Awards Entry

Best Use of Data Criteria

Entries are invited from financial institutions – or organisations that have partnered with FIs – that have utilised Open Banking, Open Finance or Smart Data to bring new products to market, streamline processes and deliver better outcomes for consumers and SMEs.

Judges will be looking for evidence of success in the following criteria:

1. Demonstrable increase in your product and services portfolio to offer better value to customers
2. Advanced or innovative use of data, including how data is combined, enriched, or applied in new ways to unlock unique insights, new use cases, or solve meaningful customer or business pain points
3. How data has saved time, money and enhanced the customer experience
4. Uptake in consumer adoption and customer satisfaction
5. Innovation: what is unique about your use of data, including any novel combinations, enrichment, or application of data to deliver differentiated outcomes
6. KPIs & commercial success; please demonstrate your metrics, including real numbers, not just percentages

Best Industry Partnership Criteria

Entries are invited from organisations that have partnered to create an Open Banking product for consumers or SMEs. The partnership or collaboration between two or more businesses should be beneficial to both parties and not be just a commercial supplier-customer relationship. The entry may be submitted by either company in the partnership.

Judges will be looking for evidence of success in the following criteria:

1. Success metrics for both parties in the partnership; making it a mutually beneficial relationship
2. Solving a real customer need based on quantifiable market research and/or customer feedback
3. Ease of access to new financial products that the customer might not have otherwise had access to
4. Offering the best value to the customer
5. Uptake in consumer adoption and customer satisfaction
6. For SME clients: Increasing the customer’s productivity, efficiency, and profitability
7. Innovation: e.g. what is unique about your offering?
8. KPIs & commercial success; please demonstrate your metrics, including real numbers, not just percentages

Best Open Banking Infrastructure Criteria

Entries are invited from organisations – or those who have partnered* with them – that can demonstrate how Open Banking has driven meaningful transformation within a sector, moving beyond incremental improvements to deliver step-change outcomes for customers or businesses.

This category is intended for any sector excluding banking, for example – but not limited to – retailers, investment and wealth management firms, utilities providers, telecoms firms, travel operators, gaming firms, Government, and local councils.

*The entry may be submitted by either company in the partnership.

Judges will be looking for evidence of success in the following criteria:

1. Demonstrable increase in your product and services portfolio to offer better value to customers
2. How Open Banking data has saved time, money and enhanced the customer experience
3. How Open Banking has helped to address legacy and any other issues that have been resolved/mitigated by the use of it
4. Uptake in consumer adoption and customer satisfaction
5. Innovation: e.g., what is unique about your offering?
6. KPIs & commercial success; please demonstrate your metrics, including real numbers, not just percentages

👉 All data submitted will be treated in the strictest confidence. If necessary, we can anonymise sensitive information - such as client names or jurisdictions - when publishing the shortlist.

Best Anti-Fraud Solution Criteria

This award recognises a solution that has effectively helped detect, prevent, or reduce fraud — either by using Open Banking-powered technology, or by protecting the Open Banking ecosystem itself.

Entries are invited from technology providers, financial institutions, or collaborative initiatives that have implemented a fraud prevention solution within the qualifying period. This could include solutions deployed during onboarding, authentication, payment flows, or wider infrastructure safeguards that secure Open Banking interactions.

Judges will be looking for evidence of success in the following criteria:

1. How Open Banking tools, APIs, or datasets were used to combat fraud (e.g. Confirmation of Payee, account verification, secure onboarding, real-time transaction monitoring)
2. Or, how the solution has strengthened the security or integrity of Open Banking-enabled services or infrastructure
3. A measurable reduction in fraud losses or increase in fraud detection rates
4. Improved customer experience while maintaining or enhancing privacy and security
5. Innovation: e.g. what’s unique about the approach or solution?
6. KPIs & commercial success — please demonstrate your metrics using real numbers, not just percentages

Open Banking for Good Criteria

Entries are invited from organisations that have made a significant contribution to the advancement of digital access to the financially excluded and underbanked populations via Open Banking.

Judges will be looking for evidence of success in the following criteria:

1. Initiatives that have advanced social & financial inclusion, and/or assisted customers on the path towards financial rehabilitation at an affordable rate
2. KPIs / statistics that demonstrate the success of the initiative
3. Innovative nature of the financial inclusion initiative
4. User satisfaction and/or customer testimonials
5. Scale of impact (number of users reached or supported)
6. Long-term sustainability of the initiative

👉 All data submitted will be treated in the strictest confidence. If necessary, we can anonymise sensitive information - such as client names or jurisdictions - when publishing the shortlist.

