Categories & Criteria
The qualifying period for entries is 1 January 2023 – 30 April 2024.
All submissions should provide evidence of success, or a product within the market during this period.
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:
- Demonstrable increase in your product and services portfolio to offer better value to customers
- Data analysis that uncovers enhanced value, e.g. spending patterns, sources of income, debt (including assistance where required) and identity verification
- How data has saved time, money and enhanced the customer experience
- Uptake in consumer adoption and customer satisfaction
- Innovation: e.g. what is unique about your offering?
- KPIs & commercial success; please demonstrate your metrics, including real numbers, not just percentages
Entries are invited from organisations that have partnered to create an Open Banking product for consumers or SMEs. The entry may be submitted by either company in the partnership.
Judges will be looking for evidence of success in the following criteria:
- Solving a real customer need based on quantifiable market research and/or customer feedback
- Ease of access to new financial products that the customer might not have otherwise had access to
- Offering the best value to the customer
- Uptake in consumer adoption and customer satisfaction
- For SME clients: Increasing the customer’s productivity, efficiency, and profitability
- Innovation: e.g. what is unique about your offering?
- KPIs & commercial success; please demonstrate your metrics, including real numbers, not just percentages
- Success metrics for both parties in the partnership; making it a mutually beneficial relationship
Entries are invited from organisations – or those who have partnered* with them – that can demonstrate the value Open Banking has brought to their sector. 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:
- Demonstrable increase in your product and services portfolio to offer better value to customers
- How Open Banking data has saved time, money and enhanced the customer experience
- How Open Banking has helped to address legacy and any other issues that have been resolved/mitigated by the use of it
- Uptake in consumer adoption and customer satisfaction
- Innovation: e.g., what is unique about your offering?
- KPIs & commercial success; please demonstrate your metrics, including real numbers, not just percentages
Entries are invited from banks or solutions providers – or those who have partnered* with them – who can demonstrate an innovative initiative that has improved the security of customers’ onboarding, their transactions and/or data.
*The entry may be submitted by either company in the partnership.
Judges will be looking for evidence of success in the following criteria:
- Offering a frictionless customer onboarding process whilst maximising security, usability, and customer privacy
- Evidence of a material uplift in customer security, cyber intelligence, detecting fraud and a reduction in fraud cases
- Improvements to the customer/user experience and a corresponding uplift in user adoption and user satisfaction
- Innovative nature of the financial crime initiative
- KPIs & commercial success; please demonstrate your metrics, including real numbers, not just percentages
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:
- Initiatives that have advanced social & financial inclusion, and/or assisted customers on the path towards financial rehabilitation at an affordable rate
- KPIs / statistics that demonstrate the success of the initiative
- Innovative nature of the financial inclusion initiative
- User satisfaction and/or customer testimonials
Entries are invited from users or providers of payments solutions that have allowed easier access for third party providers or enabled financial institutions to comply with the regulations and broaden their own service offerings.
Judges will be looking for evidence of success in the following criteria:
- Showcasing a significant reduction in payment costs with demonstrable statistics
- Innovative use of technology
- How the project has enhanced the speed and increased the security of transactions for merchants
- Making a case for transforming and fixing a pain point in the disbursement of payments
- Improvements to the customer experience and a corresponding uplift in user adoption and user satisfaction
- KPIs & commercial success; please demonstrate your metrics, including real numbers, not just percentages. For example, demonstrate your Share of Checkout (3 months after implementation)
Entries are invited from financial services or start-up companies that offer an Open Banking product and were founded less than 36 months ago and have raised less than £3m in equity (this includes SAFE notes).
Judges will be looking for evidence of success in the following criteria:
- Traction obtained in the market
- Innovation: e.g. what is unique about your offering?
- How it differentiates from the competition
- Business model, how it will make money, the business proposition?
- How it solves a real problem, or delivers a better efficiency
- KPIs & commercial success; please demonstrate your metrics, including real numbers, not just percentages. For example revenue, P/L or burn rate
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.
