BEST NEW SAVINGS OR INVESTMENT PRODUCT – WINNER
Tandem Bank: Autosavings
Challenger bank Tandem gives people control of their money through a banking app that uses market-leading AI and data aggregation to proactively help users manage their money and develop healthy savings habits. Autosavings is an app feature that gives customers control and flexibility over their savings without tiresome admin, offering a number of options such as Safe to Save: an affordability calculator: and roundups on purchases which automatically go into a savings account.
BEST NEW SAVINGS OR INVESTMENT PRODUCT - HIGHLY COMMENDED
Cascade Cash Management: Cascade Cash Management Excels at FinTech Customer Care
Cascade is an independent and transparent service created to generate enhanced cash returns and increased protection on deposits through professional cash management. The online portal is unique in the UK and allows easy access to unbiased cash solutions with all banks and building societies authorised to accept deposits by the Bank of England. Recent significant investment and strategy development to ensure an excellent customer experience has been very successful.
BEST NEW MORTGAGE OR LOAN PRODUCT - WINNER
CTBC Bank: Geographic Data-driven Mortgage Program
In its transforming journey to become a digital bank, CTBC has successfully launched digitally-delivered mortgage products and services by using geographic information technologies and process re-engineering to remove customer pain points caused by delay and human error. Facilitating the customers’ mortgage journey digitally has not only increased effectiveness but lowered acquisition costs, not least because of the AI-driven valuation model that has been introduced.
BEST PAYMENT INNOVATION – TRANSACTIONS - WINNER
Divido: Divido’s white-label lending platform continues to disrupt the payments status quo
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Divido is a global, white-label, consumer lending technology platform that connects multiple lenders and retailers through one integration, enabling them to offer end consumers the option to spread the cost of high-value items through instalments. Divido’s solution allows retailers to drive sales and increase average order values, while allowing lenders to rapidly deploy new revenue streams. The platform is omnichannel, available online, in-store and via mobile, and works across multiple countries through one integration.
BEST PAYMENT INNOVATION – TRANSACTIONS - HIGHLY COMMENDED
Western Union: Western Union & Amazon Team Up to Make E-Commerce Cross-Border Payments available to more people around the world
Western Union has launched a new payment initiative with Amazon that connects cash customers in emerging economies to the e-commerce ecosystem. This global money movement platform is powering Amazon’s new payment option, called Amazon PayCode, enabling millions of consumers to quickly and easily “buy global and pay local” (in cash if preferred) at WU agent locations. It is available in 19 countries, with the potential to benefit tens of millions of consumers.
BEST PAYMENT INNOVATION – PAYMENT PLATFORMS - WINNER
Israel Discount Bank - The PayBox App - Making Mobile Payments Viral
PayBox was the first group payments app in Israel and leads the Israeli market in the group payments and collections category. Acquired from a start-up business, it is free to use, and available for customers of all banks in Israel. The service met an unanswered need and is an efficient, quick and comfortable community tool. Uniquely, in Israel, PayBox is a real ‘wallet’: as users can hold a cash balance within their account.
BEST RETAIL BANKING SERVICES INNOVATION - WINNER
Israel Discount Bank: Enhanced Voice-Based Payment & Banking Services
Envisioning a future in which banking services are embedded in our surroundings, Israel Discount Bank is investing in bringing customers towards this future by providing three different voice-based banking services – P2P money transfers, interaction with a mobile chatbot and voice-based shortcuts via Siri to all features within their app. As one of the first in the world to offer this service, the bank’s goal is to enhance the customer experience and increase engagement levels.
BEST RETAIL BANKING SERVICES INNOVATION - HIGHLY COMMENDED
TSB Bank: Digital ID&V Service
TSB identified an issue with customers failing initial Identification and Verification checks when applying for a Personal Current Account – leading to significant lost business. So they innovated, so that when a customer fails initial ID&V, they are no longer directed to a branch, but simply have to send ID proof together with a selfie, securely within the app. Biometric authentication and document verification technologies make it a quick, and customer-friendly experience.