Best Open Banking Payments Project Criteria

Entries are invited from organisations that have delivered a clearly defined Open Banking payments project, implementing or enabling account-to-account (A2A) payments for consumers or SMEs. Entries may be submitted by:

• Merchants/brand or service providers adopting Open Banking payments at checkout
• Financial institutions enabling Open Banking payment capabilities
• Technology providers delivering the infrastructure or services that power a specific payments project

Judges will be looking for evidence of success in the following criteria:

1. Demonstrated use of Open Banking within a live payments project (e.g. A2A, Pay by Bank)
2. A significant reduction in payment costs, or other key benefits e.g reduced chargebacks, quicker settlement, with supporting data
3. Solving a clear pain point in the payment journey (e.g. checkout, disbursements) for one or more parties in the transaction chain
4. Improvements to end user experience, with corresponding uplift in adoption and satisfaction
5. KPIs & commercial success; please demonstrate your metrics, including real numbers, not just percentages (e.g. share of checkout post-implementation)

Best Customer Experience Criteria

Entries are invited from all organisations offering Open Banking products and services to consumers or SMEs that can demonstrate what activities they have undertaken during the qualifying period to set them apart as a strong advocate of frictionless commerce. This category recognises the overall customer journey, including onboarding, journeys across channels, and the end-to-end experience beyond a single product or interface.

Judges will be looking for evidence of success in the following criteria:

1. Offering a standout, frictionless offering to users
2. Improvements to the customer/user experience and a corresponding uplift in user adoption and satisfaction
3. Innovation: e.g. what is unique about the challenges you overcame, how you conceived your solution and what the offering looks like?
4. KPIs & commercial success; please demonstrate your metrics, including real numbers, not just percentages

Best Team Criteria

This award celebrates the power of collaboration - recognising teams who’ve worked together, or in partnership with others, to deliver beyond expectations.

Entries are welcome from internal teams, cross-functional groups, or partnerships across organisations that have united around a shared goal and delivered exceptional results.

Judges will be looking for:

1. A clearly defined, ambitious objective the team set out to achieve - and why it was a stretch
2. Evidence of collaborative working, including how individuals or partner organisations came together to deliver against the objective
3. Measurable impact - how the team’s efforts delivered meaningful outcomes for the business, customers, or the wider industry
4. Creativity and innovation - examples of new thinking or approaches that made the difference
5. Evidence of delivery against commercial or strategic objectives
6. Ability to execute under pressure or complexity

Best App Criteria

Entries are invited from financial institutions and third-party providers (TPPs) who offer an innovative application for customers or SMEs to enhance their financial wellbeing.

Judges will be looking for evidence of success in the following criteria:

1. A superior proposition for customers or SMEs, enabling better financial decision-making, improved financial outcomes, or more effective business financial management (e.g. payments, cash flow, lending, ID verification, tax or consent management)
2. Quality of the end-to-end user experience, including onboarding, navigation, and key user journeys, with a seamless and intuitive interface that enables users to easily understand, access, and act on their financial data, supported by evidence of improved usability and customer satisfaction.
3. Uptake in user adoption and user satisfaction, including clear evidence of scale (e.g. number of active users, growth over time, or market reach). Early-stage or pilot projects should demonstrate meaningful traction.
4. Innovation: what is unique about your offering?
5. KPIs & commercial success; please demonstrate your metrics, including real numbers, not just percentages

Best Regulatory Open Banking Initiative Criteria

Have you delivered a regulatory win for a customer using Open Banking? This award recognises initiatives that have enabled regulatory compliance through Open Banking or Open Finance solutions - whether mandated by government or proactively developed in response to regulatory frameworks.

Open to: Technology providers, financial institutions, industry consortia, or regulated entities that have built or deployed solutions enabling compliance with requirements such as KYC, AML, fraud prevention, data integrity, safeguarding, or access to accounts.

Judges will be looking for:

1. Clarity on the regulatory requirement addressed and how the initiative supports or enables compliance
2. Who has adopted the solution - and the scale or significance of its usage
3. Tangible benefits delivered compared to previous or legacy solutions (e.g. cost, efficiency, customer experience, security)
4. How big a job it was to make it happen. (Feel free to explain without naming names - confidentiality is assured!)
5. Collaborative elements - where applicable, how public and private sectors, or multiple partners, worked together

👉 All data submitted will be treated in the strictest confidence. If necessary, we can anonymise sensitive information - such as client names or jurisdictions - when publishing the shortlist.

Best Open Finance Application Criteria

This award recognises organisations that have delivered a compelling Open Finance application, using a broad range of financial data to create a strong, scalable product or service for consumers or businesses. This category focuses on the overall application and customer proposition, rather than the underlying use of data alone.

Entries are welcome from either:

• Organisations delivering the service directly to customers or businesses
• Technology enablers or partners who played a key role in powering the application

Judges will be looking for evidence of success in the following criteria:

1. A clearly defined product or service proposition, demonstrating how Open Finance data is used to deliver tangible value to customers or businesses
2. Improvements to the customer experience and a corresponding uplift in user adoption and user satisfaction
3. Innovation: what is unique about your offering?
4. KPIs & commercial success; please demonstrate your metrics, including real numbers, not just percentages
5. Use of multiple data sources beyond current accounts (e.g. savings, pensions, investments)
6. Demonstrable expansion beyond Open Banking into Open Finance

Women in Open Banking Award – Rising Star Criteria

This award recognises an early-career professional who identifies as a woman and is in the early stages of her career in Open Banking or Open Finance. Entries are invited from individuals who:

• have less than two years’ experience in Open Banking, Open Finance, or financial services, and
• are in the early stages of their overall career (typically with limited total professional experience)

This category is not intended for senior professionals who have transitioned into the sector from other industries. Entrants should already be making a noticeable impact within their organisation, demonstrating strong potential to become a future leader in the industry.

