Nationwide Building Society has selected seven FinTechs to take part in its Open Banking for Good challenge, developing apps and services to help financially vulnerable people.

The companies have been chosen from more than 50 applicants and are divided among three categories; income and expenditure: Openwrks and Ducit.ai; income smoothing: Trezeo and Flow; and money management: Toucan, Squad and Tully

The challenge is supported by a £3 million fund from Nationwide. The startups will also be able to draw upon expertise from the building society, alongside the Money Advice Trust, Citizens Advice, The Money Charity, Money and Mental Health Policy Institute, Accenture, Doteveryone and Nesta.

The programme consists of two paths. The first is ‘Explore and Develop’, which lasts three months and provides the space for applicants and partners to ideate around the challenge before using this insight to develop solutions.

The second, ‘Accelerator’, is six months long and is designed to develop and build out solutions to become scalable and sustainable. It is comprised of two parts; the first a three-month lab run with Accenture which leans into its wider network to test ideas, with the second three-months focused on scaling the solutions across Nationwide’s membership and into wider society.

Joe Garner, chief executive of Nationwide, said: “Our seven chosen FinTech applicants will have access to vital insights, funding, and data to help them really make a difference.”

Secretary of state for digital, culture, media and sport Jeremy Wright added: "By supporting FinTechs that are focused on making a positive impact on society, Nationwide’s Open Banking for Good Challenge is giving our tech firms the support they need to innovate.

“Technology can make real differences to people's lives across many areas and this is a fantastic example of how to harness tech for a social good."

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