“The event highlighted aspects of banking I wasn’t aware were open to disruption. It made me rethink certain concepts and gave me the opportunity to innovate.”, Kristiyan Stefanov, Dry Cash, Bulgaria, OBH 2021 Runner-Up Winner

In the company of the key ecosystem players there are numerous opportunities to uncover, so make sure you join the CEE Open Banking network for innovation reuniting at the end of September, and submit your project idea by September 12th online on https://openbankinghackathon.com/#register.