Railsbank has announced leaders in the FinTech sector as partners of its annual banking innovation hackathon - this year. #OpenBankHack18 takes place in London on 23 to 25 November, 2018. To learn more and register go to https://www.railsbank.com/openbankhack18
The Austrian-based RegTech firm, kompany, joins Aprexo, a financial technology firm which specialises in investment management software as sponsors to #OpenBankHack18.
Railsbank established the annual hackathon #OpenBankHack as a 48-hour hackathon to bring together innovators to create innovative banking services using its own Open Banking API.
For #OpenBankHack18, the Railsbank and kompany technical teams are designing API hacking challenges around the theme of 'anti-fraud.' It will demonstrate how API technology can help identify rogue elements.
Railsbank CTO Adam McGreggor, kompany co-founder and CTO Peter Bainbridge-Clayton and Aprexo CTO Andy Thomas will be three of the judges.
Taking place at the University of Greenwich, London, the participants at #OpenBankHack18 form teams and collaborate with mentors (senior FinTech sector entrepreneurs and executives) to create solutions to challenges based around tackling financial crime; taking compliance manuals from the world of paper into the world of digital; and, building a challenger bank within 48 hours.
The ‘anti-fraud’ theme of this year’s hackathon fits perfectly to a RegTech firm that has made it possible to verify companies instantly online, provides audit-proof company information and ensures compliance with the EU’s 4th AMLD and MiFIDII. kompany’s leading Business KYC platform is crucial to comply with today’s regulations: “Do you know who you’re doing business with? Our Business KYC platform answers this question with the highest level of data veracity. Tackling financial crime is not easy and we’re excited to see the solutions this year’s participants will come up with” says kompany CTO Peter Bainbridge-Clayton.
Nigel Verdon, co-founder and CEO of Railsbank, added: “We started the Railsbank hackathon event last year and it was a great success, with over 100 people attending. It’s a superb opportunity for those committed to innovating in the FinTech sector and those interested in APIs to get together for a focused session and have some fun.”
Joanna Jenkins, Railsbank Head of Compliance, commented:
“Railsbank is a pioneer when it comes to tackling fraud via API innovation and the hackathon is an example of how seriously we take this issue. And it’s amazing how much we can learn from our hackathon event, as it brings in fresh eyes and a different perspective to the problems we have to face when fighting fraud.”
Event details can be found here.
About kompany
kompany provides real-time access to audit-proof commercial register data, including company filings covering more than 100 million companies in 150+ jurisdictions for customer onboarding (KYC), anti-money laundering (AML), enhanced due diligence (EDD) and ongoing compliance processes. Furthermore, kompany provides additional services such as translations of official documents, access to PEP & sanctions lists and a range of customized solutions (e.g. enhanced VAT number validation). kompany is a government clearing house for commercial registers, an official distributor of the European Business Register and local business registers worldwide.
About Peter Bainbridge-Clayton, kompany
Peter is the CTO of kompany and responsible for the tech behind the world's leading Business KYC platform. His career spans over various IT & scientific projects and includes many firsts like the world's first ever implementation of a distributed java application in a manufacturing environment, the first ever implementation of mobile-based content services and vending machine payment in telecommunications, the conversion of one of the first software-based Telecommunications Switches to European standards, including the world's first transatlantic SIP based telephone call and the complete re-design and implementation of the core system for Companies House – the UK's official company registry. Peter holds a BSc. in Astronomy, Astrophysics and Physics from St. Andrews University.
About Aprexo
Aprexo was founded in 2017 by senior fund management professionals, producing specialist software for the fund management business. Aprexo’s hub is an Investment Book of Record or ‘IBOR’ with a modular API-driven design, supporting integration with proprietary software and with applications sold by other vendors. It is hosted in Microsoft’s Azure cloud. Aprexo can help firms reduce costs while dramatically increasing the quality of the core data they hold about their clients’ investments. Unlike many investment platforms it does not dictate a particular operating model, nor does it tie firms into particular portfolio management systems, order management systems, client reporting packages, etc.
About Andy Thomas, Aprexo CTO
Andy is Aprexo’s Chief Technology Officer. He has 20 years’ experience in investment banking IT, at Bankers Trust, DrKW and Bank of America. He has worked across all areas from infrastructure through support to application development, the latter principally in derivatives and eFX. He also worked in fund management at Barclays Global Investors as the head of fund of hedge funds technology. Latterly he has held CIO positions within the National Health Service and has cultivated a strong interest in distributed ledger technologies.