Financial World Innovation Awards

2014

Awards Programme twenty-seventh of November

Grand Connaught Rooms

www.financialworldawards.co.uk The Financial World Innovation Awards is presented by ifs University College

Contents Welcome..................................................................................1 Message from Chair of Judges.....................2 Host............................................................................................3

Financial World ..............................................................4 Programme and Menu.............................................6 Table plan..................................................................................7 Award categories .......................................................8 The trophy..........................................................................9 Guest List..............................................................................10 Table order.......................................................................13 The judges .........................................................................20 Finalist summaries...........................................................24 Thanks and acknowledgements.....................48 Follow us @FWIAwards Tweet us your highlights of the night #FWIA14

Welcome On behalf of ifs University College, it is my pleasure to welcome you to the wonderful setting of the Grand Connaught Rooms for the 2014 Financial World Innovation Awards.

Since the inception of the Awards it has been inspiring to see the financial services industry innovating through the lens of the nominations we receive. Each year it is also a great pleasure to see organisations that have been nominated in the past return with fresh initiatives and pitch their achievements against newcomers from across the globe. The competition this year easily lives up to the standards set in the past so I congratulate you all on your success in being shortlisted and look forward to applauding those of you who will walk away with the prestigious ‘spark of innovation’ award given to each category winner. ifs University College believes that the success of the Financial World Innovation Awards rests on rewarding those initiatives that address the most pressing issues and exciting opportunities in the market in any given year. In the sixteen years that the awards have been running we have seen the industry transform through technology, consolidate in the face of recession and reinvent in the postcrisis economy.

With this in mind we have new award categories this year for start-ups that are aiming to challenge the status quo, for innovative use of the vast amounts of data stored within financial services organisations and for initiatives designed to prevent financial crime. These first-time awards sit alongside returning categories designed once again to recognise ingenuity in a wide variety of areas such as distribution, back office, payments, marketing and customer service.

It is this combination of entirely new, transformative initiatives with the best of innovation in more established business areas which makes the Financial World Innovation Awards so fascinating. I can only admire the resourcefulness and creativity harnessed in such diverse projects as those seen on the shortlists tonight.

I hope that you all enjoy celebrating your success this evening and I encourage you to return next year with the next generation of dynamic progress in our industry.

Martin Day Vice Principal, ifs University College

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Message from the Chair of Judges

It has been my honour to act as Chair of Judges for a third year, and my pleasure now to welcome guests to this evening’s Gala Dinner and to congratulate you all on being shortlisted in the 2014 Financial World Innovation Awards.

For some of you, this is an annual event; for others, a first time on the shortlist; for others still, a very first time foray into the FWIA process. As judges, we were very encouraged to see the number of entries to the awards and the level of competition that you have beaten to participate in the finals.

Once again, we were impressed by the quality of the shortlisted entries and I would like to thank my fellow judges for their hard work in determining the winners.

The introduction of four new awards, including ‘Best Financial Start-up’, ‘Innovation in cash Management or treasury services’, ‘Most Innovative Use of Data’ and ‘Best Financial Crime Prevention Initiative’ have enabled us to see how organisations are dealing with some of the most pressing challenges facing our industry, and we have been very pleased to welcome new entrants, both from the UK and overseas.

As industry professionals, the judging panel read the nominations with great interest, seeing how different aspects of finance develop differently in diverse geographical areas and markets.

The explosion in mobile phone use has meant that areas of the world that have traditionally had less sophisticated banking systems are now innovating and leading the way in some aspects of mobile banking, particularly where there has been no previous bank network and carrying cash can be perilous.

There have been some very interesting entries addressing these challenges.

At the other end of the spectrum, there have been some huge projects which can affect whole markets – particularly in the payments and processing arenas and it has been fascinating to see how these challenges have been addressed.

Having chaired the awards for three years and been a judge for several more, I would like to offer an observation. I have noted that those who win awards tend to meet our entry requirements meticulously – answering all the questions fully and offering a cohesive account of their achievements.

With that in mind, and with my sincere congratulations to the winners and commended entries tonight, may I wish you all the best for 2015!

Mark Sismey-Durrant FCIB,FRSA, Chief Executive of Hampshire Trust Bank

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Gyles Brandreth Former Politician and Broadcaster

'A master-class in public speaking' – APS Conference 'Probably the best speaker I have heard' – Daily Express 'A deadpan comic to rival Jack Dee' – Daily Telegraph The former Oxford Scholar and President of the Oxford Union, won the Parliamentary seat for Chester in 1992 and became Lord Commissioner of the Treasury in John Major’s government.

Today, he has returned to the worlds of entertainment, broadcasting and journalism.

‘Editor-at-large’ of the Sunday Telegraph Review, for whom he interviews princes, presidents & prime ministers, Gyles is also a regular face on BBC’s ‘The One Show’.

Other broadcasting work includes:- ‘Countdown’, ‘Room 101’ and ‘Have I Got News for You’, not to mention a host of Radio Four comedy programmes including, ‘Just a Minute’.

As a performer, he starred in ‘Zipp!, One hundred musicals for less than the price of one’ which toured throughout the UK, and as Malvolio and the Sea Captain in ‘Twelfth Night: The Musical’ at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. His comedy Fringe triumph ‘The One to One Show’ was a five star sell out at Edinburgh and he is currently on tour with his one-man show ‘Looking for Happiness’.

He also has best selling books including:- ‘Brief Encounters – Meetings with Remarkable People’, ‘Philip & Elizabeth: Portrait of a Royal Marriage’, ‘Charles and Camilla - Portrait of a Love Affair’, ‘Breaking the Code’ and most recently ‘The 7 Secrets of Happiness’.

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Financial World

Sepa: all for the euro Edith Rigler Migrants’ money lifeline Roger Ballard The house that debt built Atif Mian, Amir Sufi An examination of the IPO

Beware the value bridge Peter Morris

Financing Britain’s Great War David Reynolds

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in association with the CSFI

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We will also continue to have our regular columnists: Graham Bishop will track the ins and outs of European financial affairs, Dave Birch will keep us abreast of payment technology and Celia Hampton is there to keep tabs on the findings of m’ learned friends.

PAYMENTS

The shape of European retail payments to come Heiko Schmiedel, Gergana Kostova

Cover image:

Just in case those of you in the industry will worry that the magazine might become a little otherworldly, we will still be drawing on insight of those fighting in the front line. Back in July, for example, Paul Lynam, the CEO of Secure Trust Bank and one of the judges of our awards, discussed how payments infrastructure needs to be opened up if there is to be real competition in UK retail banking.

IN THIS ISSUE:

4 TEMBER 201 AUGUST / SEP

Recent contributors include: Prof Charles Goodhart, an emeritus professor at the LSE and a former chief adviser to the Bank of England, analysing the challenges ahead for UK retail banking; Atif Mian and Amir Sufi, professors at Princeton and the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, respectively, on how spending on housing affects overall economic activity; and Brandon Davies, a former banker and a member of the financial markets group at the LSE on how best to apply the toolkit of securitisation to small and medium-sized businesses. As that list of job titles suggests, “Financial World” has begun to take a more in-depth and scholarly approach to the topics covered. The aim is that it should be a valuable resource for both students and practitioners and also a spur to debate in, and about, the financial services industry. To this end, the October-November edition saw Peter Morris – a former banker – examine how value creation is measured in the world of private equity. He argues that things are by no means as fruitful in the private equity garden as the “value creation” results suggest.

OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2014

Financial World is the ifs University College journal, issued every two months. This award-winning publication is produced for ifs University College by the Centre for the Study of Financial Innovation (www.csfi.org) and brings together some of the best journalists, commentators and experts in the financial services industry around the world.

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iation with the CSFI

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Congratulations to all the winners tonight!

We are honoured to have been recognised by the Financial Services industry for bringing clarity to the complex world of technology costs. The unique IT operating cost model that we have developed with our clients has helped them design and plan transformational change, cutting analysis time by over 60% and enabling them to understand current and projected run costs like never before.

Altus Consulting is a specialist provider of consultancy services to the Financial Services sector. We help clients achieve operational excellence and improved returns via a combination of proven industry models, technology expertise and market insight.

C Contact Martyn Contact M artyn EEvans, vans, Head Head off Consulting Consulting martyn.evans@altus.co.uk martyn.evans@altus.co.uk or visit altus.co.uk visit alt us.co.uk

Programme Welcome Martin Day, Vice Principal, ifs University College

Dinner Speech Gyles Brandreth, former politician and broadcaster

Presentation of awards Live band from 11pm Carriages at 2am

Menu Starter Tian of crab on a bed of avocado, smoked salmon and cucumber, served with chilli mango salsa San Mazano tomato, bocconcini artichoke and balsamic onion salad (v)

Main Old spot pork belly, shallot mash, savoy cabbage and sweet potato fondant cumin jus Moroccan platter of stuffed baby aubergine with babaganujj, mini vegetable couscous tart tatin, stuffed sweet potato, red onion, red beetroot and goats cheese (v)

Dessert Apple and black prune crumble with cognac ice-cream

Wines Red Tilia Malbec, Argentina

White San Abello Sauvignon Blanc, Chile

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Entrance 7

Awards Categories Most effective back office initiative Most innovative application of technology - Mobile banking Most innovative application of technology - Other Most innovative application of technology - Investments Best community banking initiative

Innovation or enhancement in product or proposition design – Deposits, savings & loans Best payments initiative Innovation in cash management or treasury services Best regulated advice initiative Most innovative use of data Best risk project or governance initiative Technology vendors - Most innovative financial services solution Best financial start-up Innovation in marketing and communications

Innovation or enhancement in product or proposition design – Investments, pensions & protection Innovation in supporting business or enterprise Innovation in the delivery of financial products - Financial services* Innovation in the delivery of financial products - Mobile* *Award category partner

Excellence in customer experience – Customer centric business enhancement Excellence in customer experience - Customer focused products & services Innovation in sustainability or social responsibility Best financial crime prevention initiative Most effective cultural transformation or staff participation initiative

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The Trophy The distinctive Financial World Innovation Awards trophy was specially designed in 2001 by Liz Friedman, an Emmy Award-winning designer. Her original concept was that the trophy should be based on a spark, as a metaphor for the ideas that lie behind innovation. That idea has grown to include a gold nugget, which nestles at the core of the trophy, symbolising a treasure to be discovered.

Alan Kemp is the craftsman behind the trophies, and he describes the process that goes into creating each spark of achievement: 'The Innovation Award trophies are made from thick brass plate, which is a pleasure to work with. It cuts cleanly and takes heat without warping and going out of shape. I cut the trophy parts from a master pattern, and then grind them to size, set them straight and coarsely polish them. There are elaborate jigs to hold each piece in place as it is silver-soldered. The melting point of the silver is only slightly less than the brass, and the gas flame is five times hotter than both, so it needs care not to produce a metal puddle instead of a trophy!’

‘The downside of silver soldering (which is otherwise wonderful) is the heat damage to the surrounding metal. The trophies emerge looking like Roman relics, so then comes the long and arduous process of stripping away the oxidised metal and polishing all 31 surfaces (including edges).’

‘When the polishing is completed, the trophies go to be nickel-plated, which has a warm, art deco look, and not the harsh, bluish finish of chrome.’

‘The last job is to attach the velvet base, the gold nugget and the winner plate, and give them a final shine.

They look fantastic together, the light bouncing between them and the gold and silver reflecting each other.

I really enjoy making them, and I hope the winners enjoy them too.’

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The Judges Chair of judges Mark Sismey-Durrant, Chief Executive, Hampshire Trust Bank Mark is Chief Executive of Hampshire Trust Bank, a new generation bank which specialises in providing commercial finance to UK businesses. He led a buyout of the bank forming a new management team in May 2014 with the support of Alchemy Partners. He was formerly Chief Executive of Sun Bank Plc and Heritable Bank Plc and a former Board member and Strategic Marketing Director of Sun Life Financial of Canada (UK) Ltd. He has established a number of retail and commercial specialist lending businesses funded by retail and business deposits in the UK and Channel Islands. He began his career at Midland Bank where he worked in retail, commercial and international banking across a full spectrum of disciplines.

Mark is a Board member of the BBA and chairs its Smaller Banks Advisory Board. At Loughborough University he is a lay Council Member, Chair of Audit Committee and a member of the Strategic Advisory Board for the School of Business and Economics. He is a Court Assistant for the Worshipful Company of International Bankers and chairs its Charity and Education Committee. He was formerly Chairman of the British Icelandic Chamber of Commerce and served as President of the Loughborough University Alumni Association. He holds a BSc in Banking and Finance and an MPhil, both from Loughborough University. He is a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Bankers and a fellow of the RSA.

Judges Co-ordinator Alison Thomas Steer, Freelance Journalist Alison is a freelance journalist and editor specialising in the financial services and technology industries. She has a BA in European Business Administration from ESC Reims, France, and an MBA from Cranfield University.

After gaining marketing experience in the IT sector, Alison worked in consumer credit and then as a consultant in the financial services industry. She has worked on the Financial World Innovation Awards since their inception in 1997.

