Macquarie Bank is gamifying banking

Macquarie Bank is asking customers to "pledge your brain" as part of a banking gamification initiative intended to bring on new customers and test out features.

The bank's "brainsourcing" program promises to reward new customers who sign up to a platinum transaction account in order to help Macquarie test "the future of digital banking".

The program - which gives customers access to the beta environment for Macquarie's online and mobile banking platform, unveiled in September - is being spearheaded by Macquarie Bank chief digital officer Luis Ugina and head of personal banking Ben Perham.

Customers sign up for eight "missions", which - if all successfully completed - will reap them $50 and the chance to win a trip to San Francisco.

The missions are simple banking tasks, with features including machine learning, natural language search, tracking of spending, and simple budgeting.

Customers are then asked to fill in a five-minute survey offering feedback on the experience.

The campaign has been running since last month and will finish on December 7.

Macquarie Bank's new digital platform consists of native iOS and Android apps and a website, with customer experience modelled on that provided by the likes of Netflix and Spotify.

The bank has built its own machine learning tools in-house using Python, and relies on Google and Apple's voice recognition technology to interact with the natural language processing tools it built using technology from Stanford University’s SRI International.

The new online and mobile banking platform is currently only available to personal banking customers; it requires the real-time data provided by Macquarie's new SAP-based core banking platform, which only personal banking customers have been shifted to so far.