Leveling the AI Readiness Playing Field: API Innovation Hackathon

The 2024 API Innovation Hackathon, part of the annual SupTech Week organised by Digital Transformation Solutions through the Cambridge SupTech Lab, ran virtually from December 2 to December 13, 2024 with:
- 104 Participants
- 18 Registered teams
- 16 Countries represented
- 20 Mentors
- 3 Awarded teams

The hackathon focused on developing a cutting-edge API builder for financial supervision, leveraging open standards and tools to revolutionise regulatory frameworks. The goal was to create efficient, adaptable, and future-ready solutions that enhance financial authorities’ ability to manage data and intelligence flows.

Background

Financial authorities around the globe are starting to leverage next-generation suptech – including GenAI – for interactive chatbots, dynamic risk management systems, and other advanced suptech applications. Despite advancements in analytics through AI and Machine-Learning, many financial authorities are limited in the aggregate data they receive through compliance filings. Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) facilitate the automated ingestion and validation of granular data, ensuring clean data is in place and allowing everyone to harness benefits in the form of actionable and trustworthy results. Currently, financial authorities are required to provide comprehensive funding for the development and design of APIs, starting from scratch for each use case. The adoption of API standards, enabling tools and open source software can play a critical role in driving inclusive growth, fostering competition and innovation, and enhancing financial inclusion

Solution

Schema
Streamlining the development of data standards, utilising tools such as FINOS’s Morphir, OS-C, and Legend.

Builder
Crafting API documentation and libraries with tools like Swagger’s open-source editor and the Open API Specification.

Intelligence
Demonstrating how unified APIs can drive deeper and more efficient analysis, powered by the GovSpace Data Gymnasium www.govspace.io.

Access the Solutions Showcase: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0eVhlr-ZJM&list=PL9lvJiV1f-gZ789IV39E7ty9YkJ907AJ3&index=32

Watch the Awards Ceremony: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=es_IgB9M52c&list=PL9lvJiV1f-gZ789IV39E7ty9YkJ907AJ3&index=39

Awards

Best data schema design
Recognises the team with the most effective approach to data standards and schema development. Team BOT – For seamlessly integrating financial and environmental risk data, enabling smarter, more resilient financial decision-making.

Best API builder
Awarded to the team with the most innovative, saleable and functional API solution. Team AI-Phalanx – For building APIs and dashboards to track progress on climate finance indicators, integrating IMF climate finance data, and defining API schemas per Open API standards.

Best use of open standards
Honours the team that best utilises open standards and tools to enhance their API solution. Team SupTech Newbies – For creating tools to detect and prevent mis-selling practices, protecting consumers and supporting financial system integrity.

People’s choice award
Voted on by participants and mentors, this award recognises the most popular solution.

Judging Criteria

Innovation and creativity
Novelty and uniqueness of the data schema, API builder, and intelligence solutions.

Practicality and usability
Ease of use and practical application in suptech environments at financial authorities.

Harmonisation with other stakeholders
Consideration for cost and time efficiencies for regulatory compliance and regtech integrations within supervised entities.

Impact and scalability
Potential impact on financial supervision and scalability of the solution, including incorporation of machine-readable regulation.

Technical excellence
Adherence to open standards and use of open tools.

Participation

Participants brought a wide range of expertise, including data engineers, database architects, product developers, data visualisation designers, data scientists, data analysts, and business analysts. The event welcomed teams from 16 countries, showcasing a truly global reach: Canada, Egypt, Germany, Ghana, Greece, India, Japan, Kenya, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Sudan, Uganda, United Kingdom, United States of America.