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Judging Panel Graham Flower, CEO, Intelligence Delivered Graham is CEO of Intelligence Delivered a consultancy specialising in Customer Management supporting clients across Europe, Asia and South America. He is author of ‘Banking: In search of relevance’ Developing a new business model post the 2008 Banking Crisis. He is also a Senior advisor at Finalta and a member of the Academic Board of ifs University College. Previous roles include Head of Customer Propositions and Marketing for HSBC Bank.

Graham was Head of Customer Propositions and Marketing for HSBC Bank.

He was responsible for developing and implementing customer propositions across three leading UK brands – HSBC (including Premier), M&S Money and first direct.

Graham is also a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Bankers and a Chartered Engineer.

Jane Fuller, Co-director, Centre for the Study of Financial Innovation Jane Fuller, co-director of the Centre for the Study of Financial Innovation, an independent think-tank, and consulting editor of Financial World, ifs University College’s bi-monthly publication. Her CSFI role includes being the PIC Pensions Fellow, focusing on changes in work-based pensions. She is also the director of Fuller Analysis, a consultancy that she founded after leaving the Financial Times in 2005.

Her advisory work focuses on savings and investment – clients include the online start-up company, Nutmeg – and on accounting and governance. She is a member of the Audit and Assurance Council of the FRC, the UK regulator, and a Fellow of CFA Society of the UK. She spent more than 18 years at the FT, where her roles included Lex writer, UK Companies Editor and Financial Editor, becoming part of the senior management team. She still trains FT journalists and is a columnist for Accounting & Business magazine.

Professor James Devlin, Director of the Centre for Risk, Banking and Financial Services James Devlin is Professor of Financial Decision Making in the Department of Marketing at Nottingham University Business School. He is also Associate Dean (International Relations) for the School and Director of the Centre for Risk Banking and Financial Services. James also serves as a Trustee of the Board of Governors of ifs University College. He has researched the areas of consumer decision making, marketing and policy issues in financial services since joining the University of Nottingham in 1991. Prior to this, James worked in the financial services industry for Lloyds Private Banking. James completed his PhD in 1996 and has subsequently been lead researcher/principle investigator on a number of projects funded by bodies including the Economic and Social Research Council, Financial Services Authority and Financial Services Research Forum and has also been involved as co-researcher in projects funded by the Office of Fair Trading, TSB and others. James has published many research articles covering policy issues in financial services and beyond, as well as marketing financial services and other marketing issues. James has also worked at Cass Business School (1998-2000) and the University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus in Kuala Lumpur (2000-2003).

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Judging Panel Professor Nigel Waite, CEO, The Canford Centre Nigel is a consultant who specialises in corporate behaviour, marketing strategy and its implementation. He also has particular expertise as a researcher and commentator on areas concerning trust, fairness and value in the context of financial services. Nigel is the co-author of Financial Services Marketing: An International Guide to Principles and Practice. The second edition of this world-wide best seller was recently published.

Nigel spent over 20 years in commercial practice in marketing, sales and general management, including Marketing Director roles at Lloyds Banking Group and Barclays in which he was responsible for life assurance, pension, savings and investment products. In terms of General Management he has run businesses marketing unsecured loans, finance broker second mortgages and first mortgages.

He was the founder and, for 12 years, Director and of the Financial Services Research Forum and is Honorary Professor of Marketing at the University of Nottingham. Nigel is an Associate of the London-based Financial Inclusion Centre.

Paul Lynam, Chief Executive Officer, Secure Trust Bank Paul is the CEO of Secure Trust Bank PLC. Secure Trust is one of the UK’s so called ‘Challenger Banks’ and currently serves Retail Banking, SME and Asset Finance markets. It was the first bank to float on the stock market post the financial crisis.

STB has delivered total shareholder returns in excess of 300% since the IPO in November 2011.

Prior to joining Secure Trust Bank, Paul spent the majority of his 22 years with RBS and NatWest in front line customer facing roles in Retail, Commercial and Corporate Banking and Asset Finance businesses. These included Managing Director, Banking; Chief Executive, UK Business Banking; and Managing Director, Lombard North Central.

Paul holds both banking (ACIB, Fifs) and corporate treasury (AMCT) qualifications and he is a Board member of the British Bankers Association.

Suzanne Chadwick, RDR and Training Adviser, Sesame Bankhall Suzanne’s current role is within Group Strategy. Suzanne has over 22 years’ of experience within financial services, several of these within sales, management and regulated supervision. Prior to joining Sesame Bankhall, Suzanne worked as a successful sales consultant and regulated trainer for a large UK bank assurer. Suzanne completed her Masters degree in Personnel and Development at Liverpool John Moores University and has recently completed her MBA at Chester University.

Suzanne is President of the local Manchester ifs Committee and is also a member of the ifs FE Board.

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Judging Panel Dr. Tina Harrison, Senior Lecturer, University of Edinburgh Business School Dr. Tina Harrison is Senior Lecturer in Marketing at the University of Edinburgh Business School, Scotland, UK. She is author of Financial Services Marketing (PrenticeHall), editor of an online talks series in Financial Services Marketing (Henry Stewart), and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Financial Services Marketing. Her research interests encompass marketing and consumption of financial services, including segmentation, relationships and retention, pensions and the Internet. She has led several research projects on these topics with funding from financial institutions and research councils, including a major three-year project on pensions and the internet funded by the UK’s Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and a two-year ESRC-funded seminar series on the topic of Financial Services and the Consumer: Challenges and Issues in a Context of Change. She has also conducted a wide range of consultancy projects for financial institutions. Her research has been presented at conferences and published widely in leading international journals including: European Journal of Marketing, Information and Management, Journal of Marketing Management, Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing, Marketing Intelligence and Planning, Financial Accountability and Management, International Journal of Bank Marketing and Journal of Financial Services Marketing.

Dr Tony Gandy, Reader, Postgraduate Programmes, University College Tony has a background in studying the conjunction between technology and financial services strategy. Since gaining a PhD from the London School of Economics he has worked in financial journalism, investment banking and as a consultant to the banking and technology industries.

He develops and teaches on the ifs University College’s Masters programmes, teaching modules on Bank Structures and Strategy, Bank Regulation and Customer and Channel Strategies.

Eric Leenders, Executive Director, Retail and Private Banking, BBA Eric’s brief as the head of the Retail team at the British Bankers’ Association covers a broad portfolio of policy issues, covering payment accounts, credit and debt and savings.

Eric chairs the European Banking Federation’s Retail Committee, is a director of the Lending Code Standards Board and a Non-Executive Director at both the Buckinghamshire Building Society and Registry Trust Limited. He is also involved with the Department of Work and Pensions' Credit Union Expansion Project and capacity building in the Community Development Finance sector.

Eric has over 30 years’ experience as a career banker in retail banking with NatWest and latterly the Royal Bank of Scotland Group. During this time, the roles he has undertaken have been both operational and strategic, including successful spells as a branch and business manager. Before joining the BBA, he was responsible for a series of policy-driven projects in PR and communications, new and emergent markets, legal and regulatory issues, and crisis management.

Eric is a Chartered Fellow of the Institute of Financial Services.

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Most effective back office initiative Akbank – Distraint Automation Akbank, a leading bank in Turkey, has 861 branches across the country in addition to high tech distribution channels such as Mobile and Internet Banking. Legislation changes in January 2013 required distraints sent from enforcement offices to be sent to a bank’s headquarters, meaning that the processing workload in company headquarters doubled overnight. The increased workload and the cumbersome, inefficient and expensive process led the bank to consider ways to improve the system. The manual process was re-engineered for end-to-end system automation beginning in September 2013. Documents are scanned and integrated into a workflow system, critical data is entered and run through a process to look for matching assets via a smart algorithm and accounts are blocked with the correct documentation determined and printed with pre-scanned signatures. Scanning takes place at headquarters, although the rest of the process takes place at offices some 50km away, which is a much more efficient service, with the benefits of cost reduction and environmental impact through not having to deliver large quantities of documents to a different place. With this project, a regulatory and totally manual process is now fully digitally automated. The project was carried out and developed internally by Akbank employees and was completed by March 2014.

Citi Retail Services – Field Sales Efficiency & Effectiveness Enhancements Within Citi’s Consumer Banking business, Citi Retail Services provides credit products and solutions to top retailers in North America, including a leading home improvement retailer. To support this partner’s 2,000-plus stores, a dedicated “Field Sales team” nearly 100 strong are located throughout the U.S. and Canada. This team serves as the primary relationship between the retailer’s local and regional management, hundreds of thousands of employees and key customers. In 2013, there was a near-complete cultural transformation of the way that this team manages and executes daily responsibilities, through the reworking of the Customer Relationship platform, which consolidated data from the previous 15+ weekly reports into a single tablet-friendly report which displayed statistical data to display meaningful insights for managers, including focus areas, which helps to identify sales opportunities. The paperless system allows real-time access to data, reporting and administrative tasks which means that staff spend far less time in the office, allowing them to work anywhere. This behind-the-scenes change has completely revolutionised the way the team operates, increasing efficiency and effectiveness and driving more business for Citi’s partner. Around 25% of each sales manager’s time has been reinvested back as productive customer-facing time.

eClerx Services – eRMS eClerx is a specialist Knowledge and Business Process Outsourcing company providing middle and back office operations support to various large investment banks. When managing 175+ financial processes for eight leading investment banks, the main mode of communication is via email, many of which carry financially sensitive information. A misdirected mail or a delayed response could lead to severe financial, legal or reputational risk. With more than a million mails every month, incidents of misdirection and delayed responses were increasing, as was the management effort involved. eClerx decided to identify standard best practices and simplify the system in these email intensive communication environments and, with cross-functional cooperation, developed in-house, an innovative review and management system to manage high volume, sensitive emails. Systematic risk prevention provides a competitive edge in eClerx’s financial services offerings as well as customer security and confidence in the system. The suite of modules automatically scan every outgoing email and prevents misdirects, check conflicting counterparty content, block emails to personal accounts and implement process controls. A livestatus dashboard monitors mail traffic and reports on unanswered mail and turnaround time. The plug and play solution can be easily customised for any process and efficiently adapts to any email software.

Lloyds Bank International – Deceased Customers - What Matters?

The corporate brand values ‘putting the customer first’, ‘keeping it simple’ and ‘making a difference together’ are pivotal in putting the customer at the heart of everything that Lloyds Banking Group does.

The Probate team in Lloyds Bank International (LBIL), a subsidiary which offers accounts to the Isle of Man, Jersey, Guernsey and Gibraltar wanted to align their procedures, following the death of a customer, based on what mattered to family, executors and solicitors acting on behalf of the deceased. Based on customer feedback, the bank constructed a process that was designed to offer an empathetic approach in trying to achieve the necessary tasks at a highly emotive time. This included a commitment to ‘right first time’ advice and easy access to expertise – which resulted in a direct phone number being included in all communications. An increase in telephone contact, particularly with the surviving party on a joint account, offering condolences and asking if there is anything the bank can help with.

Customers have been very appreciative of this proactive approach, and it is easy for them to ask for necessary information and paperwork.

They have also appreciated the streamlining that has reduced turnaround time for the process to be completed.

LV= – Implementation of Process Management The Process Management team was created in April 2012 to govern, stabilise and continuously improve the way LV= conducts its general insurance business. Previously, change was implemented independently, without considering the impact on other business areas, resulting in a lack of standardisation and transparency, areas working in silos and process information stored in different ways. This journey aims to embed a continuous improvement culture with process at the heart of the business. The approach is innovative through its simplicity, thoroughness and vision. Implemented without massive investment, it began with documenting ‘who does what and why’ in order to visualise the whole business and its interactions with customers and internally. Easy-to-use procedures were identified and shared with staff in the form of best practice documents on an intranet and a sensible governance structure implemented. Benchmarks for business expectations were clearly communicated and an openness to improvement suggestions encouraged. A comprehensive coaching and quality assurance programme of training has helped to empower customer-facing frontline staff with the tools and ‘know how’ to improve the business and ensure that customers go through the same consistent journey whoever they speak to, and whenever they call LV=.

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Most innovative application of technology – Mobile banking Akbank T.A.S - Direkt Value Proposition

The Direkt Value Proposition was one of the most important initiatives for Akbank’s internet and banking channels in 2014, enriching the service offered by these channels for business owners and premier segmented customers. ‘Akbank Direkt Plus’ is Turkey’s first mobile banking application that offers an authenticated online video call and instant chat support which is integrated to the bank’s Call Centre to private bank clients. Its sister product ‘Akbank Direkt Isim’ was designed for business and SME customers, allowing them to manage their personal and company accounts on a single platform that offers convenient solutions to manage their users’ daily financial activities. In addition, Akbank offers a Money Withdrawal with iBeacon feature that is a world first, allowing ‘Akbank Direkt Mobile’ users to withdraw money from ATMs without the need to enter their PIN number or any code, but simply to place the phone on the interface pad and press a single button on the ATM’s keypad. Thus the transaction is completed in a matter of seconds. This system offers customers a new option for the app, utilising cutting-edge technology with a simple UX and a smooth customer experience.

