The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has launched a global hackathon aimed at developing tools to prevent financial fraud.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has launched its third global hackathon, "HaRBInger 2024 – Innovation for Transformation," aiming to develop technology-based solutions to combat financial fraud. The hackathon focuses on two main themes: "Zero Financial Frauds" and "Being Divyang Friendly." The RBI is inviting applications for developing prototypes that can predict, detect, and prevent financial fraud in real-time using alternate data sources, including publicly available information. Another challenge involves creating a tool to ensure transaction anonymity in Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) transactions while maintaining the integrity of the financial system. Additionally, there is a problem statement focused on creating a technology-based solution to identify mule bank accounts and payment wallets.

Under the "Being Divyang Friendly" theme, the sole problem statement is the development of tools to help the visually impaired accurately identify banknotes. The RBI has set a prize of INR 40 lakh for winners of each problem statement and a special INR 20 lakh cash prize for the best all-women team across all categories. Shortlisted teams will receive a stipend of INR 5 lakh to cover prototype development costs.

Participants will have the opportunity to be mentored by industry experts and present their solutions to a distinguished jury. This hackathon coincides with the RBI's announcement of a new digital payments intelligence platform aimed at combating online financial fraud through network-level intelligence and real-time data sharing. This initiative follows a significant rise in online fraud cases in India, which surged by 334% year-on-year to 29,082 cases in the financial year 2023-24, with the total amount involved increasing to INR 1,457 crore from INR 227 crore the previous year. The RBI’s efforts are part of a broader strategy to address the increasing online fraud, in collaboration with fintech startups and law enforcement agencies.