Mastercard Innovation Challenge @ GFF 2026

​AI Defense Lab for Payment Security

​Build the attack, then build the defense.

​The Mastercard Innovation Challenge 2026 at the Global Fintech Fest (GFF) 2026 (8th-11th Sept., Mumbai) invites you to build an end-to-end Adversarial AI system that identifies novel GenAI-powered payment fraud, simulates it at scale and defends against it - a red team / blue team challenge for payment security.

​The Challenge
• Identify: Research and surface emerging GenAI-powered fraud attacks targeting payments.
• Generate: Build agents that simulate those attacks at scale.
• Defend: Build an AI/ML solution that detects, flags and mitigates them.

​Open to: Students and Professionals [18+ Age]

​Prizes
🥇 1st - ₹2,56,000
🥈 2nd - ₹1,28,000
🥉 3rd - ₹64,000
➕ Plus a chance to attend & showcase at GFF 2026, Mumbai

​Timeline
• 10th Aug. - Registration opens
• 20th Aug. - Registration closes
• 31st Aug. - Submission deadline
• 5th Sep. - Results announced
• 8th-11th Sep. - Top teams present at GFF 2026

​What you submit: a code repository, a solution walkthrough (deck/doc) and a working web prototype with a presentable UI.

​Location: Online (participate from anywhere) - Top teams are invited to present in person at GFF 2026, Jio World Centre, Mumbai (8th-11th Sep).