Hi Fineract community, My name is Siva Balan Saravanan. I am an MS Computer Science student at NYU Courant (GPA 3.778, graduating December 2026) and a backend software engineer with 3 years of production experience building a SaaS debt-collection platform at Epikindifi, including multi-role RBAC authentication, notification microservices, and Redis caching that reduced API query time by 70%. I am applying for GSoC 2026 with Apache Fineract, specifically FINERACT-2439, the BFF Self-Service API project.
What I have done so far: - Set up Fineract locally (Docker, MariaDB, full stack running at https://localhost:8443 - status UP confirmed) - Built the Fineract image from source using jibDockerBuild - Ran ClientChargeTest - 3/3 PASSED - Investigated and implemented a fix for FINERACT-2545 (client charge inactivation — missing @CommandType handler). Fix branch at: https://github.com/sivabalan21/fineract/tree/FINERACT-2545 - Read James's guidance on the BFF identity layer separation and the mentor POC guidelines shared in the Matrix channel - Prepared a full GSoC proposal being submitted today I have joined the Matrix GSoC room, subscribed to this mailing list, and filled the contributor interest form. I chose to apply only to Apache Fineract this year, no other organizations. FINERACT-2439 is the exact intersection of my production experience (customer-facing APIs isolated from back-office systems) and the open problem Fineract needs solved. Looking forward to contributing. GitHub: https://github.com/sivabalan21 LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/siva-balan-063581189 Best, Siva Balan Saravanan MS Computer Science, NYU Courant
