Emirates NBD, a prominent banking Group in the area, today announced the winners of its Group Fintech Challenge 2016. Released in February this year in collaboration with the Berlin-based Open Bank Project, the Emirates NBD Global Innovation Program is thought about an initially by a Bank from Middle East.

The Challenge invited Fintech specialists, start-ups and specific developers/ innovators from across the globe to provide their concept on financial innovation and the winners selected by the senior management of Emirates NBD and Emirates Islamic were:

First Prize: Atsora Team
Second Prize: The Fluid Motion Team
Third Prize: The vLendRight Team
Technology Prizes: Kuan Inc. and Cargochain
Social Media Prize: @Sudkes from vLendRight team

Abdulla Qassem, Group Chief Operating Officer at Emirates NBD said: "Emirates NBD is extremely pleased to host an international competition aimed at fostering entrepreneurial solutions within the Fintech sector. A platform of this caliber is a very first for a bank from the Middle East and we continue to be dedicated to promoting innovation in the banking sector. The concepts that we have actually received from these start-ups have us convinced that development is eventually the key to sustainability.".

Likewise speaking on the announcement, Suvo Sarkar, Senior Executive Vice President and Group Head of Retail Banking and Wealth Management stated: "Technology is continuously developing and Emirates NBD aims to stay at the forefront of it. The ultimate goal for us, however, is to take advantage of emerging patterns such as Biometrics, Artificial Intelligence and more to grow exactly what has constantly been the Bank's biggest stamina: delivering superior client experience,".

During the course of the challenge, an international roadshow was held in 8 nations and over 200 applications were gotten from a total of 89 cities in 36 countries globally. 35 of the applications were from revenue-generating start-ups and 57 had prototypes. The global outreach was supported by 10 media partners.

After a preliminary ballot session, 20 finalists were welcomed to London to take part in a three-day hackathon to more develop their product and get mentoring from business, design, technology and interaction experts. Concluding with discussions of a prototype and demo on the final day, the winning innovators were revealed. They were awarded 20,000 Euros, 12,500 Euros and 10,000 Euros for initially, 2nd and third rewards respectively.

The Group Fintech Challenge represents the very first initiative of Emirates NBD's Global Innovation Program. This year, the competition focused around 5 pertinent obstacles: customer acquisition & on-boarding, loyalty & engagement, SME banking, banking in the age of Blockchain/ Biometrics/ Iot and Islamic Banking.