Nations Trust Bank creates history with Sri Lanka’s first Fintech Hackathon
The Kaffeine Lab, Nations Trust Bank’s innovation centre at Gregory’s Road, came alive recently as the Bank hosted the first Fintech Hackathon in the country. Approximately, 150 teams from across Sri Lanka put forward their applications to contest in the Hackathon and the best 16 were selected to compete. The Nations Trust Fintech Hackathon 2017 saw some vibrant talent and enthusiastic participants competing in an electric atmosphere all through the night and the early hours of the morning. Teams had projects ranging from an Island-wide bus route/positioning collator with trip planning features, a handy person aggregator to put users in touch with plumbers, mechanics and other handymen closest to them, a VR based car sale experience and an ambitious project to introduce direct P2P energy trading between producers of excess solar power and consumers, along with many other fascinating and possibly game changing ideas.
Speaking as the Hackathon was in progress, Thilak Piyadigama – Chief Operating Officer of Nations Trust Bank said, “We provide young people with platforms to innovate and showcase their ideas and talent. It’s also a way to encourage competitiveness and boost productivity, when you have to deliver a functional solution in 12 hours. Traditionally, banks are quiet, conventional, full suit people, so this is a major step forward not only for us, but for the whole sector. We are setting a trend here and I’m sure other players in the sector will follow.”