Press Release
FIS Coders Compete Worldwide to Develop Newest FinTech Innovations
October 05, 2016
Key fact
- FIS Hackathon, a worldwide coding competition for FIS IT experts to develop financial innovations, hosted its final round of competition in Singapore, Sept. 20-22.
- The 2016 competition challenge was to use blockchain technology to improve financial settlement, trading, clearing or payment against delivery.
- Foo-Tomatons, a team from Alabama, won the competition with a solution that leveraged blockchain techniques with four different types of computer protocols that enforce or facilitate contracts.
- Nearly 240 teams from more than 20 countries took part in this annual FIS competition.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla., Oct. 5, 2016 – Creating the future of financial technology isn’t just a challenge – it’s the goal behind FIS’ annual Hackathon competition. FIS™ (NYSE: FIS), a global leader in financial services technology, hosted the final of its Hackathon 2016, a worldwide coding competition between FIS technologists, last week in Singapore with 13 finalist teams competing against each other for 48-hours, non-stop. Their goal was to develop the best use of blockchain technology to handle “smart contracts” – computer protocols that enforce or facilitate contracts.
Foo-Tomatons, a team from Birmingham, Ala., was named the competition winner for developing a solution that leveraged blockchain techniques with four different types of smart contracts. Judges were impressed by the team’s use of many open-source and other frameworks to facilitate implementation of their solution, and that their innovation has immediate practicality. Remarkably, Foo-Tomatons also won the competition in 2014.
“Change in the financial industry is happening at an ever faster pace. To keep up, everyone must find smarter, more efficient ways to deliver more to clients and customers,” said Troy Bradley, chief technology officer, FIS. “That means using technology and innovation to develop smarter, faster, more efficient ways of empowering the financial world. This year’s Hackathon pushed participants to do exactly that.”
Sponsored by Intel Corporation and Microsoft, FIS Hackathon 2016 was judged by IT and security experts from Intel and Microsoft, as well as ANZ Singapore, Bangkok Bank, eftpos, Hewlett Packard and Standard Chartered Bank.
“It was incredibly exciting to see how intensely these teams worked to complete their challenges,” said Dejan Kusalovic, marketing director, Intel Corporation. “Powered by the will to create the future of financial technology – and often a lot of pizza – the commitment they showed to developing their individual ideas was remarkable. Congratulations to everyone who took part!”
Nearly 240 teams, involving over 1,000 IT experts from more than 20 different countries, competed in FIS Hackathon 2016, which took place over three rounds of competition between June and September. Teams were challenged to demonstrate a product or service for FIS that used blockchain technology to perform a function of settlement, trading clearing or payment against delivery.
About FIS
FIS is a global leader in financial services technology, with a focus on retail and institutional banking, payments, asset and wealth management, risk and compliance, consulting, and outsourcing solutions. Through the depth and breadth of our solutions portfolio, global capabilities and domain expertise, FIS serves more than 20,000 clients in over 130 countries. Headquartered in Jacksonville, Fla., FIS employs more than 55,000 people worldwide and holds leadership positions in payment processing, financial software and banking solutions. Providing software, services and outsourcing of the technology that empowers the financial world, FIS is a Fortune 500 company and is a member of Standard & Poor’s 500® Index. For more information about FIS, visit www.fisglobal.com.
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