Up to 200 participants will be invited to Improve the Lives of Australians with data from some of the country’s most prominent financial institutions. During the hackathon, participants will have access to data within a controlled environment (‘sandbox’) to bring their ideas to life. The sandbox, provided by the Open Bank Project, contains test data, which emulate real transactions, and offers more than 130 standard banking APIs to access these data.

The hackathon - an intense marathon of ideas generation and software creation - is being driven by the Australian Payments Council which counts as its members ANZ, Bendigo, Coles, CBA, Cuscal, NAB, eftpos, Mastercard, Reserve Bank of Australia, Suncorp, Tyro Payments, and Westpac.

Mark Birrell, Chairman of the Australian Payments Council outlines the value of the hackathon: “As the digital economy takes hold and we move into an era of greater data availability, it’s important that we understand which data sets are useful for Australians. This understanding will help members of the Payments Council prioritise their work in this area, and ensure that customer needs are met.”

“Of equal importance, this collaborative event will help uncover some of the key questions relating to privacy and security that go hand-in-hand with data. Duty of care towards customers - and by extension their data - is front of mind for Council members.”

“We are delighted to be working collaboratively with a broader community of developers in a sandbox environment. This will help the payments industry identify appropriately robust settings to protect customers’ privacy and security.”

Participants are expected to come from Australia’s burgeoning fintech community as well as from established financial institutions. They will have the opportunity to work independently or in mixed teams.

The teams will have about 48 hours to develop applications that demonstrate how transactional data can improve the lives of Australians. Picking from one of two challenges, teams will be invited to:
● Improve daily life: In the words of the Productivity Commission “Data is a new resource for our economy and society”. Show us how transactional data can improve the lives of ordinary Australians!
● Improve life in unforeseen circumstances: Daily life is great until something goes wrong. Show us how transactional data can help when the unexpected happens!

The best overall application in each city will be awarded with a cash prize of $5,000. Other award categories are: Most Unorthodox Use of Data, Best Social Media Hero, Most APIs Combined, Crowd Favourite and Most Diverse Team. Participants are invited to register online by 6 August