Winners of the 2019 Financial Innovation Program

gráfico REM agosto

November 12, 2019. The closing ceremony of the 4th edition of the Financial Innovation Program (PIF, in Spanish) took place today, with more than 200 attendees. The PIF sought to promote financial inclusion by encouraging high-quality projects drawing upon the joint work of the public and private sectors. This PIF edition was jointly organized by the BCRA and the National Securities Commission (CNV).

Attendees from the financial, technology and entrepreneurship areas met to listen to the 10 selected nominations. First-rate speakers talked about digital transformation in financial services and emerging technologies such as the internet of things, robotics, and machine learning.

“With firm belief, the BCRA fosters competitiveness in the financial system and transparency in information”, said board member Enrique Szewach, who moderated the panel “The challenges of digital transformation in financial services”. In turn, Nicolás Gadano, General Manager, alluded to the measures adopted by the BCRA during the last few years in order to support technology-based financial inclusion.

Mara Misto Macías, Information Security Standards for Financial Institutions Senior Manager, moderated the panel on emerging technologies. Towards the end of the meeting, Gonzalo Arzuaga shared his experience as entrepreneur and founder of GauchoNet (20 years ago), and Terrífico Capital (at present), a fund that invests in cryptocurrencies.

The jury was composed of Alejo Macaya (BCRA), Iván Novakovich (National Securities Commission), Lorena Suárez (Grupo Supervielle), Hanna Schiuma (Prack Asset Management) and Mariano Biocca (Argentine Chamber of Fintech). After assessing the creativity, quality, feasibility, and public impact of the projects, they chose three winners:

First prize: ARS125,000

Wibond: Corporate electronic wallets that allow companies to save administrative and financing fees. Topic: Market Infrastructure.

Second prize: ARS90,000

SKERE: A learning and savings tool for children to acquire the habit of saving through a mobile phone app, which revisits old-fashioned passbooks. Topic: Financial Education.

Third prize: ARS55,000

JOTA: Adjusted viewing and layout of online banking platforms that enable users/clients to do their financial planning by “sorting out” expenses in files and subfiles. Topic: Mobile & Online Banking.

The Financial Innovation Program was launched in May and gathered more than 70 participants with innovative ideas intended to achieve a more accessible financial system and capital market. As a sign of the federal spirit of the PIF, officers from the BCRA and the CNV gave talks in Neuquén, Córdoba and Rosario to entrepreneurs, students, banks, accelerators and startups in order to gain more participation in new areas based on the following lines of work:

  • Businesses Other than Banks | Development of services offered by businesses other than banks using technology.
  • Mobile & Online Banking | Improvement of users’ experience in mobile and online banking through technology.
  • Digital Validation | Use biometric identification to validate bank and capital market transactions.
  • Financial Education | Technology to develop interactive contents in order to bring people close to such financial concepts as bank and capital market issues.
  • Regtech | Apply technology to comply with the regulations issued by the BCRA and the CNV.
  • Market Infrastructure | Apply technology to achieve a more efficient financial system and/or capital market infrastructure.

Other finalist projects

IntegrAR: A platform that allows individuals, entrepreneurs and companies to upload their profiles and then send a request for a product or financial service to the market. Providers may receive this request and assess the client through the web or app. Topic: Businesses Other than Banks.

BANCAR Open Banking: It establishes a standard of communication among banks, the BCRA and developers in order to design apps focused on financial services, bank collection and bank information access. Topic: Businesses Other than Banks.

Women in the race: An online learning platform intended to bring women and girls closer to financial and economic matters. Learning modules are based on the theoretical framework of micro learning philosophy as well as quick, effective and straightforward access to content. Topic: Financial Education.

Invera: A platform that provides low-cost automated advisory services for retail investors for the first time. Topic: Market Infrastructure.

Starkus: A platform that allows sports clubs to draw on their members to get their projects off the ground by issuing stablecoins. Topic: Market Infrastructure.

LA POM: A platform that allows bank clients to move their financial products to any other institution in no more than 72 hours, thus fostering competition and the development of new financial services. Topic: Mobile & Online Banking.

Digiventures: Marketplace for financial services. A platform that provides onboarding and scoring services to financial institutions at competitive cost. In addition, it provides financial education for users. Topic: Digital Validation.

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