Build the future of fintech for Bharat

India's First Account Aggregator Hackathon

In 2016, NPCI launched the UPI payments network which took off like a rocket ship; in May 2020, UPI was used by almost 100 million people, with a total transaction volume of ~1.25 billion (greater than American Express globally).

It is now time for the launch of the Account Aggregator (AA) framework. From this month onwards, some of the nation's biggest and most esteemed banks will go live on the AA network.

There is no better time for developers, startups, and engaged citizens to learn more about the potential of this system and to start building on top of it.

For this reason, India's first Account Aggregator Hackathon is being announced - a 4-week virtual event hosted in partnership with Devfolio.

A link to the official announcement can be found here.

Hackathon Themes

• Consent Management UI/UX: This theme deals with designing informed consent journeys for users of Account Aggregators. How can the consent flow for users be made more accessible, understandable, and secure? Can you design consent flows for low-literacy users? Feature phone users? What does a consent authorization chain look like for SMEs and enterprises? Is there a certain design language or iconography that can make the consent experience better for users?

• Security and Middleware: Once a customer's data has been shared with an FIU, how can the customer gain confidence that the data will be deleted after the consent period expires? How can it be made easier for banks and other FIUs to adopt the AA framework? Can we develop secure environments for lenders to extract insights from user data without revealing the data itself? How can consent fraud be minimized? How can interoperability and user onboarding be enhanced?

• FIU Use Cases: What useful applications can be built with a user's financial data? Personal finance managers? Expense trackers? Robo-advisors? How about tools for underwriting? Or data enrichment?

• AI/ML: Thanks to the AA framework, app developers will have a much easier time getting access to high-fidelity customer financial data (with consent, of course). How can you use this data to give value to the customer?
  Personalized expense managers and savings recommendations engines? Individualized consumer spending models? Underwriting models? What insights would you generate if you could convince users to share their spending and investment data with you?

Hackathon Format

• Hackers will form teams and begin brainstorming

• Hackers will apply to the AA Hackathon on the Devfolio website

• Selected teams will begin hacking

• There will be an online inauguration event to kick things off, with public demos and learning sessions by Account Aggregators

• Teams will have 4 weeks to work on their idea

• During the course of these 4 weeks, there will be periodic online masterclasses and mentorship sessions

• At the end of the 4 weeks, teams will present their ideas to a panel of judges

• To close the event, there will be a closing ceremony in which the winning teams make a public presentation of their projects