Individuals in
Illinois, Maryland, New York, Texas, and Virginia Claim Cash
Prizes
Grand Prize
Winner Proposes App for Tracking Spending and
Satisfaction
WASHINGTON
– The U.S.
Department of the Treasury (Treasury), the D2D Fund (D2D), and Center for
Financial Services Innovation (CFSI) today announced the winning submissions in
the IdeaBank portion of the MyMoneyAppUp Challenge—a contest offering cash
prizes and recognition for the best mobile app ideas and designs to help
Americans make smart financial choices, access high quality financial products
and services, and ultimately control and shape their financial futures. In
conjunction with today’s announcement, individuals from five states across the
country will claim cash prizes for ideas to track spending satisfaction,
facilitate consumer trades between individuals, calculate return on investment
for higher education, and perform personal budgeting.
“These winning
IdeaBank submissions show the potential that mobile apps have to transform how
Americans access financial products, manage their finances, and set and stick to
financial goals,” said Treasury Assistant Secretary Cyrus Amir-Mokri. “Joined by
our partners at D2D and CFSI, we look forward to a dialogue where individual
Americans help catalyze innovation that empowers consumers to take control of
their financial lives.”
The
IdeaBank Challenge is an excellent example of using crowdsourcing to spur
innovation. There were more than 300 ideas submitted in 140 characters or less
for next generation mobile tools to help Americans shape their financial
futures. These submissions came from a diverse cross-section of the public
including industry leaders, academics, and consumer advocates. A panel of judges
selected the final winners from a group of finalists selected through public
voting. More than 1,300 people weighed in on their favorite ideas.
The
winners announced today are:
Grand Prize: Winner receives a
$1,000 cash prize
I want an app that lets me enter purchases and rate/track
how happy they do or don't make me over time, so I can adjust my spending
accordingly.
Collin
O’Rourke, 26, Waukegan, Illinois
Runners-Up: Two ideas
chosen, with each competitor receiving a $500 cash prize
I want an app that
locates people around you who are willing to trade away an item that you would
have otherwise purchased, then facilitate the trade.
Genki Kondo,
24, Bethesda, Maryland
I want an app
that calculates the return on investment for college, based on expected net cost
of tuition at specific colleges and anticipated salary by major.
Stephanie
Halligan, 25, Arlington, Virginia
Honorable Mentions:
Two ideas chosen, with each competitor receiving a $250 cash prize
I want an
app that shows real costs. If I put $100 shoes on a credit card with 18% rate,
what do they really cost me? What would $100 do if invested instead?
Emily Hummel,
43, Austin, Texas
I want an app
that will set guidelines for my expenditures in accordance to my yearly salary
and will periodically inform me of my remaining spending capacity.
Waqarul Islam,
16, Bronx, New York
To view all of the submitted ideas, visit ideabank.mymoneyappup.challenge.gov.
Support
for prizes and the administration of the Challenge by D2D and CFSI comes from
the Ford Foundation, Omidyar Network, and the Citi Foundation. No government
funds were used as part of the MyMoneyAppUp Challenge.
At the
conclusion of the MyMoneyAppUp Challenge, competitors who want to take their
winning ideas to the next step and develop fully functional apps may enter the
Financial Capability Development (FinCapDev) Competition, a separate,
complementary competition sponsored exclusively by D2D and CFSI.
About the MyMoneyAppUp Challenge: The MyMoneyAppUp
Challenge, launched by Treasury in partnership with the D2D Fund and Center for
Financial Services Innovation, is a contest offering cash prizes for the best
mobile app ideas and designs to help Americans make smart financial choices,
access high quality financial products and services, and control and shape their
financial futures.
The Challenge is part of Treasury's efforts to promote
Smart Disclosure, a new initiative by the Obama Administration to expand access
to data that can fuel the creation of new products and services to benefit
financial consumers. Contestants were encouraged to create ideas and designs
for apps that incorporate data to promote financial capability and
access.
To learn more
about the Challenge, visit http://mymoneyappup.challenge.gov.
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