Judges will be looking for evidence of success in the following criteria:
- Offering a standout, frictionless offering to users
- Improvements to the customer/user experience and a corresponding uplift in user adoption and satisfaction
- Innovation: e.g. what is unique about the challenges you overcame, how you conceived your solution and what the offering looks like?
- KPIs & commercial success; please demonstrate your metrics, including real numbers, not just percentages
Successful teams are goal-focused, communicate well and support each other to deliver on business objectives. Truly great teams have that bit of extra magic that sees them make a significant impact in their sector, working together to overcome obstacles and collaborating for the benefit of their organisation.
Entries are invited from any team that has excelled in making a positive and measurable contribution to the company.
Judges will be looking for evidence of success in the following criteria:
- How the team has improved performance and contributed to the overall success of the business and its company strategy
- How the team's collaborative working and strategic goals have exceeded business expectations
- The team’s creativity, new approaches, and innovation backed up with solid results
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:
- Offering a superior proposition to customers; for example, enabling them to make better financial decisions, increase their savings or investments, or expand the choices that are available to them, or to SMEs; for example, enabling businesses to manage their finances better. This could include – but is not limited to – financial management, payments, cash flow, ID verification, loans, accountancy and tax, debt management or consent management tools.
- Uptake in user adoption and user satisfaction
- Innovation: e.g. what is unique about your offering?
- KPIs & commercial success; please demonstrate your metrics, including real numbers, not just percentages
- A video demo of the app and its features that should be no more than 3 minutes long.
Entries are invited from organisations that can demonstrate where their Open Banking solution has enabled compliance with a regulatory regime or mandate.
Judges will be looking for evidence of success in the following criteria:
- Addressing a legacy or new compliance area such as AML/KYC/ID/Integrity/Safeguarding
- What uptake was experienced by the client base?
- What issues did the initiative address?
- Can you compare this to the legacy solutions and articulate the benefits?
Entries are invited from organisations that have adopted the principles of Open Banking or utilised Smart Data to give consumers and businesses more control over a wider range of their financial data, such as savings, insurance, mortgages, investments, pensions, and consumer credit. The entry may be submitted by a solutions provider or the organisation providing services to the customer or business itself.
Judges will be looking for evidence of success in the following criteria:
- Demonstrable increase in your product and services portfolio to offer better value to customers
- Improvements to the customer experience and a corresponding uplift in user adoption and user satisfaction
- Innovation: e.g. what is unique about your offering?
- KPIs & commercial success; please demonstrate your metrics, including real numbers, not just percentages
Entries are invited from anyone who identifies as a woman and has worked for less than two years in the industry and has made a significant impact in her organisation in a short period of time.
Judges will be looking for entrants to:
- Provide an overview of the rising star’s experience and work in Open Banking, Payments or Open Finance, including past roles, memberships and third-party organisation roles, and chief accomplishments
- Demonstrate how has the rising star contributed to the development and release of a product or service, or made significant improvements
- Demonstrate what has the rising star done internally to benefit the organisation and push it forward
- Demonstrate how has the rising star contributed to the wider Open Banking, Open Payments or Open Finance sector
Entries are invited from anyone who identifies as a woman and has made a significant impact in Open Banking, Payments 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:
- Provide an overview of their experience and work in Open Banking, Payments or Open Finance, including past roles, memberships and third-party organisation roles, and chief accomplishments
- Demonstrate how and why they are an outstanding leader
- Demonstrate how they have significantly contributed to their organisation’s growth
- Explain their reputation in the Open Banking, Open Payments or Open Finance sector and how has it been earned
- Demonstrate their dedication to clients
- Demonstrate their contribution to staff development and welfare
This is a judges’ award, and names of individuals will be put forward during the judging process.
Criteria to be considered are as follows:
- Made an outstanding contribution and championed Open Banking, Open Finance or Smart Data in their sector or region
- Been instrumental in setting or impacting standards
- Lobbied government to drive implementation and support wider adoption
- Been first to push the boundaries of Open Banking beyond banking
- Played a key role in shaping and growing the ecosystem