Bankathon: The original conquers Austria as well as Central and Eastern Europe

From 29 to 31 May 2017, individual developers as well as representatives of startups and banks will dedicate themselves to the motto "PSD2 and beyond"

"The outstanding thing about the Bankathon is its independence. It symbolizes a new way of thinking in banking, which is becoming more and more emancipated from the institutional bank. At the same time, it’s a catalyst for the opening-up of banks, which, of course, is also driving the Payment Services Directive 2," explains figo CEO André M. Bajorat.

The experience of the last few years has shown that the ‘Bankathon’ platform has a strong network. It brings established players and new market participants together - and at eye level! This is not least due to the unique developer ecosystem that has grown around the Bankathon.

This network also includes the Vienna FinTech start-up IntraBase. "Last year we left the Bankathon stage as the winner, now we are co-organisers. The collaborative character, the laid-back coming together of start-ups and banks, and the innovative prototypes that are created within a short time are the reasons we wanted to bring the event concept to Austria," said Jakob Etzel of IntraBase, responsible for business development.

Bankathon Ecosystem - Developers, Developers, Developers
The participating programming geniuses show how, with their ingenuity, creativity and willingness, they can deliver concrete usability and technical implementation ideas within a very short time. The participants point out that banking in the future will be a context-oriented companion for every day and, for example, that the information content of account statements will allow for many new applications! At the Bankathon, participants, sponsors and guests can see firsthand what creative developers can build on the foundation of banking infrastructure. The results of the Bankathon can provide an enormous amount of information for product planning by banks and for technical preparation in the context of PSD2.

Bankathon CEE winner on the Pioneers stage
In order to actually be able to present the most innovative product ideas after 30 hours of competition, it will take the best! Development teams, individuals, existing startups, and also teams from banks and other financial service providers can register at www.bankathon.net. They present their results to a high-profile jury and have a chance for cash and other prizes with a total value of approximately 10,000 euros. A special incentive is that the winning team will have the opportunity to present their ideas on stage at one of Europe's largest startup event: the Pioneers Festival! Pioneers Discover invites FinTechs to the Bankathon and will have the winning team pitch their ideas at one of the biggest startup events in Europe at the Pioneers Festival 2017.

T-Mobile Austria is hosting the Bankathon CEE
To ensure that conditions are right and the participants have the best possible infrastructure at their disposal, the organization team has been able to get the perfect host: T-Mobile Austria! "For many years, T-Mobile has been supporting young companies and the startup scene and has already managed several successful cooperations. Mobile communications represents the backbone of digitization and the "Internet of Things", i.e. the networking of people, animals and things, becomes possible," says T-Mobile CEO Andreas Bierwirth.

Sponsors & supporters of the Bankathon
The organisation team has already been able to win prestigious sponsors who are equally enthusiastic about the idea of an innovative atmosphere in the context of the Bankathon: Erste Bank, BAWAG, Raiffeisen Bank International, UniCredit and KI Finance. In addition, the Austrian banking association, STUZZA, CEE-FINTECH, Pioneers Discover and T-Mobile Austria support the Bankathon CEE. Gini, co-founder of the Bankathon, is also present this time and makes its API available as well as Seon and TeleTrader.

Event location
The T-Center in the urban development area of Neu Marx is an office building nearly unequaled in international architecture. The headquarters of T-Mobile Austria was designed by Günther Domenig, Günther Domenig, Herman Eisenköck, and Herfried Peyker, and marks Vienna's gateway to the east. It is located in the third district of Vienna and with its futuristic appearance offers start-ups and companies a place of inspiration and exchange.