Poalim Start-up Week opens with a bang

Poalim Start-up Week brings together entrepreneurs, hi-tech firms, investors and researchers to brainstorm about the next generation of banking and financial-services technologies.

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
AT THE opening of Poalim Start-up Week in Tel Aviv on Sunday are (from left) Harel Ifhar, general manager of Amazon Web Services Israel; Bank Hapoalim chairman Yair Seroussi, CEO Arik Pinto and Avi Kochva, director of its Innovation Division. (photo credit: SIVAN FARAG)
AT THE opening of Poalim Start-up Week in Tel Aviv on Sunday are (from left) Harel Ifhar, general manager of Amazon Web Services Israel; Bank Hapoalim chairman Yair Seroussi, CEO Arik Pinto and Avi Kochva, director of its Innovation Division.
(photo credit: SIVAN FARAG)
Hundreds of people gathered for the opening on Sunday of Poalim Start-up Week in Tel Aviv, which is being hosted by Bank Hapoalim’s Innovation Division in cooperation with Amazon Web Services (AWS) Israel.
Taking place at the city’s Beit Hasmachot, Poalim Start-up Week brings together entrepreneurs, hi-tech firms, investors and researchers to brainstorm about the next generation of banking and financial-services technologies.
“The FinTech program that we started six years ago at Bank Hapoalim introducing bank executives to young start-up companies is part of our strategy of creating a culture based on openness and attentiveness to our customers,” said Yair Seroussi, chairman of Bank Hapoalim’s Board of Directors. “Our goal is to better understand what our customers want and improve ourselves at the same time. To achieve this, we need to strengthen our cooperation with leaders and innovators in the business, academic and hi-tech worlds.”
Arik Pinto, the CEO and president of Bank Hapoalim, added: “New technologies enable us to provide our customers with simpler, faster and friendlier services, based on the personal needs of every client. Technology won’t replace personal banking, but it will allow us to save on resources.
We aren’t in a race against technology, but rather in a race with the aid of technology, a race that will ultimately help us provide better financial services in the future to our customers.”
Multiple sessions on a range of innovative subjects are available to guests of the weeklong gathering, which will end with a 24-hour hackathon on Thursday, at which coders will be able to leverage an innovative Banking API (application program interface).