American Express is inviting academics and non-profit groups dealing with financial inclusion to submit ideas for commercial testing at a new 'Financial Innovation Lab'.
Up to five selected teams will be invited to participate in the Lab, which will test their ideas using an opt-in population of cardholder data from Amex's cloud-based Serve platform.
Lab Participants will retain ownership of the intellectual property rights embodied in their innovations, while American Express will receive a license to use and adapt the technology for its own product offerings.
In addition to extensive in-kind technical, design and training support, participants in the Lab will receive financial stipends of $25,000 for individual submissions, $35,000 for teams of two, and $45,000 for teams of three for their work.
The initial application process closes on 26 September.