Seems that innovation in the financial vertical will turn a corner eventually and the first ones to get there will be the more open-minded North American inhabitants of Canada.

This contest is an interesting hybrid of the retro sort of Westinghouse, Intel Science competitions geared towards school-aged, budding scientists and those late-night patent office advertisements suggesting that your idea for a combined garden rake-can opener is intellectual property that requires protection.

This contest solicits college students, so a slightly older bunch, and focuses right on the specific problem of financial services 2.0. In fact the guidelines pages suggests that teams focus on such areas as “trends”, “partnerships” and even “pricing”!

Seems to me like RBC is trying to get some customer insights at a cut rate. The prize for this competition is $20K so the cost is near nothing. Can’t blame them for avoiding the customer insight “specialist” firms that dot the new innovation landscape. They could have made the reward for participation a bit richer than just the moral satisfaction of helping define the next generation of banking services. Throw those kids a few chips RBC!