Samsung partners with Barclays on hackathon to develop new digital-only banking services
Hackathon encourages developers to leverage Barclay’s infrastructure and Samsung’s platform to make mobile banking easier and more secure
Samsung Electronics and Samsung SDS today announced that they are working with Barclays on a ground-breaking hackathon project to create a concept for a new digital-only bank and secure application programming interface (API). The hackathon will give developers at Barclays the opportunity to build an ecosystem of apps using Samsung’s secure container solution, KNOX, and biometric authentication solution, FIDO(Fast Identity Online), to help Barclays shape the future of mobile banking.
Taking place on July 20th at their UK technology headquarters in Cheshire, developers were selected for the hackathon from Barclays’ Mobile Banking and Pingit groups, following an internal session. The event will bring together product, technical and business experts from Barclays, Samsung and other partners to help solve the growing need for digital-only banking. The winning group’s concept will be put forward to Barclays’ senior team, with the ultimate aim of creating a viable product for market.
Samsung’s KNOX and FIDO, will be the enabling technologies for this innovation, Iin particularly, participants will be tasked with creating a new, secure platform in order to offer an improved customer user experience, including faster, easier and more secure access to online banking and new features such as offline balance transaction reports and bank statements. The winning solution will also need to help automatically enrol customers into new services, so they do not have to visit physical branches.
In addition, solutions will use Samsung’s KNOX platform to connect customers to services at all times, making banking services always available. Samsung KNOX is a suite of mobile enterprise security solutions that provides device protection, management and development options.
Speaking about the potential of the Samsung and Barclays hackathon project, Peter Josse Barclays UK Chief Information Officer said: “With more consumers banking through mobile devices, it’s vital that the industry works to develop new solutions that streamline the experience and save time in their busy lives. This hackathon will help us to consider ideas on combining Samsung’s secure platform with Barclays’ infrastructure, and I’m looking forward to seeing the innovations that could help shape the future of banking.”
Commenting on the hackathon, Samsung said: “To be involved with a hackathon that could uncover the next big FinTech product is an exciting opportunity for us. On the day, we’ll be working closely with the teams to help them take advantage of the secure features on Samsung devices. After the event, we’ll work with the winners to help make their idea a reality. With some great developer talent in the room, we’re confident that we’ll see a new product that helps make mobile banking easier for millions of consumers.”
The joint initiative will integrate Samsung’s Mobile Banking Security Solution into the winning prototype, with key features including:
- Multi-modal (fingerprint, facial recognition) biometric authentication as a step-up factor for higher risk transactions
- Mobile enrolment for new customers and accounts so they never have to go into a branch
- Leading device security (application hardening and cryptography methods) so the bank and customer can trust their smartphone to become their digital bank
Samsung will look to offer new Barclays’ customers a market-leading Android device, as part of a two-year mobile contract and bank account tie-in.