EXCELLENCE IN SUPPORTING BUSINESS OR ENTERPRISE - WINNER
CTBC Financial Holding: Business Payment Service on Blockchain
“Shaman” is an innovative blockchain-based payment service platform for the music streaming industry, which deals with the pain point of managing copyright transactions by providing trustworthy and auditable financial payment mechanisms via blockchain transactions. Saving up to 90% of operational overheads, it reduces potential risk and fraudulent behaviours. Shaman supports mainstream distributed ledger technologies, can operate under both public and private chain and is set to expand into other industries.
EXCELLENCE IN SUPPORTING BUSINESS OR ENTERPRISE - HIGHLY COMMENDED
Santander UK: Cloud-Based Digital Credit-Risk and Fulfilment for SME, Commercial and Corporate
Santander are partnering with several Fintech firms, to deliver a transformative end-to-end credit-risk and fulfilment solution in the Cloud, using configurable SaaS. Based entirely on Design Thinking and Agile methodologies, the ambitious project creates a market leading tech-stack which will serve Santander well now and for the coming 10-15 years. It dramatically enhances the operating model of the bank using API/productised ‘App store’ integrations which will ensure continuity and automation using the latest data-based technologies.
BEST OPEN BANKING INITIATIVE - WINNER
NatWest: Payit; Pay Online & Send Money
Project Fastpay is a NatWest project, designing and delivering great customer experiences using the Open Banking infrastructure. The project has been delivered by two internal teams working collaboratively and to date, they have delivered Payit: a cheaper alternative to card payments for UK customers paying merchants quickly, safely and securely; and Send Money which offer a convenient way for businesses to pay individuals via Faster Payments without having to know their bank details.
BEST MOBILE BANKING INNOVATION - WINNER
Sensibill: Receipts by Sensibill
Receipts by Sensibill leverages AI-driven mobile receipt management technology to help banks capture and retain the thriving small business and self-employed segment. The solution helps SMEs operate successfully from their mobile banking application, effectively automating the most time-consuming aspects of a small business’ accounting workflow. Sensibill’s solution lives within mobile banking applications, marrying accounting data with banking data for a holistic overview of financials and improved budgeting and forecasting.
BEST MULTI-CHANNEL EXPERIENCE - WINNER
Barclays: Creating a customer-centric, market-leading multi-channel experience
With the rise of digital adoption, mobile is very much the channel of choice, and Barclays have focused on three key strategies in order to ensure that customers can manage their money in the channel of their choice whilst maintaining a seamless, omnichannel experience: a mobile-first approach, cross-channel servicing experiences and combining the digital and physical. They have embedded a human touch within digital channels to deliver personalised human experiences to their customers.
MOST EFFECTIVE OVERALL CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE INITIATIVE – RETAIL - WINNER
Honest.: Halifax Flagship
Halifax wanted to leverage their heritage and market strength as the leading UK mortgage lender by creating a physical platform for colleagues to engage with customers and help them navigate one of their most complex financial needs. To reinforce this, the retail experience has been imagined as a Halifax ‘Home’, a design metaphor that is brought to life across three floors. It is a space in which the brand can demonstrate core values through memorable customer interactions.
MOST EFFECTIVE OVERALL CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE INITIATIVE – BUSINESS & CORPORATE - WINNER
Santander UK: Cloud-Based Digital Credit-Risk and Fulfilment for SME, Commercial and Corporate
Santander have decided to partner with several Fintech firms, to deliver a transformative end-to-end credit risk and fulfilment solution in the Cloud, using configurable SaaS. This has led to better risk management and more informed customers and colleagues. Market leading cycle times have been achieved, halving the previous decision and delivery times. The solution has delivered efficiency gains, data continuity and a single customer view while reducing the need for manual controls.
CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE/SERVICE TEAM OF THE YEAR - WINNER
Vision Independent Financial Planning: Success through Service
Vision’s support team is diligent, invested, passionate and caring. With an average age of 25, they are the bedrock of the Vision network. They epitomise the culture of supporting people in delivering amazing client outcomes within a safe and supportive environment. Divided into administration, finance and IT, the business is committed to developing colleagues’ careers, as well as offering an award-winning apprenticeship programme. Their dedication has received excellent customer feedback.
