Fintechathon 2026 · Topic C · AI as a financial participant

Tuition, paid safely.Refunded if the visa says no.

BursarBridge is an AI agent that pays an international student’s tuition from the family’s home bank, pays only accounts the university has cryptographically vouched for, and brings the money back to the parents if the visa is refused.

Enter the live demo Open the parent app Trust center

Mock Fictional university and bank, simulated money. Every mocked part is labelled.

Linh’s tuition · Spring 2027Waiting for Dad

Minh pays

₫135,663,956

Hanbit University receives

₩7,174,000

Đà Nẵng

Lotus Home Bank

Seoul

Hanbit University

Account vouched for by Hanbit

All-in cost 1.03% above mid-market

Bank paperwork ready

Approve with passkey

1 in 5

Australian student visa applications refused in FY2025-26. Families pay tuition before they know the outcome.

3–10 wks

Typical wait for a refusal refund, re-converted at the refund-day rate, often minus fees and retentions.

15%

The “early payment discount” fake invoices offer, with a brand-new account. A classic tuition scam.

Three moments

One calm concierge for the family’s biggest transfer of the year

Pays only the real university

The agent reads the invoice, checks the university’s signed payee credential, gets an all-in quote and builds the bank paperwork. The parent signs exactly that.

Credential issued by the university

Account and name match

Circular 20/2022 pack ready

Stops the fake invoice

A discount email with a new account goes nowhere: the account was never vouched for and the details came from untrusted text. The family sees why, in plain words.

Payment stopped. Nothing was sent.

PAY-02TAINT-01SCAM-02

Brings the money home

When the visa is refused, the agent files the claim, chases on schedule and refuses any redirect. The refund can only return to the account that paid.

Đà Nẵng

Seoul

Safe by construction

The AI proposes. The policy engine decides.

Every action is wrapped in an envelope and judged by deterministic rules outside the model. The model never holds credentials and never supplies a payee, amount or destination.

Inform

Explain invoices, deadlines, rules and the all-in cost.

Prepare

Read documents, build the paperwork pack, draft claims. Nothing leaves.

Execute within mandate

Same checked payee, under the signed cap, no taint, with a cancel window.

Step up

First payment, new payee, anything risky: the parent signs the exact action.

L-X

Never

Raise its own limit, add payees from text, redirect refunds, split to dodge quotas, crypto.

Proof, not promises

Change one byte and the log tells you where

Each decision is hash-chained to the one before and anchored in Merkle batches on a permissioned FISCO BCOS chain. Only hashes go on chain.

Try it in the Trust center

#41Mandate signed: tuition ≤ ₩7,174,000✓ 3f9a
#42ESCALATE: first payment to Hanbit✓ c21e
#43Payment to •••• 2207 → editedmismatch
#44Bursar: invoice PAID✓ 77b0

Designed for real people

A nervous parent, a busy student, a sceptical judge

Parent · Đà Nẵng · Vietnamese

Minh

Shop owner in Đà Nẵng paying his daughter's semester in Korea from his VND account. He only opens the app to say yes or no to something precise.

Open Minh’s phone

Student · heading to Seoul

Linh

Forwards invoices and letters, chats in Vietnamese slang, and never has to be the go-between for money again.

Open Linh’s phone

Judge · auditor

You

Run all twenty scenarios, read every decision, and break the log yourself.

Open the judge console

Honest by default

What’s real, what’s mocked

No real money, banks or universities are involved. Here is exactly what runs for real in this demo.

Component	Status	Notes
Policy engine (tiers L0–L3, L-X) Deterministic rules outside the LLM. In mock mode the browser replays the same decisions.	Real	Deterministic rules outside the LLM. In mock mode the browser replays the same decisions.
Hash-chained audit log SHA-256 chain; tamper and verify are genuine in both modes.	Real	SHA-256 chain; tamper and verify are genuine in both modes.
Merkle anchoring on FISCO BCOS Team-operated permissioned test chain. Hashes only, no tokens, no personal data.	Simulated	Team-operated permissioned test chain. Hashes only, no tokens, no personal data.
Passkeys (WebAuthn) Real device passkeys sign the consent hash. A demo authenticator exists for demos and is labelled.	Real	Real device passkeys sign the consent hash. A demo authenticator exists for demos and is labelled.
University payee credentials (VC-JWT) did:key Ed25519 credentials issued by the simulated university.	Real	did:key Ed25519 credentials issued by the simulated university.
AI agent This run uses the deterministic scripted provider, not a hosted model.	Scripted	This run uses the deterministic scripted provider, not a hosted model.
Lotus Home Bank Fictional bank: ledgers, grants, cancel window and paperwork pack are simulated.	Mock	Fictional bank: ledgers, grants, cancel window and paperwork pack are simulated.
Hanbit University bursar Fictional university: payment status and refund decisions are simulated.	Mock	Fictional university: payment status and refund decisions are simulated.
Exchange rates Simulated bank board with a disclosed margin (ECB where covered in live mode).	Mock	Simulated bank board with a disclosed margin (ECB where covered in live mode).
Clock for timers Simulated so a 30-day refund deadline can be shown in minutes.	Simulated	Simulated so a 30-day refund deadline can be shown in minutes.
Visa decision letters Synthetic samples. The agent never queries immigration systems.	Simulated	Synthetic samples. The agent never queries immigration systems.
People and organisations Minh, Linh, Hanbit University and Lotus Home Bank are fictional.	Simulated	Minh, Linh, Hanbit University and Lotus Home Bank are fictional.