A regional competition stimulates the development of applications for banks

According to the latest report of Mobile Banking of South America by the consulting company TBI Unit, 96 percent of banks in the region allow to operate through mobile devices. Against this background and the continued growth of users connecting to their banks through various mobile devices, the Citi Bank made its first Citi Mobile Latam Challenge 2014, an online competition open to programmers around the world who have the opportunity to create applications for the banking sector in Latin America.

According to Jorge Ruiz, head of digital banking for Citi Latin America, mobile financial solutions must integrate digital and mobile lives of customers to your finances. “I think it’s time to have an application only to see your balances and make some transactions is past. That is why, we work with developers to allow us add more solutions you already have. The idea of this event was to bring together the needs of our customers, so developers can do, and our platform”, he summarizes.

In this first edition nearly 160 contestants from 19 countries were presented. Of these 45 projects were selected. Nineteen of them showed their demos on Saturday in Buenos Aires, while the remaining 26 will have the opportunity to present their developments on Saturday in Bogota. You could compete in two categories: innovative mobile solutions and mobile solutions B2B. To participate in stakeholder competition received toolkits and API Citi Mobile Banking brand guidelines on which to develop their applications and solutions. The finalists, who will be announced on 13 June, will receive $ 30,000 per category, amount to be divided among the winners.

“Last year, BBVA Banco Frances became the first bank in the world to open their data, and work with them on this project. Citi Today is opening its functionality, is allowing a person to operate against the bank through APIs. Though they are two separate projects both are examples of openness, companies recognize that the best way to innovate is to partner with entrepreneurs, rather than compete with them”, says Guibert Englebienne, cofounder and CTO of Globant company participated along with Citi and Wayra, in organizing the event.

“The reason we have not gotten there yet is because banks have not advanced at the speed that we have done so us, creating this kind of environment, we want to promote it. Want there more digitization in financial markets and banks is more efficient in the mobile services we offer to our customers. Much confidence I have time in the day demos innovative solutions in the short term, we can provide our customers arise”, says Ruiz.

WHAT DEVELOPERS SAY

Jaren Miller was born in Boston, USA, but lives in Peru, a country where his wife was born. He traveled from there to be part of this event and has high expectations in the competition. The application presented is called Psychometric Miller Credit Score. What he proposes is that potential customers respond to a questionnaire with simple questions, like if you like fast cars or if they believe that success depends on luck. On the basis of the replies is a profile of the person which is related to the probability that pay their loans or not.

“In Latin America there are many individuals who have no credit history or work informally and have no access to the formal financial system. Through these questions we do not observe people so they have if not for what they are. Then Supplied profile basis to decide whether the bank granting the loan or not”, says the executive of EFL.

Yamila Fraiman, Alejandro Torrado and Jared Miller participated in the contest.
Carlos is a Brazilian Viceconti around 70 years, a native of Brazil. Not reveal his age: ensures that no matter the years because it is considered an innovative “heart”. It is CEO DigiSing and came from Brazil to present a technology that supports CloudCard applications. “A smart card is a set of cryptographic keys to authenticate transactions. Our technology allows the same cryptographic keys in a secure server in the cloud. That’s cheaper for companies and the user is not at risk of losing cards or that they are stolen”, he explains.

The user should enter a password from your mobile and that’s the only data equipment identification (IDI) will allow the server to access their virtual cards. “If the user lost or stolen mobile can call the call center and change the IDI access to another cell, because the keys are secure on this server”, he says.

Not the first time Yamila Fraiman and Alejandro Torrado (24 years) participating in contests applications. Last year Yamila took first place in Buenos Aires Apps, EstacionApp with your application. And in January this year, both Yamila as Alexander became known with the implementation Precios OK, so that consumers are not confused and can buy the products included within Prices Care.

“Today we are presenting Predictive deals or a predictive benefit, which is more than an application, is an indoor geolocator that detects when a user enters a room, exactly as it crosses the net. Given this information, the bank can tell your customer if you have a trade off you just entered before making the purchase. It is important because many times that has happened to me after paying with a card I realize I was off with the other”, explains Torrado.

“But this is just one of many that utility can provide this technology. Such location will generate a consumer profile for a bank and is very valuable information. Thanks to her bank could offer targeted benefits, generate a profile scoring and have, for example, a broader credit profile. It is a new technology that has many associated applications”, adds Freiman.