Beirut, November 30, 2018
In its constant seek to develop innovation and contribute to an increasingly modern economy, Bank Audi organised a “Beyond Banking Hackathon” aiming at promoting the future of Lebanon’s Fintech and banking sectors.
This initiative, which saw the light in the context of the Bank’s participation in the Seedstars MENA Regional Summit held at Antwork’s offices in Beirut from November 27 till 29, consisted in a series of workshops including brainstorming sessions, business plan development and basic prototype creation. Like every year, the summit united winners of Seedstars’ local events from around the region with international corporates, government entities, investors and leading stakeholders.
Challenges raised by Bank Audi during the Hackathon focused on reinventing the Digital Banking user experience, creating a personal touch in banking, imagining the banking e-advisor, and rethinking customers’ lending, saving and transacting journeys. Demos, presentations, workshops and simulations made them even more interesting, leading like-minded individuals from developers, marketers, designers and business developers, to collaborate outside of their daily networks and pitch innovative solutions.
“Bank Audi launched the “Beyond Banking Hackathon” as part of its continuous efforts to support the startup ecosystem in Lebanon and encourage young talent. Behind it is the Bank’s solid belief in entrepreneurs, in their competences, in their capability to take up engaging challenges, and in their crucial contribution to innovation in banking”, said Marc Audi, General Manager Lebanon – Bank Audi sal.
Gebran Gebran, Head of Customer Experience at the Bank, added: “On top of Bank Audi’s in-depth banking experience, we provided open banking Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) in this event to give participants the chance to have hands on experience on the banking services and facilitate the development of minimum viable products.”
Marc Audi offered the Hackaton’s winning team, “Go Ahead” (composed of Wael Khattar, Antoine Maalouf, Hiba Hamieh, Lama Shatila and Adnan El Kawass), who got the chance to present its solution to over 300 attendees at the Summit, a USD 5,000 cash prize courtesy of Bank Audi.
With this new forward-looking initiative, Bank Audi once again confirms its undisputed penchant for innovation and superior experiential education.