BEST WORKPLACE TRANSFORMATION OR EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT INITIATIVE - WINNER
Financial Services Compensation Scheme: FSCS... Our Journey to Engagement
FSCS completely rethought their channels and methods of communications and engagement, redefining their ways of working and culture through an audit of all channels, employee feedback and gap analysis. It tackled change resistance and introduced a new suite of engagement interventions in order to focus on customer outcomes. Moving from a ‘Claimant Treatment Strategy’ to a ‘Customer Experience Strategy’ they agreed and launched cultural priorities leading to rising NPS and employee satisfaction.
BEST WORKPLACE TRANSFORMATION OR EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT INITIATIVE - HIGHLY COMMENDED
ZiraatBank: How to turn your employee/customer feedback to disruptive gain?
With a goal of offering excellent customer service, ZiraatBank wanted to improve the core banking software that had received many complaints from employees by introducing Agile methodology to implement change. A successful communication programme of consultation, feedback, explanation and affirmation has helped employees become engaged in the process, as well as breaking down resistance to change. Employees feel valued in their work of supporting customers and part of the project.
BEST SUSTAINABLE FINANCE INITIATIVE - WINNER
Infrastructure Development Company Limited: IDCOL Solar Irrigation Pump Project
The agricultural sector is a crucial contributor to Bangladesh’s economy. IDCOL began to explore alternative energy sources for irrigation, to ensure the food and energy security of the country. To address the adverse impact of climate change, and fluctuating fuel prices, IDCOL introduced solar irrigation in the form of a green finance initiative to smallholder farmers and collectives. The environmental solution ensures efficient water management during the dry season.
BEST FINANCIAL INCLUSION OR OUTREACH INITIATIVE - WINNER
NS&I Government Payment Services - Help to Save
Help to Save is an innovative UK savings account scheme which was conceived to support financial inclusion by effectively empowering working people on low incomes to build their savings and encourage an ongoing saving habit. A government bonus matches individual savings for this fully digital scheme which effectively integrates multiple legacy systems across different government departments to deliver a simple, comprehensible savings product and a seamless customer journey.
BEST FINANCIAL INCLUSION OR OUTREACH INITIATIVE - HIGHLY COMMENDED
The Mifos Initiative: Mifos
Recognising the important and life-changing effects of financial inclusion, Mifos’ mission is to democratise financial services worldwide by fuelling community-led innovation via an open source core banking platform. This is to enable the effective and efficient delivery of digital financial services for lower income people. The scalable platform gives microfinance institutions, banks, and other companies the ability to focus on innovative service delivery to their customers and drive meaningful usage of financial services across the globe.
CHANGE TEAM OF THE YEAR - WINNER
BPI: Full Agile – Driving Business Transformation
BPI started to develop a “methodological” framework to deliver high quality processes in a shorter timeframe. This approach has integrated Business vectors and priorities into IT operations with no accompanying increase in budget. Starting at the customer journey and using Agile and design thinking methodologies, the transformation is organised in omnichannel blocks that design the experience to be delivered and implemented. With this framework, BPI has been able to consistently deliver new customer experiences.
BEST TECHNOLOGY INITIATIVE – UNITED KINGDOM - WINNER
PRIMIS Mortgage Network: Toolbox
Toolbox is a web-based front, middle and back office system built by brokers, for brokers. It’s accessible anywhere, at any time, on any internet-enabled device. It has been developed on solid foundations, with robust security and protection defence mechanisms as key principles of the infrastructure environment, together with disaster recovery and business continuity planning. This provides a simplified, streamlined straight-through process, one-stop solution for brokers and customers.
BEST TECHNOLOGY INITIATIVE – EUROPE - WINNER
BPI: BPI GO Now – shaping the future
Digital solutions offer a new service paradigm, reinventing the customer experience and relationship with the bank, offering the possibility of high-value interaction, albeit without the face-to-face contact of yesteryear. The solution is BPI GoNow, a smart hub for managing messages with an engine powered by artificial intelligence and framed by business rules. It gives customers regular, relevant personalised communication that provides an excellent digital banking experience, maximising the relationship and building trust.
