JS Bank holds hackathon

KARACHI: JS Bank partnered with Pakistani tech startup Remotebase to hold the country’s biggest virtual Hackathon as an Open Banking Ecosystem initiative.

JS Bank was the platinum sponsor for this two-day event, which was co-hosted by Ejad Labs, with a prize pool of over Rs2,500,000, along with prizes such as FAANG mentorships, iPhones, and MacBooks. Other than the prizes, there were multiple award categories such as Best Designed Project, Most Functional Project, Best Written Code, Audiences’ Choice, and Investors’ Award. Partakers coded, deployed, and pitched their ideas to judges, speakers, and venture capitalists from all over the world.

JS Bank Chief Digital Officer Noman Azhar said, “Remotebase Hackfest built a stage to look at digital challenges and learn from them, to explore advancement of technology that encourages digital revolution, and to transform the future of banking, all while promoting entrepreneurship. JS Bank looks forward to supporting these efforts and driving success-based initiatives.”

Remotebase CEO Qasim Asad Salam said, “This collaboration between JS Bank and Remotebase, through Hackfest, will help inspire the best tech talent by giving them a chance to unlock innovative business models. The future is all about digitalisation and building a technology-driven society.”

Pakistan’s growing interest in fintech was visible with 50 teams and over 3,000 registrations for Hackfest. Team FX Flutter and Team Ghar Pe bagged victory in the JS Bank’s fintech challenge. The overall winners of the Hackfest were Team KDSP Live, Team One Place, and Team Talkit achieving the first, second, and third positions respectively.

JS Bank is striving to inculcate a digital first approach in the banking industry with the primary goal to deliver a pioneering customer experience backed by technology and empowering a tech-driven culture.