Judges will be looking for entrants to:

1. Provide an overview of the rising star’s experience and work in Open Banking or Open Finance, including key accomplishments to date
2. Demonstrate how the individual has contributed to the development or improvement of a product, service, or initiative
3. Show evidence of their impact within their organisation and how they have helped push it forward
4. Demonstrate contribution to the wider Open Banking, Open Payments, or Open Finance ecosystem

Women in Open Banking Award – Woman of the Year Criteria

Entries are invited from anyone who identifies as a woman and has made a significant impact in Open Banking or the Open Finance sector, and served as a role model for other women in both her own firm and / or the wider industry or her community.

Judges will be looking for entrants to:

1. Provide an overview of their experience and work in Open Banking or Open Finance, including past roles, memberships and third-party organisation roles, and chief accomplishments
2. Demonstrate how and why they are an outstanding leader
3. Demonstrate how they have significantly contributed to their organisation’s growth
4. Explain their reputation in the Open Banking, Open Payments or Open Finance sector and how has it been earned
5. Demonstrate their dedication to clients
6. Demonstrate their contribution to staff development and welfare

Best Use of AI in Open Banking or Open Finance Criteria

Entries are invited from organisations that have successfully applied artificial intelligence within Open Banking or Open Finance to deliver improved outcomes for consumers, SMEs, or financial institutions.

This could include, but is not limited to, applications in personalisation, fraud detection, credit decisioning, customer support, data enrichment, or operational efficiency.

Judges will be looking for evidence of success in the following criteria:

1. Clear explanation of how AI has been applied within an Open Banking or Open Finance context
2. Demonstrable improvements in customer experience, decision-making, or operational efficiency
3. Evidence of responsible and ethical AI usage, including transparency, fairness, and data protection
4. Innovation: e.g. what is unique about your approach or application of AI?
5. Uptake in user adoption and customer satisfaction
6. KPIs & commercial success; please demonstrate your metrics, including real numbers, not just percentages

Industry Leader of the Year Criteria

This award recognises an individual who has made a significant and lasting impact on the Open Banking or Open Finance ecosystem.

Entries are invited from individuals who have demonstrated outstanding leadership, influence, and contribution to the advancement of the industry.

Judges will be looking for entrants to:

1. Provide an overview of their experience and leadership within Open Banking or Open Finance
2. Demonstrate how they have influenced the direction of the industry, their organisation, or key initiatives
3. Evidence of measurable impact, whether through business growth, innovation, regulatory progress, or ecosystem development
4. Demonstrate thought leadership, advocacy, or contribution to the wider industry (e.g. speaking, collaboration, policy input)
5. Outline their role in driving innovation and/or overcoming significant challenges
6. Demonstrate their reputation and credibility within the industry

Innovation of the Year Criteria

Entries are invited from organisations that have developed and delivered a truly innovative Open Banking or Open Finance solution, product, or initiative.

This award recognises new thinking that challenges the status quo and delivers meaningful value to customers or the wider ecosystem.

Judges will be looking for evidence of success in the following criteria:

1. A clear description of the innovation and the problem it set out to solve
2. How the solution differs from existing offerings in the market
3. Evidence of real-world application and impact
4. Improvements to customer experience and/or business outcomes
5. Innovation: e.g. what makes this genuinely new or disruptive?
6. Uptake in user adoption and customer satisfaction
7. KPIs & commercial success; please demonstrate your metrics, including real numbers, not just percentages

Most Impactful Open Banking Initiative Criteria

Entries are invited from organisations that have delivered an Open Banking initiative with clear, measurable impact on customers, businesses, or the wider financial ecosystem.

This could include large-scale deployments, strategic programmes, or initiatives that have driven meaningful change.

Judges will be looking for evidence of success in the following criteria:

1. Clear articulation of the initiative and the problem it addressed
2. Demonstrable impact on customers, SMEs, or the wider market
3. Evidence of scale, reach, or adoption
4. Tangible benefits delivered (e.g. cost savings, efficiency gains, improved access, financial inclusion)
5. Innovation: e.g. what differentiates this initiative from others in the market?
6. KPIs & commercial success; please demonstrate your metrics, including real numbers, not just percentages

Best Open Banking Infrastructure Criteria

Entries are invited from technology providers, platforms, or financial institutions that have built or delivered infrastructure enabling Open Banking or Open Finance.

This includes API platforms, connectivity solutions, data aggregation layers, or core infrastructure that powers the ecosystem.

Judges will be looking for evidence of success in the following criteria:

1. The role the infrastructure plays in enabling Open Banking or Open Finance services
2. Reliability, scalability, and performance of the solution
3. Ease of integration and adoption by partners or clients
4. Security, resilience, and compliance with relevant standards and regulations
5. Innovation: e.g. what is unique about your infrastructure or approach?
6. Adoption by financial institutions, fintechs, or third parties
7. KPIs & commercial success; please demonstrate your metrics, including real numbers, not just percentages