SBI jumps on hackathon bandwagon

Coding enthusiasts have another hackathon to look forward to. State Bank of India has flagged off Code For Bank to drive digital banking innovation.

The hackathon is open to developers, start-ups and students in teams of up to five. Teams can register their ideas by May 29. The hackathon will be held between June 6 and 20. Applications have to be developed using SBI’s internal APIs (code), external APIs and a combination of both. Finalists stand a chance to win monetary rewards of ~1 lakh to ~5 lakh, said the bank in a statement.

SBI had conducted a hackathon internally. This is the first time the event is being thrown open for the general public.

"We will further engage with the winning teams to codevelop solutions and collaborate on IP. Scope of work and collaboration model will be decided at a later stage," said an SBI spokesperson in an emailed response. Previously, Axis Bank, National Payments Corporation of India and the Government of India (Smart India) had initiated hackathons on similar lines. Earlier this year, DBS bank had conducted a hackathon in Hyderabad to recruit coders with hands-on experience in banking technology and innovation. This year has already seen hackathons by ICICI Bank, BNP Paribas and RBL Bank. Technologies like predictive analysis, Fin-Tech / Blockchain, digital payments, IoT, AI, machine learning, bots and robotic process automation are the top themes across hackathons.