SmartBan

Inspiration

SmartBan is a next-generation feature integrated into the Banorte mobile app, built to power the digital transformation of smart cities. It centralizes and streamlines citizen payments and transactions into one simple experience.

With SmartBan, users can pay utility services like electricity and gas, as well as municipal fees such as property taxes, traffic fines, and vehicle inspections—all in just a few taps. It also introduces a seamless QR-based tipping system for instant person-to-person microtransactions, making payments faster, safer, and more inclusive.

SmartBan reduces average transaction times from 20–40 minutes to just 2–5 minutes, achieving up to 90% efficiency gains. The business model is driven by commissions: 1% on municipal payments and 0.5% on tips, projecting a 61% ROI in the first year.

More than a feature, SmartBan is a strategy to position Banorte not just as a bank—but as the digital backbone that connects citizens, governments, and services in the cities of the future.

What it does

SmartBan is a unified payment hub inside the Banorte app that:

Enables citizens to pay utility bills (electricity, gas, water).
Supports municipal services such as property tax, traffic fines, and vehicle verification.
Provides secure person-to-person transfers using dynamic QR codes.
Offers a digital tipping system for workers and service providers.
Generates transaction receipts and smart spending history for users.
Connects government services and businesses to a verified financial ecosystem.

How we built it

Frontend: React Native + Expo for cross-platform mobile integration. We focused on a clean, intuitive UI for quick payments and QR scanning.
Backend: API Routes from Expo for orchestration, handling payment requests and user data.
Auth & Security: Clerk Auth for secure user authentication and session management.
Database: PostgreSQL for storing user profiles, transactions, and service data.
QR Engine: Dynamic QR code generation for secure, real-time person-to-person payments and tipping.
Payments Logic: Custom logic for handling municipal payments, utility bills, and microtransactions.

Challenges we ran into

Integrating multiple payment types and municipal services into a single workflow.
Ensuring secure, real-time QR transactions with minimal latency.
Designing a user experience that is both simple and robust for a wide range of users.
Handling edge cases for failed or duplicate transactions.
Coordinating between frontend and backend teams for rapid prototyping.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Delivered a working prototype with live payment and tipping simulation.
Implemented a dynamic QR system for instant peer-to-peer transactions.
Built a modular, scalable architecture ready for further integration.
Achieved a clean, accessible UI/UX focused on user trust and simplicity.
Demonstrated a realistic path for integrating with municipal and financial services.