Barclays - 'Call Us' on Barclays Mobile Banking Traditionally, when customers called Barclays’ helpdesk, they were faced with a series of options before being connected with the right team. Those who did not have the right passcode information for any reason were required to go through multiple security questions to pass Identity and Verification (ID&V) checks once they were put through to an agent. Barclays wanted to address these cumbersome ID&V processes, and created the ‘Call Us’ on Mobile Banking service. Its purpose is to deliver an outstanding customer experience and this is achieved by radically simplifying the procedure when a call is made to the bank. ‘Call Us’ is unique in the market-place. Customers simply select the ‘Call Us’ service from within the mobile application, and are put straight through to the telephony agent, pre-authenticated. The telephone agent now instantly recognises the customer as their details are populated on the agent’s system along with the reason for their call, and can therefore offer a personalised service. It’s brought greater collaboration between security, customer experience and operations. Not often a product is created, which puts the customer at the core but also improves the security levels and reduces operational costs as well as achieving market-leading Net Promoter Scores.

DenizBank - fastPay m-Wallet In response to the high penetration levels of smartphones in Turkey and the emerging demand market for mobile banking services, fastPay was the first mobile wallet in Turkey, meeting consumer demands and reinforcing the innovative image of the brand. The App can be used on all networks within Turkey and offers a wide range of services as well as a ‘dot-lock’ code alternative to the classical passcode option. Registration can be done online using only a ‘citizen ID’ and a mobile telephone number. Services include peer-to-peer transfers using the recipient’s mobile number to direct the payment; merchant payments such as utilities, or phone top-up and the ability to link DenizBank current or deposit accounts, plus any Turkish credit card brands with their fastPay account, enabling payments to be made direct from these instruments. Other features mean that customers can even make low-value, hands-free payments using Bluetooth Low Energy in participating merchant premises, or use the ‘Withdraw with Voice’ feature that allows customers to get cash from an ATM without a card or touch screen, simply by talking to the App. The product has been developed by a subsidiary of the bank, demonstrating its commitment to invest in technology improvements to ensure digital excellence in their services.

Türkiye İş Bankası A.Ş. (İşbank) – Login IsCep with Intel IPT (Identity Protection Technology) Turkish banking regulations require mandatory ‘two-factor authentication’ when logging into alternative delivery channels. This means that customers must use at least two of three factors, such as ‘something you know (e.g. password), ‘something you have’ (e.g. one time password token), or ‘something you are’ (e.g. fingerprint). The largest bank in Turkey in terms of assets, Isbank launched Turkey’s first comprehensive mobile banking application ‘ Cep’ in 2007, and has continued to innovate ever since, to the benefit of its 1+ million mobile customers who are now able to perform over 100 financial transactions via their mobile devices. However, the login process for mobile banking can be cumbersome and frustrating, so Isbank wanted to make the login steps easier, quicker and more secure. Working with Monitise, the service Login Cep with Intel IPT utilises a one time password, generated from an embedded processor that is tamper proof and directly sent to the Bank’s system. The user’s credentials are held and protected inside the chipset so that they cannot be compromised or removed from the mobile device. Once activated, the mobile device becomes the token in the two factor authentication, making access to ‘ Cep’ easier. The project has enhanced the user experience and strengthened Isbank’s image as an innovative bank

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UBS AG - UBS Access Card NFC and Access Card Display for UBS Mobile Banking

As the world’s leading wealth manager, security comes first at UBS. In 2002, UBS developed an online banking infrastructure with unparalleled security – a solution based on a personal access card and a card reader which were jointly used to generate personalised and short-lived, one-time passwords. While this is a good system for desktop banking, the drive towards mobile banking challenged the validity of this system.

Customers do not want to carry a card reader around with them all the time. UBS sought an authentication solution that offered the same leading security level as the existing system but tailored to banking ‘on the go’. That solution was NFC. With a UBS Access Card, NFC users can login to the UBS Mobile Banking App simply by holding their card close to their mobile device and entering their PIN. This is believed to be the world’s most convenient mobile authentication solution that offers the highest possible security level, NIST level 4. For phones that do not support NFC, a built-in keypad and display on the UBS Access Card provides a personalised one-time token which can be used to login, assuring the same leading security level. This combination of security and user convenience has proved very attractive to digitally-committed customers.

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Most innovative application of technology – Other Bankinter – Biometric Signature Although signature management and document control is not a new concept, new tablet technology has allowed Bankinter to create anew service via an easy, comfortable tablet and mobile tool for customers. Meeting the requirements of security, legality and authentication is the first challenge in creating a solution to optimise banking contract processes and enables a security increment and control of fraud through identity theft based on better customer recognition. Biometric Signature allows our employees to adapt or modify documents before signature, based on customer preferences and requirements, converting a manual process into a digital process. This system permits people to sign documents ‘just in time’, driving productivity improvements within the bank as well as offering convenience, accessibility and speed to customers. Biometric Signature was launched in 2013 in branches and agencies. Its recognition system allows high accuracy in verification and high quality in document integrity processing and goes beyond a handwritten signature in adding other biometric capabilities such as voice, fingerprint and iris recognition. Customers have recognised the value of the system and it is estimated that at least 12 million documents each year will be managed on the platform.

Barclays – Personalised lending: using video in email*

Barclays – Project Boost The Boost iPad Application for the Wealth International business segment of Barclays’ personal and corporate banking service was developed by the On-boarding Transform Programme and applies digital innovation to the onboarding experience for clients and colleagues to make life easier, in line with Barclays’ corporate goals. Currently being used in the UK and South Africa, relationship managers can complete the onboarding process for new clients in a completely paperless way, via an iPad. By combining several digital and low touch technologies and presenting them in an intuitive way that allows them to move through the onboarding journey together, this process has revolutionised the experience. Overcoming the challenges of unclear policies and procedures, unnecessary time and paper, duplication and a back and forth approach to client engagement, Boost has achieved its aim of accelerating delivery from weeks to hours, simplifying client interaction, reducing costs and creating the best possible experience for both clients and colleagues. Developed in response to client and colleague feedback, Boost went live in May 2014 and is the first stage in a cutting-edge development in the financial services world, using an agile methodology which will allow for incremental functionality to delivery further process, time and cost efficiencies throughout the business.

MBNA – Digital Communications Hub With an ambition to become the leading service provider in credit cards, MBNA’s Digital team are continuously aiming to enhance their digital capability to meet the changing behaviours and needs of their customers. Their interactive, multi-channel, real-time alert capability is the latest stage in their fraud prevention strategy. Using the Digital Communications hub has revolutionised the way MBNA communicates with customers about potential fraud on their credit. The system has allowed them to reduce reliance on manual intervention and increase the volumes of fraud alerts that can actioned. The Hub technology incorporates business rules that allow MBNA to define the customer contact strategy and parameters can be changed depending on the characteristics of the fraud alert.

MBNA has applied the technology from a customer viewpoint, reducing the anxiety in what can be a stressful situation and allowing the customer to self-serve at a time convenient to them. The system permits an immediate override to continue a purchase, where a transaction is genuine, with the same card, with the whole process taking less than a minute. Equally, the system will automatically ‘bounce’ to a new channel if there is no customer response within a given time, until an answer is received.

Standard Bank – Paperless Account Opening Standard Bank Personal and Business Banking International (PBBI) is a division of Standard Bank Group, Africa’s largest banking group by assets and market capitalisation, operating from four jurisdictions, Jersey, Isle of Man, Mauritius and South Africa and offering a range of banking & investment products to the global client base. PBBI has initiated a digital strategy, designed to fundamentally change the business is conducted, from traditional paper-based to future-based technology. Paperless account opening was designed to revolutionise our clients’ on-boarding experience, help to manage resources more effectively and increase the quality of data received. The bank agreed to move sales culture from ‘pen and ink’ to iPad’ so that client information is captured directly and sent offshore remotely, empowering Relationship Managers to deliver a frictionless onboarding experience and creating a direct competitive advantage through a reduction in the time taken to open an account and an improvement in accuracy. A 17 week project including culminated in the launch of the service which offers greater capacity to the bank as well as improved customer satisfaction and retention.

The development team is now able to use the scalability and flexibility of the technology to roll it out to other parts of the business.

*This is a confidential entry.

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Most innovative application of technology – Investments eClerx Services – Global Dashboards The tighter regulatory environment in the global investment banking industry requires banks to maintain a close watch on Operational Risk in the middle office space, including monitoring of ‘trade breaks’ in the lifecycle of a trade between front and back office and an auditable review of Key Risk Indicators. eClerx Services’ client faced a significant challenge to meet these regulatory requirements because of its global network of diverse systems and locations, making the consolidation of a bigger picture an onerous task. The reporting framework was designed by eClerx in the form of a dashboard that can accommodate a wide range of sources, transform them to a consistent format and report on them with clear indication of outstanding or problem items. Executives can thus sign off on the action taken before the end of day processing as well as produce seamless reports for audit and compliance tracking. The dashboard is innovative in its scalable and customisable perspective. Errors have been significantly reduced while the automation of the reports has improved the time taken to map exceptions, giving management an earlier indicator of potential issues.

Goldenway Precious Metals – GTS Cloud Trading Platform Goldenway Precious Metals was established in 2009 in Hong Kong to provide professional electronic bullion trading platforms and services for clients across the world. In order to offer the best trading experience to its clients, it has invested in high performance, easy-to-use trading platforms. The GTS Trading Platform was especially designed for the Chinese population who can benefit from a user-friendly interface to trade bullion with the help of a comprehensive analytical toolkit and added functionality such as automatic login to the server with the lowest traffic. The cloud-based system has resolved compatibility problems around data sharing between the previous PC and mobile versions and has upgraded its mobile offering in response to customers expressed preference for this channel, as well as introducing top-end security and authentication measures to protect investors from online attacks. In addition to saving storage and memory space on the client’s device, the system has improved on data downloads, news updates and compatibility with more devices resulting in growing customer satisfaction.

Saxo Bank – TradingFloor.com Saxo Bank is a Danish bank specialising in online trading and investment across global financial markets. From the start, it has emphasised that technology is a vital element in being competitive in the online industry and has sought excellence in service, technology and security. TradingFloor.com was launched in January 2014, the first major platform to offer multi-asset social trading. It is an investment solution for the social media age – TradingFloor is the first social trading community to feature only real traders and to offer full transparency with regard to performance and trading history. No demo accounts are available; those trading are doing so with real money and all performance data is verified so traders can be sure of the performance of the people they choose to follow or copy. The site offers a range of content including market news, views, data, insights and trade ideas from Saxo’s research teams and VIP authors, and a real-time trade stream reveals current market sentiment. An on-demand TV channel features video content filmed from Saxo’s trading floor in Copenhagen. In all this, and with more than 30,000 multi-asset tradable instruments available, trading has now become a social experience.

TMX Group – TMX Quantum XA TMX Group is the centre of Canadian capital markets, operating cash and derivative markets for multiple asset classes including equities, fixed income and energy. TMX provides trading, clearing facilities, data products and other services to Canadian and international financial community. It provides domestic and international investors with access to the Canadian marketplace, via four equity trading markets: TSX Toronto Stock Exchange, TSXV Venture Stock Exchange, TMX Select and TMX Alpha. This project was begun when the previous generation of TMX Quantum trading engine had fallen behind latency level expectations. Setting the goals for a new generation of trading engine that would allow TMX to leapfrog their competition in terms of latency while preserving full market functionality and availability. The technology team began its R&D initiative to meet the challenge.

Over two years, research and creativity from in-house solution was consolidated in a unique, proprietary technology where the TMX Quantum XA architecture was created. TMX Quantum XA technology was launched in TMX Select market in July 2013 and rolled out into the TSX main equity market in June 2014. It is an ultra-low latency order processing trading system that is believed to be the fastest in the world, as well as achieving market-leading low levels of latency variability (‘jitter’).

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Best community banking initiative Akbank – Children Heroes of the Economy Recognising the social responsibility that goes with being a leading banking brand in Turkey, Akbank has invested in the future of society by developing a series of sustainable CSR projects.

One of these focuses specifically on the savings deficit in Turkey, a critical problem currently facing the Turkish economy. This downward trend results in investments being made from overseas resources rather than being supported by savings, causing an increase in the current account deficit and increasing the cost of borrowing for Turkey. Understanding that this is a matter based in hearts and minds, Akbank has developed an education programme aimed specifically at the next generation, bringing financial education to kids, and building savings awareness. The children can then cascade this valuable knowledge back up to their parents. Using an ‘edutainment’ model and staffed largely by volunteers from the bank, the programme incorporates games and cartoons to inform children and aims to build good habits early in life that become habitual action in adulthood. There is also additional website material for parents. This ongoing project has already reached over 30,000 children across 15 Turkish provinces.

Backus – Making Progress Together Peru is one of Latin America’s fastest growing economies, and yet its financial inclusion rate is among the lowest in South America. In 2012, only six out of 11 million people had access to any banking services, including wholesalers and suppliers. Lack of access to financial products and services has led to increased bankruptcies, stifled growth and risk of robbery. This project is a joint venture between a drinks company, several banks and a microfinance provider and has reached deep into rural areas to create a simple infrastructure that reduces dependence on cash, offers access to much-needed credit lines to build businesses and a programme of education and training to improve financial awareness. Small loans at preferential rates have removed the unfavourable choice between stagnation, bankruptcy or extortionate interest rates from unscrupulous lenders, while the development of a mobile banking model and web platform to control the daily payments from clients and cash flow improves security, is simple to use and provides easy access to financial services. In addition, to overcome the lack of financial infrastructure, 1500 ‘mini banks’ have been located in small, stores, centrally located within a rural clusters offering banking facilities to local companies and micro-businesses.

