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Female student in black clothes making a presentation on front of a screen
Thursday, 29 May 2025

Bridging Innovation and Regulation: ºÚÁÏÉç Students Partner with the Central Bank of Ireland to Combat Financial Crime

The Central Bank of Ireland, in collaboration with the ºÚÁÏÉç (UL), recently hosted a landmark Hackathon event in the Kemmy Business School as part of its Innovation Sandbox Programme. This initiative brought together students from UL’s Financial Services, Accounting, and Risk and Insurance MSc programmes to tackle the growing challenges of financial crime through data-driven innovation.

A key enabler of this event was , whose cutting-edge data repository provided the digital sandbox environment essential for students to simulate and test their models. 

Over the course of the event, students showcased analytical and technological solutions addressing fraud detection, ESG rating systems, consumer risk profiling, and predictive modelling in banking. Each project demonstrated how cross-sector collaboration can drive more secure, transparent, and resilient financial systems.

Group shot of 10 people outside the Kemmy Business School.
Group shot of participants and organisers of the Hackathon on Finance

Featured Research Projects: 

  • Kate O’Brien Riordan (MSc Accounting) – Explored how robust internal controls in motor insurance firms enhance the detection of fraudulent claims.
  • Davide Dapporto (MSc. Financial Services) – Applied cost-sensitive threshold optimisation techniques to improve fraud detection strategies.
  • Alex Long (MSc. Financial Services) – Developed a logistic regression-based health risk model for identifying high-cost insurance clients and improving underwriting segmentation.
  • Emeric Guillemin (MSc. Financial Services) – Critically examined ESG ratings and questioned whether they genuinely measure virtue or simply manufacture reputational value.
  • Charles Baczkowski (MSc. Financial Services) – Investigated shifts in borrower risk profiles during and after the 2008 financial crisis.
  • Tobias Walz (MSc. Financial Services) – Demonstrated the potential of unsupervised learning techniques to enhance targeted marketing strategies within the banking sector.
Female student receiving a cert for hackathon presentation
Male student receiving a cert for hackathon presentation
man in white shirt looking at a presentation
Female student presenting on screen
male student in a black shirt and wearing glasses presenting on front of a screen
group seated looking at a presentation on screen
Student receiving a cert
Man from Central Bank speaking on front of a screen
Central bank member speaking to participants in the hackathon
Male student presenting for hackathon on finance
2 men presenting at a large screen
Organisers and participants of the Banking hackathon


The Hackathon is part of a broader effort by the Central Bank to foster innovation in regulation while enabling practical learning for emerging professionals. It also exemplifies how partnerships with academia and fintech platforms like NayaOne can shape the future of regulatory technology.

We are proud of the students for their bold thinking and commitment to public value. Their work not only enhances the Kemmy Business School’s research agenda in collaboration with the Central Bank of Ireland but also lays the groundwork for future policy and industry innovation.

The event exemplifies the importance of collaborative engagement between regulators, academia, and technology providers. By bringing together students, policymakers, and fintech infrastructure, the Hackathon highlighted the potential of regulatory innovation to support a more secure, transparent, and inclusive financial system.

Email: business@ul.ie

Postal Address: Faculty Office, Kemmy Business School, ºÚÁÏÉç, Limerick, Ireland.

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