Bank Of Our Future Competition

HSBC has launched a competition inviting students to ‘Design a Bank for our Future’. Two teams are selected to represent STC from the Year 7 – Year 13 and we wish the winning teams the best of luck in the next round. Here are some ideas from the winning entries:

We’re a group of passionate IB students who are eager to learn about and provide our view on the banks that are currently available. Not only are we highly qualified and fully equipped with the skills needed to think critically and creatively, but we are also prepared to express and present our ideas. For example, various members have displayed their entrepreneurial skills through their personal projects such as self made-businesses, and previous inter-house events. Additionally, we have members who not only have hands-on experience in dealing with finance and accounting, but are also regularly involved/ updated on current banking situations through news subscription, and personal interest in the financial market. Moreover, everyone in the group is experienced in working as a team and able to collaborate with others constructively, having taken part in student leadership roles or team competitions. Our design ideas for our new type of bank will heavily integrate online banking to formulate a more structured, organized, and efficient banking system that ensures a pleasant user experience. This will mean completely overhauling in-person services in favor of it being online, as they are tedious, inefficient, and costly. As such, in order to increase customer confidence, we’ll offer an open sandbox approach to handle virtual currencies, and test options and features without risking money. Anonymity and privacy are two points that will be focused on, in order to compete with the growing market of cryptocurrency. A user-based forum will be provided for users as well as staff to discuss the services and to make the workings of the bank more transparent. The bank will also focus on meeting the needs of individual consumers with customized demands. Making use of the rapidly developing AI technologies we can formulate personalized plans and advice for individual consumers with minimal human interference. We hope to do this by offering as many options for services as possible, as well as focusing on open banking as well as open APIs to allow, as well as partner with third-parties apps and services to collect customer data in order to create personalized financial plans for users to visualize and better understand their financial information, all the while maintaining privacy and safety. By marketing our bank as infallible and spending money that was saved through the mainly online banking services we provide, we can gain a reputation for being stable and secure, as well as progressive and efficient.

Have you thought about what a bank should be? To us, a bank should not only be a safe environment for the staff and community, but also for our ecosystem. Usually, the first thing that comes to mind when talking about a bank is probably the constant reminder of capital, and how significant it is in our lives, thus the reason why some people may find it worrisome. However, we no longer want this symbol of greed to be the image of what a bank should really be. To several, banking can be perceived as quite repetitive, but by implementing our new and efficient productivity strategies as well as a modern and sustainable design for the bank, we will be able to change that. Being known as the generation of change, we can assure you that we are the perfect candidates to represent Sha Tin College, as both our experience in the subjects of art, business and philosophy have opened a new window of perspective for us.