Unlocking Sustainability through Innovation: Projective Group’s Swift Hackathon experience

For the first time, a Projective Group team took part in the Swift Hackathon. With the topic being ‘Innovation for a sustainable future’ we took on the challenge of transforming ESG Compliance. As advocates for sustainable finance and business transformation, this was the perfect opportunity to showcase our skills. And in our first participation, we ended up third in our category.

Swift runs their hackathon annually, inviting partners, suppliers, and participants from their ecosystem to crack complex challenges. This year’s theme was “Unleashing Innovation for a Sustainable Future,” specifically targeting Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) metrics. The challenges provided an excellent opportunity to explore AI and machine learning solutions.

Assembling the team: A symphony of expertise

Creating a winning team was our first order of business. We pooled talent from across Projective Group’s different practices and countries, forming a multidisciplinary squad equipped to tackle any obstacle.

Our team’s diverse skills and perspectives proved to be our biggest asset.

Strategy and design thinking

After receiving the briefing, we quickly mobilised an in-person Design Thinking workshop to develop a few ideas and hone in on a winning solution. This technique is not just a hackathon strategy; it’s a service we offer to clients, and it allowed us to quickly develop and design a strong concept: the ‘ARC’, or Automated Regulatory Comparison tool.

Besides this being a great approach for challenges like these, it was also a great opportunity for some team bonding.

Development and challenges

Our journey was far from smooth; automating the interpretation of non-standardised, textual regulatory documents proved challenging. However, every problem led to a breakthrough. Mapping taxonomies and refining search queries were complex but rewarding tasks, requiring agility and adaptive thinking.

Technology and tools

The hackathon served as a showcase for Projective Group’s end-to-end capabilities—ranging from graphic and user experience design to technical architecture. We employed tools like Figma for wireframing and leveraged AI to help read and summarise documents.

We took it as a chance not just to compete but also to test and expand our capabilities.

We also drafted an extensive list of 16 AI tools that are currently re-shaping the ESG and Sustainable Finance landscape.

The lightbulb moment

The challenges we faced led to a series of ‘lightbulb moments’. These hurdles provided valuable lessons and even pointed us toward potential use-cases for AI tools. By the end of the third week, we had a rudimentary but functional prototype. It was a patchwork of ChatGPT outputs and manual curation, but it was our first proof of concept.

The solution: ARC

Enough about the process, let’s talk about results: Designed for professionals who must make sustainable investment choices, ARC employs AI to swiftly assess companies based on multiple global regulatory taxonomies. The system not only provides comprehensive and instant screening results but also adapts to continuously updated taxonomies, making it a scalable, efficient, and cost-effective tool for making sustainable investment decisions.

Conclusion and future prospects

In our first participation, we ended third in our category (congratulations Capgemini & Greenomy), this hackathon was an enriching experience that expanded our understanding of sustainability, ESG metrics, and the role of AI in addressing these challenges.

We’re already looking forward to next year’s edition, and we can’t wait to take our learning and new-found expertise even further.

About Projective Group

Established in 2006, Projective Group is a leading Financial Services change specialist. With deep expertise across practices in Data, Payments, Transformation and Risk & Compliance.

We are recognised within the industry as a complete solutions provider, partnering with clients in Financial Services to provide resolutions that are both holistic and pragmatic.  We have evolved to become a trusted partner for companies that want to thrive and prosper in an ever-changing Financial Services landscape.