Barclays – Accessibility Roadshow One of Barclays’ aspirations is to be the UK’s most accessible and inclusive bank, aiming to meet the needs of our 14 million UK customers - including up to 20% who have some form of disability or impairment. In 2014, the ‘Accessibility Roadshow’ was created to visit every UK community where the bank operates over a 10 month period. This is an interactive showcase to take our message of accessibility on the road. It brings to life the wide range of free accessible services, such as Talking ATMs and ‘High Vis’ debit cards for people with visual impairments, and SignVideo for deaf people/BSL users. By informing colleagues and customers of the services that are available to make day-to-day banking needs easier, Barclays is increasing customer experience and satisfaction. In addition, it has given the bank the opportunity to open conversations with people living with a disability, to listen and to respond with solutions to any difficulties.

One example of this resulted in changes to the process to identify or eliminate potential fraud cases which was not previously accessible to deaf people, but now is addressed through text alerts rather than an audio contact.

Barclays – Digital Eagles The digital world moves at such an incredible pace that it is difficult to keep up. Impacting everyone, many people experience more change than they can easily cope with, both in the work and social environment. In 2013, a group of 18 digitally-savvy Barclays colleagues decided to share their passion for technology with their colleagues to help the bank better serve its customers. Having recognised that these skills were helping colleagues right across the bank, it was realised that this education could be offered to a wider audience. Digital Eagles is a completely free service to both customers and non-customers to ensure that no one misses out on what the internet has to offer, and has drawn in more than 12,000 Barclays employees worldwide who have volunteered to join the initiative. The benefits are clear; colleagues are better equipped to use new technology in their jobs to improve customer service and service users can experience digital inclusion which not only helps their banking experience, but also helps them to a more positive experience of the digital world.

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Innovation or enhancement in product or proposition design – Deposits, savings & loans HSBC – Mobile Cash ISA

With more than three-quarters of a million customers using HSBC’s Mobile Banking app, the bank recognised that there were important opportunities to help their customers get more from their everyday banking. With the ability to manage personal accounts on the move in a number of ways, HSBC recognised that there was no similar facility to open an account in this way. Time-poor customers appreciate a quick and easy solution and are more likely to complete an action if the transaction process is not a chore. Thus a slick new mobile application process was devised that fulfilled these requirements and offered customers the chance to open the competitive rate HSBC Loyalty Cash ISA using their mobile phones. Using straight-through processing, this brand new sales channel has no business overheads and carried minimal set-up costs. The intuitive app complies with all legal, compliance and regulatory requirements, is available right up to the April deadline and is approved immediately so that funds can be added instantly. The app has been successful both for its ease of use, and for the bank as it has had no major operational impact and has generated significantly more sales than predicted.

Lloyds Banking Group – UK first: Mobile Authenticated Savings and Loans Lloyds needed to find an innovative way to quickly and cost-effectively allow customers to compare and apply for a range of products on their Mobile device. The Next Gen Browser (NGB) project met this challenge by offering customers access to a range of products on the move and giving the bank a more efficient model which delivers product journeys better, faster and more cheaply. Comparison tables offer an effective way to give customers informed choice. A radical shift in thinking moved towards new technical expertise as well as operational change allowed desktop and mobile development teams to work together to create a single code base. NGB has created an adaptive and responsive approach as well as proof of concept which is now being rolled out through the bank as the way forward. The project was so successful that mobile is expected to overtake desktop sales in the near future.

RateSetter – Provision Fund RateSetter is the largest UK peer-to-peer lender by monthly volume and offers an online free market in which the interest rates are set by the savers and borrowers – a unique feature that differentiates the company from its competitors. The company has pioneered a number of initiatives in the industry, in particular the concept of a Provision Fund’. This fund helps to protect savers against the risk of borrower default. Funded by a borrower fee as part of their loan, the fund spreads the lending risk across all borrowers and allows for a saver to be recompensed in the event of missed payment or default. To date, no saver has lost a penny in capital or interest owed. In 2014, a series of incremental improvements, such as taking a 360⁰ view of customers and their credit status through a series of extended, in-depth checks, and investing in more skilled credit specialists, were dedicated to ensuring that the 100% no loss record is maintained even while the company is growing rapidly. With a goal of only working with super-prime borrowers, coverage ratios are high and steady and default levels low despite the loan book growing and maturing.

Santander Bank – ‘Total Parcelado’: an innovative financial solution The Brazilian credit card market has a unique payment feature which allows customers to make purchases using their cards and then pay for the purchase in interest-free monthly instalments.

This has become part of the culture and has boosted the retail sector, but leaves the card issuer holding the risk in case of default. The complicated nature of billing means that often customers underestimate the size of their bills and default on part of the balance. After extensive customer research, Santander created an innovative financial solution, unique in the Brazilian market, which consolidated the whole balance of a customer’s credit card into just one debt and is designed to better meet customer needs. A lower rate of interest is offered for paying fixed instalments leading to better financial control, while riskier customers are offered more time to pay, reducing balances. This increases the likelihood that the customers can not only pay but also learn to organise their finances better and build a more positive credit history. By positioning the product in this way, Total Parcelado has attracted low risk customers and increased its profitability through an increase in transactions.

Skipton Building Society – First NISA Ready Provider In March 2014, the Chancellor’s surprise budget announcement that individual ISA allowances were to increase to £15,000 (with the increased limit coming into effect from July) caught providers by surprise. This presented challenges which needed an immediate solution. Skipton wanted to enable customers to invest in April and July, and to become the first provider to become ‘NISA-ready’, which would gain positive PR and attract new customers. A rapid turnaround meant that a press release was issued only two days after the budget declaring that the Society was indeed NISA ready, with publicity materials available in branch within 6 days. The creation of a ‘top-up window’ allowed fixed rate ISA customers to deposit additional funds throughout July. This project was a huge financial success for Skipton, delivering record levels of ISA inflows in April, with high percentages of new or returning customers from target segments. The project also drew considerable press coverage which has given positive uplift to the brand awareness and acceptance. Additionally, customer feedback has been universally positive, especially towards the speedy response; and many were happy that the top-up rate was held at April rates, despite the fact that market ISA rates reduced between April and July.

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Best payments initiative Aktif Bank – Passolig Card Akbank has collaborated with the Turkish football authorities to address the problems of hooliganism and ticket touting at matches and responding to new regulation that has recently been introduced; namely that paper tickets are no longer used for matches, and fans must enter football stadiums using an e-ticket. The Passolig Card is a multi-purpose card that acts as a match ticket as well as a contact-free credit, debit or pre-paid card and can also be used as a travel pass on public transport. Information about matches is sent to cardholders who register an email address or mobile number. The advantage for the football authorities is that they know who is inside the stadium and who is buying tickets, and this eliminates the opportunities for fraudulent tickets or fan exploitation by touts, as well as helps in policing the matches which have experienced serious problems in the past. Cardholders can also receive personalised campaign marketing and competitions, special discounts and other benefits from merchants and shopping chains. They can also use the contactless payment facility on the card for small purchases up to 50 TRY in the stadium and elsewhere.

BKM and Monitise – BKM Express BKM (the Turkish interbank card centre) aims to support Turkish ecommerce and accelerate its growth by creating digital platforms for safe transactions. Given that mobile penetration in Turkey is high, and with consumers being very active in mobile shopping, banking and QR code scanning, BKM, with partners Monitise, developed BKM Express – a digital wallet platform offering peer-to-peer money transfers to mobile or ATM and ecommerce and m-commerce payments. The second phase in the vision of creating a ‘cashless society’ was to extend the offering into mobile, with an app delivering a secure, convenient way of making online and mobile payments without the need to share credit card information with the vendor. A key differentiator of BKM Express (and BKM Express Mobile) is in its brand new technology that only stores partial credit card information even at sign-up stage, which is never shared with other parties beyond the issuing bank. At time of purchase, the user selects the BKM Express platform for payment and requires significantly less data entry to complete a transaction. A second point of differentiation was that services are offered on iPhone and Android as well as on the web, offering new functionality to mobile users including peer-to-peer transactions via a mobile wallet.

DenizBank – fastPay m-Wallet With customers demanding more from their mobile phones, Denizbank launched fastPay, a handsfree payment system using Bluetooth Low Energy. fastPay is a mobile wallet which offers peer-to-peer and merchant payment options, linking of bank account or credit cards to the app, ATM services and other useful features to the Turkish market. Innovations include the choice between a dot lock passcode and a classical option. The hands-free service works through the interaction of smart beacon hubs located within merchant stores with smartphones, allowing payment for items up to $100 without even taking the phone from your pocket, as well as giving merchants the ability to attract customers into a shop with a specific offer or campaign message as they pass near to the shop. Above the set level, an authorisation is required by pressing a button on the phone to complete the transaction. The solution, which draws minimal power from both Android and iOS smartphones, makes payment transactions more streamlined and is completely new to smart phone users in that it is the first hands-free payment method on the global market and there is not a comparative peer application in the market to date.

Payments Council – Paym The Payments Council is the body with responsibility for ensuring that payment services work for all those that use them in the UK. With access to a wide range of stakeholders, it is uniquely positioned to drive innovation in payments and implement change. Three years ago, Payments Council members agreed that if customers could pay straight into someone’s current account using just their mobile number it would make life much easier. Paym is a solution that enables customers to link their account details to their mobile phone number. It uses existing mobile banking or payments apps which are already known and trusted by customers to make secure transactions via Faster Payments or the LINK Network. The recipient’s name can be checked using Paym before sending a payment to ensure trust and confidence about the destination of the payment, while no prepayment account is required and customers do not need to know account details. With more than 82 million mobile phone subscriptions in the UK and with 72% of consumers owning a smartphone, the timing of Paym fits in with the move to mobile banking. Paym is available to 30 million customers in the UK and will reach a further 10+ million by the end of 2014.

Santander Bank – Santander Select World Debit: an innovative customer-centric offer Santander Select is the name given to the service designed to meet the needs of the high income customer segment with a value proposition based on a multichannel model. Santander Select World Debit is the first tangible product in the world with a unique value proposition in every country where the Santander Group operates. The project began three years ago and required complex technological development worldwide to enable the services marketed with the product. With the same unique design in every country, it is the key to accessing the extensive Select segment worldwide and at all customer service points via the common technology platform. It incorporates the latest technologies in payment methods such as a chip for extra security and contactless functionality to facilitate speedy micropayments.

Additionally, customers are not charged commission on any Santander ATM cash withdrawal anywhere in the world, an innovative characteristic offering a significant benefit for travelling cardholders. Santander Select World Debit is further progress in building a customer-centric bank served with a worldwide model that delivers a unique and differentiated experience to its best customers, so that they are more satisfied and more strongly connected, thereby generating more sustainable profitability for the Bank.

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Innovation in cash management or treasury services Citi – TreasuryVision® Liquidity Manager Over the past several years, corporate treasury has undergone a unique period of transformation. Like most industries, today’s treasurers are under pressure to do more with less. Navigating this new landscape requires corporate treasurers to leverage meaningful intelligence to improve performance and enhance results. Citi’s TreasuryVision® Liquidity Manager is a key component of the TreasuryVision® Analytics tool, designed to meet complex cash management challenges and offering the business-critical end of day visibility required for effective treasury management. This innovative analytics dashboard offers aggregated balances and analytic trending, conveniently grouped by the bank liquidity structure (e.g. multi-currency pool, single currency pool or cash concentration). With a clear view of this critical account data, treasury departments are able to optimise global cash allocation and credit usage. With cutting edge interactive functionality for high volume liquidity reporting, treasury is able to offer insights to support the business based on clear visibility of current cash position, forecast cash flows and ultimately that support investment and borrowing decision making. The solution also provides a series of Balance Summary reports with drill down functions for more detailed information as well as visualisation functionality allowing users to see how they are related to each other and to Citi branches throughout the world via a Tree View or Map View hierarchy.

Standard Chartered Bank – Unity – Straight2Bank Liquidity Standard Chartered aims to use its Cash Transformation Programme to position the Bank as a premier international cash management provider across its global footprint for all corporate and financial institutions. With liquidity management being the bloodline of any business, the Straight2Bank Liquidity project launched a new product platform dedicated to the provision of advanced global liquidity management offerings. The Core Balance CASA Deposit Module also helps to build core and stickiness through the incentivisation of operating account behaviour (stability, growth and activity). Standard Chartered was the first bank in the world to offer a cross border true endof-day sweep in RMB. A speedy concept to launch time has enabled the bank to benefit from a significant increase in new client liabilities. Clients can take advantage of the interactive front end to do pre-sweep simulations on liquidity pools, allowing for better cash forecasting, as well as seeing graphical views of fund movements that improve the customer experience. Additionally, true end of day cross border sweeping (either following or against the sun) and automated rule-based investment sweeps, a reduction in FX risk, online self-service and intercompany loan management options, along with a host of cross border management tools enhance the client product experience and make their cash work harder.

