BNP Paribas is to open a virtual window onto its international hackathon programme later this month, broadcasting the event to the Periscope app for live video streaming over iOS and Android devices.
The bank has rounded up 100 startups to participate in its latest international development challenge, with teams competing over a virtual network across eight major cities to develop new ways to 'streamline the Customer Journey through co-creation with start-ups'.
The multi-country project will see between 10-15 startups per city paired with BNP Paribas staff to create new business apps and compete for the chance to take part in a 5-month Digital Bootcamp and demo day before the bank's top executives in December.
Taking place on the weekend of 17-19 June, BNP Paribas' deputy chief operating officer head of domestic markets, and Jacques d'Estais, BNP Paribas' deputy chief operating officer and head of international financial services, will be on hand to monitor progress and exchange with the competing firms worldwide using Periscope as a live video feed into events as they unfold.
The French bank has developed a healthy following on Periscope - which was bought out by Twitter during its development phase - cultivating over 18,000 followers thanks largely to its live coverage of the tennis grand slam tournament at Roland-Garros.
Other major banks to have opened a periscope channel include Santander, Barclays, BBVA, Mediolanum, Metro Bank, Mondo, UBS, CaixaBank, and the Bank of England - which has a measly 1119 followers.