BEST TECHNOLOGY INITIATIVE – EUROPE - HIGHLY COMMENDED
Credit Suisse: iComply
iComply is the one-stop-shop for employee compliance obligations. Built in-house, leveraging an Agile methodology, it was rolled out in 12 weeks, incorporating stakeholder and user feedback into design and functionality. iComply consolidates existing systems with a consistent user interface, aggregates tasks and actions, and provides simplified compliance information tailored to employee profiles, making it significantly easier to meet compliance obligations. iComply was delivered with the aim of changing the model of employee education and compliance.
BEST TECHNOLOGY INITIATIVE – REST OF THE WORLD - WINNER
Absa Bank Group Limited: Unique Data initiative launch in African continent for retail and business bank
Lacking a holistic view of the customer, Absa Bank developed Customer360, a web-based platform with the customer at the core of its design, the first in the African market. The solution tackles the issue of data availability in emerging markets, enabling a single access point to various analytical models that provides key insights across the banking spectrum, as well as integrating basic customer data with third party sources to drive targeted customer interactions.
BEST TECHNOLOGY INITIATIVE – REST OF THE WORLD - HIGHLY COMMENDED
Moody’s Analytics: Introducing Daisy
In early 2018, the Customer Service team welcomed “Daisy”, the first Moody’s Analytics Artificial Intelligence solution to the organisation. Daisy helps the team to offer faster response times to customer enquiries by intelligently routing them, as well as dealing with low-value activities, giving the team more time to deal with more complex tasks. Customers receive a better, more consistent service which has been reflected in positive feedback, while the team experience more job satisfaction.
MOST PROMISING FINANCIAL START-UP - WINNER
Mojo Mortgages: Mojo Mortgages
Mojo’s founders saw an opportunity to give customers a better value, hassle-free mortgage experience. Using advanced technology and automated processes to optimise and expedite the mortgage experience, they developed Mojo’s revolutionary Mortgage Matcher. This unique proposition allows customers to find out how much they can borrow in one minute, and which specific mortgage deals they’re eligible for in 15 minutes. Mojo also partners with like-minded businesses seeking to give their customers impartial mortgage advice.
BEST TECHNOLOGY PARTNERSHIPS - WINNER
Darktrace: Cyber AI
Up until now, financial services organisations have lacked crucial visibility over their digital business, preventing their security teams from catching risky behaviour until it’s too late. Darktrace has designed a unique technology which uses AI to autonomously respond to cyberattacks in progress, before a human spots them. The technology is up and running in just one hour, beginning to develop an understanding of the environment and producing meaningful results in just a few days.
BEST TECHNOLOGY PARTNERSHIPS - HIGHLY COMMENDED
HSBC UK: HSBC UK and Vizolution
HSBC is transforming its Receivables Finance process by simplifying the journey and eliminating unnecessary touch points. Powered by Vizolution vScreen solution branded LinkScreen for HSBC, the screen-sharing solution enables contact centre agents to display information, exchange documentation, verify identity and collect electronic signatures in a single customer interaction. The result combines the quality of face-to-face interactions with the low costs and convenience of remote channels, increasing conversion rates and satisfaction levels.
BEST FINTECH PARTNERSHIP - WINNER
Signicat and Rabobank: Rabo eBusiness – the world’s first bank-led Digital Identity Service Provider
Rabo eBusiness provides a one-stop service for cross-border digital identity. It is the world’s first Digital Identity Service Provider and is the result of a partnership between Rabobank and fintech, Signicat. It combines Rabobank’s experience with large, multi-national enterprises, Signicat’s digital identity technology, and a host of identity scheme providers. The result is a single, cross-border method for digital on-boarding, login, signature and archiving that avoids a cumbersome UX for consumers and high manual costs for enterprises.
BEST FINTECH PARTNERSHIP - HIGHLY COMMENDED
Token: Token and Almoayed Technologies Partner to Accelerate Open Banking In MENA
Token and Almoayed Technologies (AT) saw the opportunities that open banking could deliver for the region and innovated by enabling the application of internationally proven API technology in the context of the regional specificities of MENA’s financial services ecosystem. By leveraging Token’s technical expertise and capabilities with AT’s knowledge of the domestic market, six of the 12 banks that have achieved central bank compliance have done so by integrating Token and AT’s solution.