Best regulated advice initiative Medical Professional – Specialist Advice for Medical Professionals Medical Professional has a clear vision to provide specialist advice to those working in the medical professions. The business model, as an independent financial advisory service, links into Vision Independent Financial Planning, as its network provider. Started in 2013, the proposition is to treat customers fairly and to provide a truly bespoke service, based on knowledge of the NHS, and their current financial position, to predict as accurately as possible their financial future. They have created a series of innovative calculators which can be tailored to an individual’s specific circumstances, before whole-of-market best advice is offered. Advice is backed up with research data explaining conclusions drawn and the company constantly looks for ways to save clients money. Innovation for the benefit of customers has included discounted family rates, reducing charging structures, 0% initial advice charge for ISAs and the provision of NHS Pension and Benefit reports. This comprehensive offering embodying treating customers fairly has meant that many new clients are referred to Medical Professional, helping the business to expand. The company has also seen an increase in enquiries from Chartered Accounts seeking expert advice, helping with doctors’ pension calculations and offering valuable tax advice.

Tenet Group – Independent Advice Proposition Tenet Group, a Leeds-based adviser support group, is one of the largest and longest established in the UK, supporting thousands of advisers across four key support propositions. It has always been a staunch supporter of independent advice and, post-RDR, was determined to remain committed to supporting this model for those individuals with the desire and capability. With RDR on the horizon, it was feared that independent advice would become too difficult and onerous to support, but many Tenet advisors expressed a desire to retain their independent status. Tenet has invested to transform its structure to help advisors meet the more demanding requirements for independence postRDR. In doing so, it has launched the industry’s first ‘end-to-end’ Continuous Professional Development programme and Statement of Professional Standing solution from a single source. This platform ensures that Tenet advisors can comply with new rules more effectively and is provided free of charge to network members. In addition, Tenet has issued business funding, actively helping member firms transition to a fee-based model as well as developing their practices. They also created a new Financial Planning Service which offers specialist services and technology to help advisors research the right products from across the market.

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Most innovative use of data Barclays – Personalised lending: using video in email*

HSBC Securities Services – HSBCnet Client View HSBC Securities Services (HSS) wanted to move beyond an existing legacy platform and to use its technological capabilities to build a new HSS Portal which would showcase the new face of the business in the market. A review of all information delivery capabilities and a wide-ranging consultation process led to the design of a new leading-edge, intuitive data management information delivery tool. The project was complex and large scale due to the number of global clients, and was implemented in phases in Europe and then Asia. The Portal provides a single interface to essential portfolio data held on some of the major operational platforms via a collection of purpose-built data marts. It is a rich internet application using scalable technology, offering dashboard widgets and comprehensive accounting reports that can be configured and customised by the client. Clients can also use data downloads, automated report processing and dashboard illustrations to create graphs and interactive data charts with drill-down capability. The aim of the portal was twofold – to be cost effective and client focused. It is an important information delivery portal that acts as a gateway for clients to access their portfolio, data and reports in real time.

Maximise IT Solutions – Innovative Insights Into Unstructured Data The DARA project was launched to address the problem of large unstructured data storage, information security and the risk of breaching the Data Protection Act. From an initial standpoint of locating missing files in a vast network drive, the project exposed the need to improve risk mitigation and data governance. Maximise IT Solutions developed a solution which offered a multi-faceted insight into the unstructured or mismanaged data held in the infrastructure of the UK banking arm of a global financial services group. The project has addressed risk control associated with data protection and retention regulations; enforcing internal policy and regulatory compliance; identifying access permissions and securing information from potential misuse. In addition to improving governance and compliance, the solution also allows the client to make the most of their existing data and manage it better. An easy to interpret graphical user interface offers instant ‘visualisation’ of the data held on their infrastructure, portraying the overall landscape of their stored data and identifying previously unmanageable risks. The client is now well equipped to mitigate the risk against the detrimental effect of breaching regulations as well as reducing the administrative costs by doing things right first time.

Old Mutual Wealth & Altus – Operational Cost Model Skandia is part of Old Mutual Wealth, an integrated wealth solutions and asset management provider. The group is currently undergoing significant organisational, operational and technical transformation. The key focus of this project was to bring together disparate sets of internal data – in particular operational, commercial and technological information.

This data was used to construct a durable and auditable operational cost model which analysed the current running costs within the organisation and projected realistic savings estimates, based on changes currently underway or planned for the future. Capturing and mapping data from different sources, both internal and external was one of the greatest challenges and achievements of the project.

Development required the careful balancing of a complex model with ease of use and access to ensure wide engagement and adoption.

The innovation was about building relationships and interacting with each of the data providers in order to understand and validate it, which resulted in significant improvements to the original data. The second aspect was to map the data and create automated techniques for accessing it. Successfully implemented, the cost model is now a living asset within the UK business and is the cornerstone of decision making for the executive team and below.

Traxpay – Traxpay's B2B Dynamic Payments Platform Traxpay offers a pioneering B2B Dynamics Payments Platform that uniquely combines secure, flexible real-time payments with a rich communication and data aggregation facility capable of handing information of any type - structured, unstructured, any size or format. Users can execute payments and final settlement with rich data in real-time in a secure environment. It aims to remove the negative impact on the bottom line traditionally caused through the bottlenecks in B2B transactions. The system combines secure digital banking, data interchange and cloud-based technologies to achieve flexibility and scale. The platform directly connects into and monitors the transaction via an adaptive rules-based engine. It integrates directly into existing B2B commerce network platforms which allows for instant responsiveness to new data or changing business conditions, synchronising data and offering the ability to track and trace a payment in a transparent manger. It thus helps businesses optimise working capital, liquidity and cash flow. In contrast with static payments, dynamic payments deal in up-to-date rich data, enabling trading partners to control the flow of money, and to predict with a degree of accuracy what the actual cash position or actual cash flow will be on a given day.

*This is a confidential entry.

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Best risk project or governance initiative Aktif Bank – Audit and Control Tool Until recent times, audit, compliance, risk and governance processes in the bank have been largely manual, resulting in a large workforce and requiring serious operational efforts when conducting monitoring and tracking activities. An increasing regulatory framework necessitated the development of a more efficient system. Having looked at market offerings, it was decided to do this in-house, and the “Aktif Audit & Control Tool”, was developed by auditors in Aktif Bank. The application manages compliance with legislation of new products and services and data security has been elevated to much higher levels. Procedures to be audited are selected automatically using statistical sampling methods, yielding more objective and efficient audits. Potential risks are highlighted by the application for further attention and the system also sends out reminders for time-sensitive tasks. The application has allowed the bank to establish a much more effective control environment, has standardised work processes, minimised time spent on operational matters and resulted in a robust and highly secure data structure. Aktif Audit and Control has combined audit, control, risk monitoring and business management into a single integrated solution which has generated positive engagement amongst employees.

Barclays – The 'Go To' Products & Services Toolkit – ‘helping you to do the right thing to deliver good customer outcomes every time’ With a vision to deliver simple transparent and value for money products and services, Barclays wanted to improve their robustness in product design to provide the best possible outcomes for customers every time, going beyond the basic demands of regulatory compliance. They took the innovative step of designing product governance from the customer’s viewpoint rather than the Bank’s. The result was a Product & Services Toolkit, a suite of tools designed to help the Bank make informed decisions which avoid customer detriment and deliver good outcomes in a structured and consistent way, educated by customer research, insights and behavioural economics. The toolkit also embedded Conduct Risk when evaluating new and existing products and services in an aim to make sure that customer interests are at the heart of the way Barclays does business.

Launched in March 2014, the toolkit makes product governance more effective and offers colleagues a user-friendly framework in which to do business. It is believed to be industry leading, and has taken into account future FCA expectations, future-proofing the tool and bringing to life value-based thinking and a customer-focused risk mindset in every decision.

Maximise IT Solutions – Managing the Risk of Unstructured Data Maximise IT Solutions’ UK banking client had identified that problems inherent in its existing data management solutions were creating difficulties with information security that might cause them to breach the Data Protection Act. They were therefore asked to address the risk control mechanisms that would prevent such a breach and Project DARA was launched. DARA is a cloud-based system which innovatively provides a new way of tackling the data challenges and risks that potentially affect all regulated organisations. With risk and compliance being the main driving forces, a solution was developed that would provide an in-depth and multi-faceted insight into unstructured and mismanaged data held on the bank’s infrastructure. It dealt with issues such as file server stability, performance issues, data storage issues and increasing management costs as well as the risks associated with data protection and retention, enforcing internal policies and regulatory compliance, access permissions and data security. An easy to interpret graphical user interface offer a view of the overall landscape and helps to identify risks, and improve governance and compliance. DARA has provided the client with a system powerful enough to work consistently across their vast quantities of unstructured data.

Oxford Risk – Oxford Risk Rating Oxford Risk is the UK’s market-leading provider of investor risk profilers for the financial services sector. Its products reveal the level of risk customers are willing and able to take with their financial investments. It wanted to expand into a wider market and recognised that it needed to find a way to make the innovative standard UK investor risk profiler they had developed available online. The technology is also innovative, and the tool was developed using lean and agile methodologies and best practice as well as the best available psychometric thinking. The online profiler offers a greater degree of accuracy about customer circumstances and preferences, and has an inbuilt ‘internal consistency checker’ which flags up anomalies. Thoroughly tested to ensure statistical accuracy as well as cultural and linguistic cross-compatibility, Oxford Risk Rating Online delivers all the benefits associated with a flexible investment journey. It is fast to implement, offering advisers cost-effective access to risk profilers, providing them with valuable client data and allowing them to far exceed their regulatory requirements. Throughout, Oxford Risk has been diligent in understanding the requirements of global financial regulators and in ensuring that the needs and concerns of Compliance Departments are addressed.

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Technology vendors – Most innovative financial services solution Arkk Solutions – XBRL COREP Reporting Engine In the light of (European Banking Authority) EBA regulatory changes that affected some of their clients, Arkk responded to this new market challenge and worked to change the way that customers use regulatory reporting software through its cloud-based COREP Reporting Engine.

Based on customer input, they moved away from a traditional, desktop systems-based approach, and have implemented a solution hosted in the secure cloud, benefiting customers with its ease-of-use and low cost of ownership. The use of Excel at the core of the user experience meant that customers were already familiar with the basics and training could be kept to a minimum. Additionally, customers can leverage built-in Excel functionality when using the new template. In building the solutions, Arkk had to take into account the need that the system had to be versatile enough to easily handle new EBA taxonomies in the future.

The implementation process engaged with pilot customers to run ‘real’ data throughout the platform, allowing customers to gauge the robustness of their internal data collection processes and assisted them in readiness for the first filing period. This simple solution to a complex problem has led to significant gain of new customers seeking to address this regulatory challenge.

ASPEKT – Implementation of Application Processing & Credit Scoring System Established in 1992 in Macedonia, ASPEKT is one of the first independent computer technology research enterprises in the region, capable of creating products and services which satisfy customer needs. ASPEKT provides decision support financial solutions that enable stakeholders to identify the software products that best fit their company’s unique business and systems requirements and that contribute most effectively to superior business performance. An Application Processing and Credit Scoring Module was built and integrated into the core system to dynamically collect data, integrate processes and manage documents. The platform, on which the Application Processing & Credit Scoring System is implemented, is a complex Process Management System, with the ability to dynamically adapt the process flow, from the user interface. This dynamic nature guarantees independent operability and integrity of all features, data security, common data exchange, centralised control and a 360° data view. The adaptable approach of the Flexible Credit Scoring Module means that the Scoring Engine can be updated over time as well as flexed depending on the loan product in question. Inside customer businesses, the overall customer experience is improved and users can work more efficiently and effectively.

Ebury – Corporate Solutions Ebury is a London-based fintechcompany that empowers small and medium-sized businesses to trade and transact internationally. Technology and regulatory changes have disrupted traditional financial models while accessibility and acceptance of tech as a strategic partner has accelerated.

The business concept emerged from the increase in global business, for which SMEs need access to competitive and efficient financial products which they cannot always get through mainstream organisations. Ebury has developed an alternative financing offering, in the form of an innovative currency and risk management suite of products, unique in that Ebury is the only non-bank fintech provider to lend money in one market and pay suppliers in another, in the local currency. Technology plays a huge part in delivering these innovative services and Ebury has developed a strong tech offering that underpins all of its financial products allowing for greater efficiencies, speed and increased security. Ebury’s back office technology and online trading platform is ‘white labelled’ to many other financial institutions and corporate money services providers. Leveraging the full spectrum of Ebury’s expertise offers operations, compliance and reporting capabilities, enabling clients to focus on growth and revenue generation in other markets beyond their home base.

Kyriba – Kyriba Social Kyriba is the world’s most-used SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) treasury management system. The company has more than 850 corporate clients and more than 35,000 users across 98 countries using the service. The system is available in 11 languages. Kyriba Social is the company’s online social support and community portal, launched in 2013. It was created as part of an ongoing effort to make Kyriba more user-friendly, reflecting the increasing use of cloud-based software for personal and business applications. Kyriba Social was designed to make the company’s offering easier and more streamlined for its clients. The two primary goals are to provide a more efficient and interactive client support solution, as well as building a stronger, more engaged client community. Kyriba Social provides clients with a dynamic resource that combines a knowledge base with a peer-to-peer interactive social forum, ideas portal and online support. Kyriba Social gives clients a unique knowledge base where they can find helpful product information, updated by the in-house team of treasury management and product experts. In addition, it contains a user-driven forum, where peer-to-peer interaction allows clients to discuss topics of interest and share their knowledge, in a truly social and interactive way.

