Fintech powerhouse SunGard is sharing the results of a two-day corporate hackathon which saw 103 teams in 17 cities around the world compete to develop innovative new financial service apps.
The initiative was sponsored by SunGard CTO, Steven Silberstein, who previously helped build high-tech exchange Chi-X Global.
"SunGard's first global hackathon is one of the company's initiatives aiming to develop the most advanced technology with the best user-experience for our products and services, many of which support mission critical activities across the financial ecosystem," he says.
To participate SunGard's developers chose from a list of themes that ranged from new visualsation models to the next breakthrough in predictive analytics.
"Geek is cool, but the glamour tends to be in start-ups and consumer technology," says Silberstein. "These are creative times for FinTech and the key to success is to have the brightest and most enthusiastic minds who understand the impact of the work they do."
Up to 425 SunGard employees signed up to the challenge, which saw a range of innovative applications come to fruition.
In Oxford, the winners developed a new visualisation for credit risk data. A team from Tunis scored highly with a system that locks a computer whenever the user moves three metres away from it. Coders in Bangalore created an algorithmic trading tool that took its cues from analysis of high volume streaming data. In the US, a team from Birmingham Alabama developed a corporate action risk app which ranked events according to their risk profile.
Silberstein says: "We gave the winners small prizes that demonstrate technical innovation to carry the mindset forward beyond the Hackathon. We are certainly looking forward to an even more exciting Hackathon 2014."