Timo Mende, working student at Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI), and his team won the gold award in the Distribution category at the Qorus Reinvention Awards – Europe 2024 in Vienna. A well-deserved award for an original project: the educational Minecraft game ‘My Finance Quests’. He talks to us about the project and the win.
Can you introduce yourself and tell us more about your role at RBI?
My name is Timo Mende, and I am a working student at RBI. The educational Minecraft game ‘My Finance Quests’ was created by Jürgen Schiefer, Titus-George Coldea and myself as part of the Retail Innovation team. Our role was to find possibilities for innovation and creating PoCs to reveal business opportunities for RBI.
What made you most proud of the ‘My Finance Quests’ project? What was your greatest achievement in making it happen?
Reaching Gen Z and Gen Alpha with the topic of financial literacy is often challenging. This is how the idea of a financial literacy game using Minecraft Education was born.
Using gamified pedagogy, RBI presents an unparalleled and captivating learning journey for young learners, broadening and fortifying their financial literacy knowledge.
As part of Gen Z myself, I experienced the lack of sources for financial education first hand. This leads to finances becoming a topic that many young people avoid. Hence, it makes me incredibly proud to know that the younger generation now has the possibility to get financial education via the platform they already use.
What is the most important thing you would tell someone considering embarking on a similar project?
It is important to understand the target group, which is why the in-person testing sessions we did in schools were extremely valuable and provided insights into what the new generation wants to learn and where they can be reached. Therefore, everybody who wants to tackle the topic of financial education should try to get feedback directly from the target group and implement the findings into the project.
What's coming next for the ‘My Finance Quests’ project?
Currently the game consists of four levels which aim to teach the topics interest, loans, budgeting and internet safety. With active engagement across six countries, our vision is to translate it into even more languages, make it available in more countries and create new levels covering further financial topics.
What would you say to companies that might consider entering the 2024 Banking Innovation Awards?
It is a great opportunity to show your innovation and inspire others. Additionally, you also get to see a lot of great innovations from all around the world. It is an opportunity that should not be missed and can really help to signify the importance of your project to others.
What does this award mean to you and your innovation team?
We as a team are incredibly proud of the achievement and it really ignited the appreciation for innovation in our whole department.
Submit until 21 June 2024 for the next Awards edition