VocaLink – Current Account Switch Service The Current Account Switch Service offers a transformational improvement in customer mobility and choice. The new service seeks to eradicate any concerns bank customers may have had in the past about switching their current account. It does this by providing customers with a first-class switching service that aims to increase competition in the high street and support the entry of new banks in the current account marketplace. Now customers with virtually any UK current account can switch banks free of charge and within seven days, knowing exactly what will happen and with service guaranteed. At a time when banks have come under heavy criticism, the new service marks a real step-change improvement in customer empowerment. The ability to switch accounts easily and confidently is introducing a new level of competitiveness to UK retail banking. The technology for the new service was designed in partnership with the Payments Council and the UK’s payment schemes and was built, implemented and delivered by VocaLink, meeting the challenge of a launch directly into a live environment. It has operated faultlessly from the start. The service is a world first for retail banking.

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Best financial start-up Assetz Capital – Secured peer-to-peer lending Assetz Capital is a peer-to-peer platform facilitating alternative lending options to UK SMEs and property developers. Launching in April 2013, it has consistently been among the fastest-growing peer-to-peer lending platforms, with significant double-digit growth over the past months. It has proved pioneering in its mitigating of high loss levels – a characteristic of the market which negatively impacts investor returns – by taking security against the loan. A pioneer in the industry, it was the first in the market to launch a loan underwriting model, allowing it to take on some of the industry’s largest loans and also the first to launch a bridging offering. Assetz Capital became profitable after only nine months of business and has remained in the black ever since. It has been able to fund some of the largest ever P2P loans including one for £1.5m for student accommodation in Nottingham which has already been repaid in full. With asset security and no lender fees, investors can also benefit from diversification across multiple loans as well as the opportunity to sell loan parts on an aftermarket, for better liquidity.

Bought By Many – boughtbymany.com Customers do not always want a one-size-fits-all approach to insurance products. boughtbymany.com has addressed this issue with a social commerce offering at the heart of its business model, using collective buying power to negotiate ‘niche’ deals which would not be available to individuals. Insurers can benefit from access to potentially valuable segments, diversify risk, lower dependency on aggregators and achieve greater profitability. By using social media and making the consumer central to business, boughtbymany.com crowd sources ideas for new insurance groups or improvements to existing policies, giving a real-time view of the changing needs of the market and garnering valuable data. Additionally, a collective voice leads to more appropriate, better value products for customers, including products which couldn’t be found online before. Examples include pet insurance for Pugs and Staffordshire Bull Terriers, home insurance for Coach Houses and insurance for Hearing Aids, as well as better sports accident cover for junior Rugby players and product insurance on iPads for the over-50s. Present in the market since September 2012, boughtbymany.com also offers a series of high quality insurance guides and is working with many leading insurance companies to create win-win insurance deals for customers.

iwoca – iwoca iwoca is a FinTech start up providing short-term finance to small businesses. Through a combination of dedicated account management and innovative technology (such as electronic signatures), iwoca has been lending to UK SMEs and microbusinesses for more than two years. These capital injections have enabled entrepreneurs to invest in software, inventory or expand their workforce. A proprietary risk model made iwoca the first UK-based lender to assess businesses based on real-time performance data obtained securely from cloud-based business platforms, and integrating this with a spectrum of other sources such as sales history and customer feedback, building up an automated scorecard which goes well beyond conventional credit scoring without requiring audited accounts, and allows a lending decision within about two hours. Follow up data from lending has demonstrated that the scorecard has given highly accurate decisions as well as making credit available to businesses which are not served by traditional lenders.

A dedication to customer support via business mentors helps borrowers to grow their business, and iwoca has also used social media channels, and linked industry experts with ecommerce communities to offer a holistic support network for SMEs. Press attention and positive customer feedback have culminated in awards and recognition for iwoca in the past year.

Nutmeg – Nutmeg Nutmeg is an innovative online wealth management service that builds and fully manages investment portfolios tailored to customers’ needs in order to help them achieve their long-term financial goals. It is the only discretionary investment management service in the UK that operates an end-to-end online business model. Nutmeg wants to give investors a fair, intelligent and accessible way to invest, balancing technology and a commitment to customer requirements to achieve its goals. It is scalable because of the efficiencies offered by an online model. Nutmeg believes that sophisticated portfolio management should be available to all and has set out to build an offering that fulfils that vision. Nutmeg offers a diversified portfolio, bespoke for individual customer’s investment goals, profile and appetite for risk, with a single, cost-effective management fee and secure access to the customer account 24/7. In addition, expert discretionary service and regular portfolio rebalancing are offered to the customer. In the past year, customer acquisition has been significant, often via recommendation, and portfolio performance strong with excellent feedback and loyalty from the customer base, has allowed Nutmeg to meet all of its KPI targets to date.

Zapp – Zapp Research has shown that 20% of the UK population are already using mobile payments with a further 30% interested in doing so. Zapp emerged from Vocalink – the company that runs the ‘national grid’ for payments – to address the key issues that have held back previous schemes, namely simplicity, security and scalability.

Research has also shown that consumers would be more likely to use mobile payments if their trusted banks were to provide the system. In the last 12 months, Zapp has created the most extensive and inclusive mobile payments ecosystem ever seen in the UK, which allows consumers to use their existing bank’s mobile app to make a payment.

Cooperation with five UK high street banks and leading payment providers means that 18 million customers and 65% of UK merchants will be Zapp-enabled during Autumn 2014 – demonstrating an unprecedented level of cooperation and giving the UK the potential to build the first truly mobile payment economy, disrupting established payment methods. Cutting through the difficulties that have hampered previous schemes, this initiative promises to be simple, fast and more secure, allowing mobile payment to be made at scale.

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Innovation in marketing and communications Allianz Global Investors – Unconstrained Thinking Social media has presented problems for financial services businesses, mainly due to issues with compliance. The additional work required can sometimes make companies feel that it is not worth the effort. Unconstrained Thinking – a collaborative approach from Allianz Global Investors’ Marketing and Equity teams – has bucked the trend in developing a responsive website template, optimised for tablet and mobile and easily accessible on all devices. It holds a blog, aimed at the fast-moving fund management world and includes content from the Equity team and editorial influence from the marketing team to ensure that the content is compliant and sensitive to the brand. The blog posts an average of four articles per month on a range of timely and topical issues. Visitor numbers indicate engagement with the site, particularly the viewing statistics which show that visitors are spending time on the site and visiting multiple pages. The effectiveness of the social media element of the campaign is demonstrated by the fact that 31% of all referrals (from other websites) have been via Twitter. It seems that the balance between reader interest and compliance issues has been struck correctly, based on viewing activity, given that the blog was designed and built from scratch, without any marketing campaign or advertising supporting its launch.

Barclays – Premier Rewards app Barclays Premier Banking is a dedicated banking service for customers that earn an annual gross income of £75,000 p.a. or hold £100,000 or more of assets with Barclays. The customer proposition includes access to exclusive products, a bespoke servicing model (including F2F relationship management and 24/7 telephony service) and Premier Rewards. Premier Rewards is a loyalty programme designed to provide a thank you to customers for their business, offering a range of free benefits and limited number of exclusive retail offers. Launched in May 2014, the Premier Rewards app was developed to give customers access to Rewards benefits on the go. Research has shown that customers using the Premier Rewards benefits are more satisfied with their Barclays relationship and more likely to choose the bank for their financial requirements. Additionally, the app is a close fit to Barclays’ customer engagement strategy to assist and lead digital adoption in the consumer base through Digital Eagles and innovative market leading mobile apps. Customers can access free benefits on the go via app notifications driven by proximity to a location and can redeem the benefit instantly by simply displaying the virtual Premier Banking card at the partner location. In addition, customers can browse rewards by partner or by location.

Idea Banks SA – Idea Cloud Founded in 2010, Idea Bank is a Polish medium-sized bank offering services to micro and small-scale entrepreneurs. As a young bank, eager to raise its brand awareness in a highly competitive market, and with the impact of the recent financial crisis, Idea Bank was seeking new ways to increase its competitive advantage. Small businesses in Poland generate around 67% of GDP and employ 70% of the working population, but few are able to afford a professional advertising campaign, however passionate they are about their business. Idea Bank therefore initiated a programme aimed at providing commercial communication services to small-scale entrepreneurs. In a step away from the conservative tradition, Idea Bank withdrew from an explicit brand communication and instead focused the campaign’s key message on its client’s businesses, providing them with a package including a dedicated TV ad, online, print and PR materials, social media activities and sometimes outdoor advertising. ‘Be Proud’ spots appeared online and on national TV, in magazines and newspapers and carried the Idea Bank logo and branding. The ‘Be Proud’ campaign generated consistent brand messages throughout its lifecycle, which has been extended to a fourth edition due to its popularity and success. The bank has built up brand recognition and doubled the number of customers.

LV= and BearingPoint – Media Optimisation Powered by HyperCube® The advance of marketing into the digital age has not yet solved the problem of how to direct media spend. The fact that there are more channels at our disposal than ever before, simply adds further complexity. BearingPoint has developed an optimisation methodology powered by HyperCube®, an advanced analytics tool that shuns traditional hypothesis-led statistical methods, delivering superior analyses to optimise cross-channel media spend and deliver sales improvements. LV=, the UK’s largest friendly society and a leading insurance and financial services provider, has adopted this tool as part of an initiative to optimise marketing and media spend. HyperCube® applies a smart approach to understanding the complexities of how multi-channel campaigns actually influence the customer purchase journey and uses the insights to help LV= identify more effective ways to reach its customers and increase sales. Through this project LV= has been able use the rich data at its disposal to optimise its media spend. The media optimisation project was completed within four months, running four cycles of data analysis more than 4000 variables. This dataset was then run through the HyperCube® grid computing algorithm to discover spend profiles across multiple channels that would result in increased sales. Initial results have shown an increase target customer numbers.

MBNA – Summer Travel Services

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Using advancements in technology, MBNA’s Digital team are continuously aiming to enhance or build additional digital capabilities to meet the changing behaviours and needs of our customers.

In order to improve the customer experience when notifying MBNA of their travel plans in order for cards to be activated for foreign transactions, the company created an innovative ‘Text2Travel’ service – a fully automated 24/7 text service which can be used by customers to notify MBNA in a more convenient and speedy way, avoiding the need to use the call centre and offering financial benefits to the bank through streamlining. In 2013, the Digital team conducted an in-depth review of how customers interact with the company. An exercise to map all the touch points for customers contacting MBNA with their travel plans was conducted, and the results formulated into an integrated campaign designed to build awareness and engagement of the fully online journey within MBNA’s digital channels that made it quick and easy for customers needing to communicate travel plans. From proactively contacting customers via email, through to an interactive two-way text service and follow up confirmation messages, the campaign was designed to highlight the simplicity and efficiencies of self serve. Migrating customers into the 100% digital experience has delivered outstanding results.

Innovation or enhancement in product or proposition design – Investments, pensions & protection Aegon Ireland – Monthiversary

Following the changes to the pensions industry announced in the Budget, people now need time to consider what the best retirement options are for their individual circumstances. The end of the compulsory annuity means that consumers have more to consider when retiring. Unit-linked guarantees can provide some comfort and Aegon’s Secure Lifetime Income plan has some similarities to an annuity, in that it provides a guaranteed income for life, with additional flexibility. While market volatility is unavoidable, it makes retirement savers extremely vulnerable to fluctuations. The Monthiversary feature, unique to Aegon, allows customers to lock-in higher income through any potential investment growth whilst still allowing them access to capital. This means that they are able to make the most of market fluctuations, with 12 opportunities each year to lock-in to a higher income base as well as being guaranteed a pre-income interest level which guarantees them a base income, giving investors the reassurance of knowing the minimum income they will receive. Almost all customers locked in an investment gained last year. In addition, Monthiversary also applies to the almost one third of all investors who have chosen to defer their income for a period.

Akbank – Dynamic Investment With investments and savings accounts far from widespread among the population in Turkey, and with falling fixed rate deposits, those seeking savings instruments were turning to gold or foreign exchange. Akbank aimed to increase deposits by designing an instrument which bridges the gap between savings and investment accounts called the Dynamic Fund Saving Account. This helps to familiarise customers with investments without the need for expertise or experiencing the complications of investment transactions. Customers fill in a questionnaire to assess their risk profile and are then offered a pre-composed bundle at Conservative, Balanced or Agile level based on their attitude to risk.

Akbank has made use of the interest in gold and FX investments to attract customers by including them in the umbrella funds. Fund managers oversee each fund bundle, and the customer commits to saving a certain monthly amount into the fund. It has proved particularly successful with customers who want to save relatively small amounts on a long term basis, and the product has now been extended to SME and commercial clients. Customers are able to withdraw money from the fund, and have the choice between continuing with the remaining balance and transferring it to a savings account.

