Lloyds Banking Group has teamed up with the School of Computing Science at Newcastle University to challenge student coders to develop applications that encourage young people to become more engaged with banking.
The Schoolruns a Software Engineering Team Project module, and as part of this, Lloyds Banking Group’s Digital Innovation Team set the project brief for students.
The brief asked students to come up with an application idea that catches the attention of young people and helps them engage with products such as current accounts, credit cards and savings accounts. In addition, they were tasked with helping young banking users to invest their money wisely and test whether introducing games into banking apps might also help engagement.
One project came up with the idea of using an avatar (savings advisor) and pet (banking companion) to the app to demonstrate the value of savings and investments. By paying for food to feed the pet and keep it happy the user is rewarded through a points multiplier that unlocks in-app rewards.
Another linked the banking application with an indivdual's Google account so that they can benefit from the Android platform's gaming and social interaction features.
Marc Lien, innovation & digital development director at Lloyds comments: “It is great that we have been able to partner with Newcastle University to set the brief for this innovative project. We are looking forward to seeing the solutions that the students come up with to help engage the next generation in everyday banking and money management.”