Lancaster University students' big ideas for future of banking

The Big Ideas competition encouraged students to help transform the financial industry through innovative digital ideas with a £20,000 prize fund.

It was set up to identify transformational ideas to overcome some of the key technological issues and bring digital innovation to the financial industry.

Lancaster University students Kyaw Tun Sein, Sebastien Combret and Patrizia Carbone won £5,000 after they developed a combination of fingerprint, voice, heartbeat and SMS recognition for password authentication.

Matt Hutnell, divisional retail director at Santander Universities, said: “It’s vital that we encourage and reward entrepreneurial students to dare to challenge and innovate.

“Through Big Ideas, we asked students to create unique, forward thinking solutions with the potential to transform the sector.

“The worlds of technology and banking continue to evolve at pace, and it is vital that we engage the brightest young minds to help shape this.

“Nurturing young talent and ensuring the right support and opportunities are in place are essential to successfully fostering digital innovation that will ultimately add value by creating more choice and convenience for our customers.”

The competition, which has a £20,000 prize fund, called upon bright, creative student minds to put forward their ideas, and also offered finalists the opportunity to work closely with Santander’s Innovation team to develop prototype solutions whilst retaining ownership of their work.