Citi Mobile Challenge Looks to Ramp Up Financial Technology Development

It’s not hard to look around and see a host of developments in the financial technology (FinTech) sector.

Everything from mobile wallets to e-commerce platforms to biometric security and beyond has a dog in this particular fight, and with plenty of cash at stake, there will be many more such developments to come.

Fueling these developments, meanwhile, are events like the Citi Mobile Challenge. Staged in conjunction with IBM, the Citi Mobile Challenge will offer up plenty of incentive for future development.

The Citi Mobile Challenge is now entering its second year, starting in Latin America before making its way to the United States. Citi has worked with over 165,000 developers in 62 countries on six different continents, making the Citi Mobile Challenge a truly global event.

Indeed, with the recent start of this round, Citi also announced that the Citi Mobile Challenge would be even more global, with events to be launched in Africa, Europe, and the Middle East. Registration for the latest round has recently opened, and there will be a series of demonstrations for selected products starting in April, as competitors demonstrate in Nairobi on April 22, followed by Jerusalem on April 26, Warsaw two days later, and finally, London on April 30.

It’s not a competition, of course, without prizes, and there will certainly be plenty of those on hand here. There’s not only a share of $100,000 in cash prizes, but also an array of services from Citi Mobile Challenge sponsors and the opportunity to go into wider production with the winning services backed up by Citi. Even IBM will throw in on this, offering up a “Most Innovative Use of Bluemix” award for the app that puts the best use of IBM’s Bluemix development platform to work, which will be what most of these apps will be putting to work.

Citi’s Heather Cox, who serves as chief of client experience, digital and marketing officer for Global Consumer Banking, offered up some comment on the competition, saying “IBM’s recognition that the Citi Mobile Challenge is fostering the development of the next generation of FinTech solutions serves as great validation of our efforts to accelerate and lead digital innovation. More importantly, the platform of development tools IBM will make available to Challenge participants will go a long way towards helping them turn their creative ideas into innovative realities.”

This is an excellent combination of factors; not only is Citi and IBM pulling together some of the best minds in development, but said minds are also getting a shot to bring out some great new FinTech advancements.