NATIONWIDE SUPPORTS NEXT PHASE OF OPEN BANKING FOR GOOD WITH LONDON COLLABORATION SPACE

• Nationwide and five FinTechs working together in collaboration space in Covent Garden
• New location is being funded exclusively by Nationwide as part of its £3m commitment to the Open Banking for Good challenge
• The hub marked the beginning of the ‘Incubator’ phase of Open Banking for Good designed to build innovative apps and services to help financially vulnerable people

Nationwide Building Society has opened a collaboration space in London to support five start-ups building Open Banking-based apps and services as part of the second phase of their Open Banking for Good (OB4G) challenge.

With Nationwide experts, OB4G charities and other partners providing ongoing workshop support throughout the ‘incubator’ phase, the five FinTechs working together in the space are:

• Openwrks
• Ducit.ai
• Trezeo
• Toucan
• Tully

With space for up to twenty people, the collaboration space ensures that knowledge, experience and expertise can be shared amongst the FinTechs. The hope is that this will drive innovative ideas forward in the mutual spirit of solving real social problems.

Rachael Sinclair, Nationwide’s OB4G Programme Leader said: “Open Banking for Good is guided by Nationwide’s founding purpose; that people can achieve more together, than they can apart. By focusing on collaboration, rather than competition, the space focuses the drive for innovation, enables FinTechs, Nationwide and our charity partners to support each other to overcome barriers and build solutions that can make a positive difference to people who need our support.”

Evelina Vrabie, Chief Technical Officer & Co-Founder, Toucan, said: “Toucan is proud to be part of this amazing opportunity to foster a new level of collaboration amongst the OB4G cohort. The space is ideal for sharing expertise between the teams in all areas – including technology, business and marketing. With access to a breadth of skills and knowledge, there’s real value in the collaborative way of working that both the space, and OB4G generally, embodies.”

The space is open for the entirety of this phase of the challenge, running until the end of the year, by which time solutions would have been tried, tested and ready to roll out to a wider audience.