Bishopsfield Capital Partners – Monitoring Advisory Services: the solution for Institutional Investors investing in Project Debt Bishopsfield Capital Partners is a leading independent structured and corporate financial advisory and financial investments firm. Its clients benefit from the firm’s in-depth knowledge of structured and corporate finance. The team made the strategic decision to develop the monitoring advisory business to meet an identified market need as well as creating a sustainable revenue stream to complement the firm’s traditional one-off revenue streams. The initiative was developed following extensive market research that showed that investors were seeking transparency, regular high quality reporting, a clear framework to protect them and a right to be heard and participate in material credit decision-making. A product concept was developed, and subsequently implemented to meet the specific needs of an inaugural transaction, after which it was applied to support different debt structures, themselves providing finance to vastly different, socially essential infrastructure projects. Key innovations include a defined, streamlined investor decision-making structure and a discrete information disclosure framework. The Monitoring Advisory service enables institutional investors to provide debt finance to the traditionally bank-financed infrastructure and project finance market and has emerged as Europe’s leading provider of monitoring advisory services, facilitating investor understanding and management of their investments and promoting efficient and effective communication with borrowers.

CTBC Bank – SAR/ESO Global Execution Platform Service CTBC Bank, a commercial bank which was founded in 1966 and is engaged in a wide spectrum of finance activities, with a network of domestic and overseas branches. It is also the biggest private bank in Taiwan. CTBC’s custody / corporate trust business strategy is to develop a full-range service for various customers via nation-wide network and local expertise. CTBC has developed a service concept designed to eliminate many of the manual, complicated processes involved in incorporating employee stock options within bonus plans.

Their goal was to offer a convenient and seamless platform to help companies around the world fulfil their global employee bonus plans and solved the above-mentioned issues. An initial single language/currency interface system had been built, but it did not fulfil the needs of clients who wanted to give awards to Chinese employees. Improvements were needed to build a straight-through-process with multilingual and multicurrency functions that would open up the system to more potential customers. The new solution offers a streamlined administration process offering time and cost savings in managing bonus plans, an improved employee participation experience, a reduction in the risk of reporting errors and a simplified, user-friendly Chinese interface.

Medical Professional – ISA Offer & Charging Structure Incorporated in 2013, Medical Professional is an independent financial advisory service that offers specialist advice to medical professionals. Their proposition and business model focuses on putting the customer at the heart of everything they do. Their specialist knowledge of the career paths and pension schemes of the NHS enable them to provide holistic, bespoke advice to doctors, dentists and nurses. This thorough knowledge helps them to offer the best advice on a whole-of-market basis, and to avoid potentially damaging issues specific to the profession. The company is innovative in reducing charging wherever possible, including family savings, avoiding double charging and a 0% initial advice fee for ISA investments. They also provide comprehensive, personalised NHS Pension and Benefit reports, and their expertise also extends to relevant tax issues. This comprehensive offering embodying treating customers fairly has meant that many new clients are referred to Medical Professional, helping the business to expand.

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Innovation in supporting business or enterprise Backus – Making Progress Together In 2012/13, Backus and its partners came together to tackle financial exclusion amongst rural businesses, particularly small retailers. In doing so, the partnership aimed to address the lack of access in banking services, address cash flow disruptions, lack of credit and security risks faced daily by small retailers in rural Peru. It created what has become a blueprint for tackling financial exclusion within rural communities with an innovative and visionary programme. Four steps – the creation of a network of accessible ‘mini-banks’; the introduction of a mobile banking model and web platform to control daily payments from clients and cash flow; preferential lending rates and a programme of education, training and communication – have transformed the financial experience for such communities. A world ‘first’, the programme has become a template that is being copied far beyond Peru, as well as gaining the legislation required to begin mobile transactions in Peru. Now businesses have access to loans to cover regular stock orders or expand the business, cashflow can be managed and robbery risk is reduced through not having to store large amounts of money onsite. The benefits of thriving businesses cascade into the local economy and positively impact the wider community.

NatWest – Women in Business With only 19% of SMEs led by women, it is evident that more needs to be done to address the issue of under-representation in the start-up and SME space. Building on a 2007 launch, the project was re-launched in 2012 and rapidly expanded throughout 2013/14. The programme places externally accredited Women in Business specialists with sector expertise into every local director’s team, offering customers a business relationship with someone who understands their needs, gives them access to skills development and to a wide network of like-minded professionals, giving them the opportunity to raise their profile and be introduced into local business support organisations. The proposition has recognised that building confidence, role models and strong networks are as important to female entrepreneurs as access to finance and expertise and NatWest has expanded its partnerships with everywoman, Women’s Enterprise Scotland and the National Black Women’s Network in order to provide a wealth of support and expertise to female customers beyond traditional financial services. As a result, the proportion of female-owned business customers is growing steadily, month on month.

Platform Black – Revolutionising Invoice Trading & Supply Chain Finance Platform Black is a leading provider in the alternative finance space, delivering a number of services, including invoice trading and the next generation of supply chain finance. Their online trading platform matches owners of invoices for which they need immediate payment to holders of funds looking to invest. A business can auction as many or as few invoices as it chooses to the best bidders, speedily turning receivables into cash. The ability to mitigate against concentration of risk in receivables, cost transparency and complete flexibility to opt in or out of the supply chain finance arrangement are some of the reasons that the product is so innovative. The online trading technology uses an agile design methodology which is optimised for the Cloud and the system has an infrastructure that is robust, scalable and secure, via certificated encryption. Careful positioning in the marketplace has given Platform Black the ability to meet renewed economic optimism with a niche service that offers fast, flexible funding that has given the business remarkable growth and a 100% success rate. This has resulted in every business that ran an auction receiving the finance it wanted, at or below the price it set.

RateSetter – World First P2P/Telecoms Partnership RateSetter is the largest UK peer-to-peer (P2P) lender by monthly volume, offering low fees and market-beating loan rates. In 2013, it made history in launching an innovative P2P lending system exclusively for giffgaff (a company owned by Spanish giant, Telefonica), a leading mobile contract provider. This meant that giffgaff now also became a handset provider with a loan facility partnership offered by RateSetter. This world first, P2P-Telecoms venture offers a ground-breaking initiative that leverages the consumer trend for ecommerce with desire for more manageable methods of financing. A bespoke credit process, combining RateSetter’s comprehensive credit checking processes with the telecoms industry’s latest anti-fraud tools is an innovation born out of growing consumer demand for alternative methods of financing everyday items and a desire to avoid the burden of the 24-month contract demanded by big mobile networks to gain access to the latest mobile technology. A structured approach to the integration has resulted in a robust system that enables consumers to buy a giffgaff handset via P2P finance for the first time ever via a consumer finance solution, giving them access to better value tariffs.

The partnership has been very valuable to both parties, generating market-leading growth in the number of loans taken out.

RBS/NatWest – Commercial Banking – Leisure Fund RBS/NatWest has created a sector-focused team to provide an enhanced proposition for leisure customers across the commercial banking (SME) sector. This aimed to meet the challenge of changing perceptions about bank appetite to lend to the sector. The 2013 turning point in the economy generated optimism about the external environment and created more willingness to invest. With demand in place, a specific Debt Fund was created in May 2013 aimed specifically at funding business growth and supported by a national network of specialist, trained relationship managers who understand the hotel, restaurant and pub markets. Initially set at £150 million and ring fenced for SMEs who make up the backbone of the UK economy and with no arrangement fees, the fund was fully allocated within weeks. A new tranche, subsequently issued, has also been fully drawn down, by both existing and new customers attracted to the offering. With critical understanding of the businesses, the Fund was able to support particular needs within the sector and take-up has been used evenly across the resurgent hotel, restaurant and pub market across the UK. Positive customer feedback has gone alongside recognition of the leisure team’s specialist expertise and capability.

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Innovation in the delivery of financial products – Financial services

Award category partner

Aegon – Retiready

Retiready was launched in May 2014 and is the first direct-to-customer digital ISA and pension service in the UK, catering specifically for non-advised clients. Following a year-long research period, Aegon constructed an up-to-date and accurate picture of how financially prepared the population is for retirement, which highlighted huge gaps between expectation and reality. Retiready addresses this pressing need for a service that empowers people to get their retirement savings on track by assessing people’s current position and giving them a simple ‘retirement readiness’ score that shows whether they are on track to hit their goals. It empowers them to improve this score through a toolkit, guidance and a suite of tailored products and ongoing 24/7 support. Designed to be easy to navigate, onscreen sliders, strong colours and clear animations make information clear.

Akbank – NEXT In order to offer a more extensive and qualified service to their customers, Akbank developed ‘NEXT – Excellence in Insurance’ with the objective of bringing the customer experience for bancassurance products up to the level of their other products and services. In consultation with Accenture, the programme was implemented by making improvements in seven key areas of the business: products; omnichannel; after-sales service; performance management and reporting; sales management; governance and customer analytics. Proactive cross-selling at customer touch points, such as at ATMs for key, wallet and mobile phone protection plans, or airports for travel insurance were accompanied by streamlined methods for obtaining such insurance. The success of the latter means that now 7% of all travel insurance is sold from the airport lounge, and the improved experience in all products has led to significant sales growth across the product range.

Aktif Bank – N’Kolay N’Kolay is the first ever versatile distribution channel where customers can access banking and many other non-financial retail services at the same time. Rather than go to the bank and queue, customers can access financial services in their local neighbourhood when they go out to get groceries or petrol, for example. N’Kolay is a thriving network, currently in 74 cities across Turkey, and expanding daily, offering new opportunities to small business owners who can incorporate the secure, touch-screen device into their premises, opening them up to more potential customers who can reap the benefits of being able to conduct money transfers, pay bills, top-up their mobile or transportation card, shop online, buy match and event tickets, apply for a bank or insurance product and a raft of other services.

N’Kolay can also help to improve effectiveness by allowing electronic orders, inventory and price control and campaign management on the platform. It also provides the possibility that a retailer can create their own loyalty programme using a white-labelled N’Kolay loyalty card system, with all the benefits that endows.

Backus – Making Progress Together Backus, a Peruvian beer brewer, together with a number of financial institutions, formed a partnership which proactively supports community growth by addressing the problems caused by financial exclusion, Practical measures have transformed the landscape for small businesses, particularly retailers, through the creation of a series of mini-banks, located within existing businesses conveniently set into a local cluster for easy access. Additionally, the partnership lobbied for and achieved a change in legislation so that mobile phone transactions became possible in Peru. This had a massive impact as it removed the very real risk of cash robbery, as well as offering a mobile banking model and web platform that helps control daily payments and cash flow as well as improving ordering and bill payment processes.

The final strand offered affordable loan arrangements which allowed businesses to borrow to expand without being at the mercy of unscrupulous lenders.

HSBC – HOME HSBC sought to differentiate their mortgage offering and conducted a review of their application process. Customers wanted a seamless, end-to-end online mortgage experience with a human touch. The result was the creation of an online tool that is paperless, reduces costs, increases convenience and speeds up the process by up to 50%. In addition, customers have the reassurance of being able to speak to an advisor at any point in their online journey about how to navigate the HOME system or complete a field. The majority of customers are now able to complete their entire application online.

Standard Bank - Paperless Account Opening Standard Bank’s Personal and Business Banking International (PBBI) division recognised that customers felt that the requirement to complete a paper application was onerous and inconvenient.

In line with PBBI’s digital strategy which was designed to employ future-based technology as much as possible and to embrace the opportunities that the digital revolution presented to the business, the customer on-boarding experience was revolutionised, becoming a paperless process. The iPad application developed for this project allows financial needs analysis to be undertaken with the client and the most appropriate product offered to the client, based on their individual requirements. The process captures information directly from the client and sends it offshore remotely, reducing turnaround time by two-thirds and provides an enhanced level of service for clients, creating an excellent first impression. The initiative makes it easy to do business with Standard Bank, creates a good first impression and helps to establish the bank’s reputation as an innovative market leader.

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Innovation in the delivery of financial products – Mobile*

Award category partner

Bank Hapoalim – Poalim Wallet

Bank Hapoalim’s ‘Magic Wallet’ service package extends and upgrades the range of financial operations and acquisitions that can be performed using the smartphone. In its goal of making the smartphone a tool that can respond to the day-by-day financial needs of the customer, Poalim Wallet is a significant step in providing a comprehensive package of services. The project uses the most advanced platform and interface patterns to offer customers the most convenient and intuitive banking interactions, by drawing on the look and feel of gaming sites.

Customers can withdraw money with their smartphone with no need for a card, transfer money to friends, save a place in a bank queue and deposit cheques through the app. In addition, ‘Magic Wallet’ offers location-based cash-back promotions and rewards so that customers can benefit from marketing initiatives in their area and have the ability to pay a range of businesses, or even book and pay for a taxi via their phone. Launched in March 2014, the app, which offers a stunning UX experience, has been received enthusiastically by large numbers of mobile banking customers who are making the mobile channel their gateway to financial services over all other channels.

Barclays – Pingit Barclays Pingit is an app available to anyone aged 16+, who holds a UK current account and mobile number and uses a smartphone. The Pingit for Corporates offering is unique in the market place and was developed in response to customer and colleague insights, helping to position Barclays as an innovator that is able to meet high customer expectations and offer them significant value. The service enables users to pay another individual, a business, a corporate or a charity, even if they do not bank with Barclays. In recent months, a number of new initiatives have been launched, including the ability to donate with Gift Aid, pay bills via a QR code, which can either be generic or personalised, or buy products or services securely and simply by scanning a QR code on any advertisement. In addition, corporates can include a ‘Pay with Barclays Pingit’ button as a payment option in their app or mobile-optimised page, allowing a purchase in six clicks, or send a payment directly to customer accounts by using their mobile number as an alternative to a cheque and notifying them via SMS. It can be used for a range of payment situations including claims settlements, dividend payments, account credits and refunds.

