Other Finalists are from Levvel, South State Bank, and TIAA. 13 teams submitted 17 applications that leverage the RTP® network‘s faster payments capabilities.

New York, June 25, 2019 — A combined team from Fifth Third Bank and AvidXchange was named the Overall Winner of the RTP^® Buildathon for its Business-to-Business solution that enhances the digitization, transparency, and automation of B2B payments, leveraging the real-time payments and enhanced messaging capabilities inherent in the RTP network from The Clearing House (TCH).

The first ever RTP Buildathon was sponsored by the Carolina Fintech Hub, Oracle, Yodlee, and TCH and saw 13 team submit 17 solutions. The teams competed in the following categories: Best Consumer Solution, Best B2B Solution, Enabling the Next Digitally Native Business, and Back-Office Improvement.

The RTP Buildathon was the first development challenge leveraging the RTP network‘s additional features and characteristics that make it the perfect candidate for a buildathon designed to develop innovative products and services for depository institutions and their customers.

“TCH felt the buildathon would be a good way to highlight the flexibility of the RTP network in addressing many use cases across the industry,” said Peter Davey, Vice President of Product Innovation at TCH. “The buildathon allows this new set of tools to be utilized by a more diverse audience of users who will help develop the next generation of capabilities that will run on the RTP network.”

“The Carolina Fintech Hub wanted to provide a solutions-based experience at the enterprise level,” said Patrick Rivenbark, Chief Operation Officer at the Carolina Fintech Hub. “We work with some of the largest financial institutions and many fintechs. They really want to focus on solving problems and the RTP Buildathon provided an opportunity to apply new technology to the payments experience with a challenge that would be exciting for all of our partners.“

The winners for the RTP Buildathon are:

Overall Winner: AvidXchange and Fifth Third Bank (Best B2B Solution)

• Team Name: 167% Xcelerated RTP
• Team Members: Bhavana Prathipati, Wes DeBord, Karen Craig, Dan Broadway, and Meghan Childrens
  The submission from AvidXchange and Fifth Third Bank enhanced the accounts receivable/accounts payable automation with supplier alerts to provide discounts to buyers, real-time funds availability inquiry capabilities, immediate supplier payments, and full payments transparency between the parties.
   
  “We worked collaboratively with Fifth Third Bank for the buildathon because it was an excellent opportunity to tap into our existing partnership to deliver a new, innovative real time payments solution that addresses the needs of the B2B market,” said Denise Leleux, Senior Vice President of Supplier Services at AvidXchange. “Rather than viewing banks as competitors, we see them as valuable strategic partners, and working together on this project is a real example of the benefits that can be realized when both sides lend their expertise and resources.”

Visionary Award: South State Bank (Enabling the Next Digitally Native Business)

• Team Name: Plutus

• Team Member: Kunal Das
  The submission from South State Bank focused on creating a platform to monitor and manage payments to bridge a gap in utilization of Internet of Things (IoT) devices. The Plutus prototype augmented services provided by IoT devices like autonomous vehicles or drones with functionality that could manage, measure, request, and send payments to a fleet of IoT devices at scale.

“South State Bank is consistently focused on offering customers the right combination of high-touch service and high-tech capabilities,” said Kunal Das, Senior Vice President/Enterprise Architect, South State Bank. “The RTP Buildathon was a great opportunity for us to experiment with the real time payment APIs and to build a proof-of-concept application to showcase what we believe is synergy between RTP combined with IOT [Internet of Things] and its potential at scale.”

2019 Buildathon Finalist: TIAA (Best Consumer Solution)

• Team Name: Team Frictionless
• Team Members: John Frei, Murali Reddy, and Srinivas Kris
  The submission from TIAA built a real-time cryptocurrency exchange the combines the RTP Network, smart contracts, and a Stellar Blockchain network to provide fast, convenient, and low-cost international payments.

“The buildathon was great way for our team to exercise our creative muscles,” said John Frei, Senior Manager and Lead Program Manager at TIAA. “Our idea is focused on removing friction, fees and delays with international transfers.  Being named a finalist is a great honor and shows how innovative our people are.”

2019 Buildathon Finalist: Levvel (Back-Office Improvement)

• Team Name: The Levvel is in the Details
• Team Members: Mary Meade, Jim Boone, Sonny Werghis, and Lallu Luke
  The submission from Levvel provides businesses with a notification service that will send RTP message information directly to their corporate ERP application. This solution enables real-time visibility into cash positions and reduces manual reconciliation efforts.

"RTP holds the promise of significant benefits to businesses in improved visibility of cash position and automation of back-end financial operations,” said Sonny Werghis, Senior Consulting Architect at Levvel. “The buildathon provided Levvel an opportunity to highlight these benefits. We focused on demonstrating how RTP can have real impact on operational efficiency and cost reduction, using real-time invoice reconciliation as an example.”

What is the RTP Network?
The RTP network is the first new core payments infrastructure built in the U.S. in more than 40 years. The system is the first to deliver 24/7 clearing and interbank settlement, including the real-time movement of money and enriched data between participating financial institutions. The RTP network addresses a suite of available use cases and offers an extensive level of data that can accompany each RTP transaction. The RTP network currently reaches more than 50% of U.S. accounts for real-time payment receipt and is on track to reach near ubiquity in 2020.

About Carolina Fintech Hub

FirstBank began providing banking services in Colorado in 1963. Today, the bank maintains more than $19 billion in assets and operates more than 115 branch The Carolina Fintech Hub is a non-profit organization focused on advancing fintech and insurtech in the Carolina Region. Carolina Fintech creates programs and organizes the region’s efforts to promote innovation, talent, and lead the next wave of advancement in financial services. The Carolina Fintech Hub amplifies the tremendous growth of the ecosystem, empowers entrepreneurs, and makes the Carolinas the global fintech (and insurtech) destination.

About The Clearing House

Since its founding in 1853, The Clearing House has delivered safe and reliable payments systems, facilitated bank-led payments innovation, and provided thought leadership on strategic payments issues. The Clearing House continues to leverage its unique capabilities to support bank-led innovation, including launching the RTP^® network, a real-time payment system that modernizes core payments capabilities for all federally-insured U.S. depository institutions. The Clearing House is the only private-sector ACH and wire operator in the United States, clearing and settling nearly $2 trillion in U.S. dollar payments each day, representing half of all commercial ACH and wire volume. As the country’s oldest banking trade association, The Clearing House also provides informed advocacy and thought leadership on critical payments-related issues facing financial institutions today. The Clearing House is owned by 24 financial institutions and supports hundreds of banks and credit unions through its core systems and related services. Learn more at www.theclearinghouse.org.

 

Contact:

Greg MacSweeney

The Clearing House

212.612.9282

gregory.macsweeney@theclearinghouse.org