Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) today announced the winners of the Anti-Money Laundering/Counter Financing of Terrorism Hackathon 2023. The Hackathon, which was launched in April 2023, has attracted over 660 participants from 140 teams, representing more than 20 countries from the Asia-Pacific region. Participants comprising regulatory bodies, law enforcement agencies, financial institutions, private entities and undergraduate students competed to develop prototypes of innovative digital tools to combat financial crimes. During the Hackathon, workshops coupled with mentoring sessions by 30 technology and AML/CFT experts were conducted to guide, equip and motivate the participants.
The winners of AML/CFT Hackathon 2023 are:
| Public Sector | Private Sector | Open Category | |
| Champion | Verifier (Australia) | RMATES (Malaysia) | KoderX (Singapore) |
| 1st runner-up | CBI India (India) | The Interns (Malaysia) | H7N (Brazil) |
| 2nd runner-up | TrackAML (Indonesia) | Currypuff (Malaysia) | MATA (Malaysia) |
The champions for each category received cash prizes of USD5,000. They will also have the opportunity to present their winning prototype to the heads of delegates of Financial Intelligence Units at the upcoming Financial Intelligence Consultative Group (FICG[1]) meeting in July.
The winning prototypes stood out for their creativity. Verifier FIX by Verifier is a platform that allows banks to exchange insights about their customer’s level of financial crime risks, while preserving privacy. OmniQuest by RMATES observes patterns and anomalies from the digital footprint of mobile devices, to detect suspicious activities such as irregular timing and locations of transactions on a real-time basis. SentinelGuard by KoderX aims to reduce malware and impersonation attacks, by streamlining communication services between banks and end-users, leveraging on an end-to-end encryption mechanism platform. The judges comprised industry experts from Malaysia, Australia, Indonesia, New Zealand and the United States.
Bank Negara Malaysia Deputy Governor Dato’ Marzunisham Omar said, “The winners’ prototypes illustrate that we can indeed outsmart financial crimes with innovative solutions. The important task ahead is to convert these prototypes into real digital tools. I call on financial institutions and regulatory bodies, as well as law enforcement agencies, to explore these digital tools, so that together we can effectively combat financial crimes.”
BNM congratulates the winners and thanks all the stakeholders, including the judges, mentors and participants for their commitment and collaborative efforts in making the event a success. A recording of the closing event is available on the AML Hackathon 2023 Facebook page at facebook.com/amlhackathon.
Winners of AML/CFT Hackathon 2023 with Assistant Governor Abd. Rahman Abu Bakar (standing seventh from right).
SOURCE: Bank Negara Malaysia