Five Talents UK – Cashless & Paperless Microfinance in Tanzania With a local partner, the Mama Bahati Foundation, Five Talents operates its group-based financial services and business training services in a challenging context, with many clients living in remote, rural villages. Loan Officers often travel by public transport or car/motorcycle on very poor roads to reach their clients and have traditionally had to carry cash both for disbursing loans and from repayments or savings deposits. Loan Officers face many risks and in 2011, a major security incident led to the partnership to seek a robust solution to cash handling. Their response was to mitigate security risks by taking advantage of increasing mobile phone ownership and coverage in Tanzania to develop links with Musoni Services, a technology company who were able to pioneer their M-PESA mobile money transfer system in Tanzania.

This system fully integrates mobile money transfer solutions, enabling clients to send and receive funds via mobile phones. In addition, the platform offers cashless and paperless front and back office processes within a single system. With the huge reduction in the administrative tasks required, staff can concentrate on helping clients and expanding the business, safe in the knowledge that both staff and clients are more secure now that the system is fully operational.

Lloyds Banking Group – Turbo charging the production of mobile product journeys Lloyds Banking Group (LBG) has experienced a significant customer shift away from traditional channels towards Mobile. However, this shift poses challenges for the bank as customers wish to purchase products via this preferred channel, which has not previously been possible. The Next Gen Browser project aimed to allow customers to compare and apply for a range of products quickly and easily on their mobile phones in a way that was cost effective for the bank as well as offering a better mobile experience for the customers. The result is a more efficient delivery model for Lloyds, who can now deliver product journeys in a better, faster and cheaper way. Now customers can apply for 25 products across six different journeys: Loans, Savings, Term Deposits, Overdrafts, Credit Cards and International Payments. Customer feedback has been overwhelmingly positive and sales volumes have increased significantly on mobile across all three LBG brands. The introduction of Adaptive Design to LBG to render desktop journeys on Mobile has proved to give faster and cheaper development in addition to a superior customer experience.

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Excellence in customer experience – Customer centric business enhancement Aldermore Bank - Ratings & Reviews Aldermore’s strategy aims to deliver a direct and differentiated customer service through innovation and operational transparency. Aldermore wants to pave the way for the banking industry to be more transparent and open to consumers and has broken with tradition in deciding to publish customer feedback comments on their website for anyone to read. This makes the Bank more transparent to potential customers and helps drive improvements based on customer feedback. Initially launched for Savings and Invoice Finance products, Aldermore believes that it was the first bank in the UK to publish reviews for these products and the service was extended in 2014 to residential mortgages products. Reviews cannot be edited in any way to remain transparent or selected to weed out negative comments. All are published, except those containing personal information, mention other organisations or contain inappropriate content. These are returned to the customer with an invitation to resubmit a version without the problem content. To date 95% of reviews submitted have been published, including complaints and a star rating has indicated that feedback is largely very positive. Operational changes have already been made in response to feedback received.

Barclays – Personalised lending: using video in email*

Lloyds Banking Group – Simplifying the Customer Journey With a Group vision to be the ‘Best Bank for Customers’, Lloyds took a business-critical but everyday transactional service, and through challenging their Merchant Acquiring business to double their market share by 2017 have worked to change the customer journey. A complete overhaul has transformed the customer experience using a combination of sector-leading service innovations, multichannel engagement and employee engagement. From a position where nearly half of applications were abandoned before completion, the system has been designed to be informative, helpful and foster loyalty, which in turn grows business, increases customer satisfaction and retention and brings revenue to the bank. From taking weeks to complete, the system now takes just over three hours, a huge benefit to people starting up a business, and there is a comprehensive system of assistance for problems, both online and via a helpline. Results have been impressive, with all key metrics moving in the right direction and new levels of customer satisfaction have been recorded.

MarketInvoice – Customer Experience at MarketInvoice MarketInvoice has taken on the large providers in offering a new, disruptive business concept that aims to revolutionise the way UK businesses manage their cash flow. By removing some of the sticking points when accessing invoice finance and coupling this with digital technology, it has streamlined the process, allowing companies to flexibly and speedily access the cash tied up in their invoices. It allows customers to work on a ‘pay as you go’ basis, which in turn has led to greater customer retention, with users now accessing the service on a regular basis. Pioneering customer service initiatives in the tech space and the development of all technology in-house has enabled MarketInvoice to customise service to individual customer needs and now computers serve the business rather than just churning out decisions. All of this has contributed to significant growth of the business and helped customers to make the most of their working capital, as well as building transparent and supportive relationships with customers which generates increased levels of satisfaction.

Nutmeg – Nutmeg Nutmeg is the only discretionary investment management service in the UK that operates an end-toend online business model. They achieve this by listening to what customers tell them and responding by offering them a tailored service and personalised portfolio management for all. They achieve these service levels through the efficiencies available using online technology and customer education. A single management fee, together with an assessment of investment goals and risk appetite are teamed with 24/7 secure access to an account. Regular portfolio balancing and an expert discretionary service are offered to customers in order to help them achieve their long term financial goals. The quality of the service is reflected in customer satisfaction and the acquisition of new customers through referral and recommendation from the existing customer base. Nutmeg is also one of the few wealth management businesses that concentrates on transparency, publishing its portfolio investment performance on the homepage of the website.

RateSetter – Putting the customer first, at last RateSetter is the largest UK peer-to-peer lender by monthly volume. It is not a bank but offers low fees and market-beating rates to customers, driven by the ‘crowd’ of customers. RateSetter offers a unique, online free market in which the interest rates are set by the savers and borrowers. The culture is determined by four key values against which staff are evaluated – respect, action, trustworthiness and empowerment. This translates into giving courteous, flexible service, choice and unambiguous information and clear, authentic communication – all in the best interest of customers. Alongside this, feedback from social media, colleague feedback and independent research is taken into account in building improvements and changes to processes on an ongoing basis. Even though the company has experienced significant growth over the past three years, satisfaction levels have remained high.

*This is a confidential entry.

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Excellence in customer experience – Customer focused products & services Bank Hapoalim – Budget Management Magical Budget Management is a ground-breaking service that makes budgeting fun and easy. The service encourages customers to manage their budget through an experiential and innovative interface, which combines visual elements from the gaming arena. As Israel’s leading bank, Bank Hapoalim was the first to offer this service which harnesses the power of the crowd to offer group data against which customers can measure themselves, taking into account their family and financial profile. The service offers a consolidated overview of all budget-related activities on a daily basis, advanced analysis of financial history via graphic-rich reports and the most advanced user interface technologies, goal-setting and account aggregation. Based on the world of gaming, the tool becomes more accessible to customers and makes its use more enjoyable and intuitive – a concept that creates curiosity and increases the involvement of the customer. Customers have expressed ongoing satisfaction from their use of the tool.

Barclays – ‘Call Us’ on Barclays Mobile Banking Whilst most customers understand the need to authenticate themselves before performing financial transactions, the process can be laborious and reliant on remembering passcodes or transactional information on their account. The process was also time-consuming and frustrating for telephone agents before they could even begin to address a customer’s query. As a result of this feedback, Barclays designed this new process where the bank could authenticate a customer ‘invisibly’ but securely. Instead of cumbersome ID&V processes when the customer calls the banking helpdesk from their mobile phone, the ‘Call Us’ button will pre-authenticate the customer and put them straight through to the telephony agent. Unique in the market, the impact is that a once onerous process was made quick and easy for both the customer and the agent, saving around 1/3 of the calling time. From a company perspective, security levels have been improved whilst saving on agent time in the call centre, while customer feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, with satisfaction scores rising significantly since the launch.

Barclays – Personalised Cards – High Visibility Cards Barclays understands that a debit card is the primary interface for a customer’s banking experience and has offered design responsibility to their entire customer base, allowing imagination to create a personalised card design. Customers design their debit cards, choosing their own images or ones from an online gallery. In response to specific customer feedback, Barclays learned of the difficulties faced by visually impaired customers when using their card because of the small script, colour and design. This led to further research and in early 2013, a new category was introduced to the Barclays personalised cards gallery featuring twelve high visibility colour images which help make using a debit card much easier for visually impaired and elderly customers. Since then, the bank has introduced further enhancements such as the introduction of a notch in the side so that customers can understand the direction of card when inserting it into cash or payment machines, and a change from the current silver printing to black or white, making it far easier to read clearly.

Goldenway Precious Metals – One-stop Account Management System Since its establishment, the company has been investing substantially to offer high performance and easy-to-use trading platforms and systems in the industry and also the best trading experience to its clients. The GW One-Stop Account Management System is a sophisticated and user-friendly system, available on Internet Explorer, Chrome, Android and Safari (in-app). This compatibility with multiple channels has made the platform a stronger offering than previously; with clients able to manage their trading accounts more efficiently using the system’s enhanced functionality. The user-friendly design of the system means that clients can check their account balances and positions’ status and make funds arrangement (deposits, withdrawals and fund transfer among different accounts) by simply clicking a few buttons.

Customers can also communicate instantly with GWPM via the system in real-time. In addition, the system provides updated market reviews, commentaries and trading strategies, helping customers to make their trading decisions.

Lloyds Banking Group – Instant-on banking for time-poor customers As the largest provider of digital banking products in the UK, with millions of users and more than a billion logins per year, the bank is continuing to see strong growth across all internet banking channels and particularly in the mobile channel. Mindful of the continually evolving needs of customers, coupled with rapid developments in mobile technology, Lloyds’ Digital Team embarked on the development of a next generation app, tailored to meet the changing demands of the market. Previously, mobile customers have been supported with a mobile-optimised website in addition to apps, providing functionality based largely on the desktop internet banking experience. Extensive research showed that the two key areas for improvement were the ease and speed of access to banking services, and secondly, certainty of security whilst banking on a mobile phone. The project is innovative because Lloyds used security as the driver to improve customer experience. A one-off device registration, creating a secure link between user and device reduced login time by 75%. The Paym facility and innovative security has resulted in higher customer engagement and satisfaction.

Lloyds Private Banking – Affinity

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During the 1990s, Lloyds Banking Group broadened the reach of their Private Banking Service to serve the needs of a greater audience and higher number of clients. The financial crisis highlighted four key issues: Firstly, the cost of running the Private Banking Service as it was, was unsustainable; the parameters of the service needed to be redesigned to answer this challenge; the service needed to take into account clients’ changing behaviour due to developing technology; and clients directly impacted needed to be supported through the change. It was identified that clients using the service were increasingly turning to mobile as their channel of choice to bank. A return to offering a more Retail led proposition would open up opportunities to offer a richer banking experience for clients using this platform. A personal approach was taken to moving impacted clients across by contacting each client individually by phone and offering them a financial review. Each and every colleague was carefully trained to be able to help clients affected individually to find the best solution to meet their needs. The success of this initiative was hugely influential in endearing clients to the Private Banking Service.

Innovation in sustainability or social responsibility Alquity Investment Management – Life Changing Investments Alquity is committed to making investment products fairer while delivering attractive returns. The company believes that investing in high potential businesses that look after their employees, communities and the environment delivers better returns in the long term as well as operating in way that benefits all their stakeholders. In addition, the company shares up to 25% of their fees to help those in the communities in which they invest. By creating opportunities to succeed, local economies can start to develop and thrive.

The Africa Fund is managed as a sustainable investment process, investing in projects from the Cape to Cairo, in different countries and sectors, aiming to nurture entrepreneurs and create opportunities for people to lift themselves out of poverty. Companies tend to have a local focus, training people from surrounding communities and improving infrastructure as well as investing in their local communities and having strong environmental policies. Building a strong brand and reputation helps to build success which leads to better long-term, lower volatility returns for investors. The model includes the ‘Transforming Lives Programme’ which offers access to training, financial services and support networks for the projects in which Alquity invests, helping people to create a sustainable livelihood.

Barclays – New Overdraft Proposition – Proactive Customer Financial Assistance Programme Barclays wanted to improve transparency and control for its customers and rebalance income away from unauthorised borrowing to authorised borrowing. Customers and consumer groups were consulted by the bank in order to understand the key issues before it introduced a new, simpler structure for personal customers in the Retail and Premier sectors that aim to be fair, consistent and positive across the overdraft product range. Personalised letters detailing the changes and potential impact were sent out two months in advance of the changes, as well as a proactive financial assistance programme to support those who are most impacted by the changes. Customers now benefit from a reduction in excess fees, unpaid fees and clear information about what to do and time to avoid charges and fees if they go over their limit. A simple daily fee for authorised overdrafts, together with a new range of tools and features now help customers stay in control of their money, and a cheaper ‘Emergency Borrowing’ facility for customers needing a little bit extra has been introduced. Customers are encouraged to look at their borrowing to find the more affordable way to manage their finances and use short term borrowing facilities.

Five Talents UK – Cashless & Paperless Microfinance in Tanzania Five Talents is a registered microfinance charity working in 12 countries including Tanzania where it works with a local partner, the Mama Bahati Foundation (MBF) serving more than 3,000 female customers who have little or no access to financial services or business training. A major security incident in 2011 galvanised MBF to look at their operations, to make them more secure, streamlined efficient and cost-effective. With mobile access patchy in Tanzania at this point, MBF took the advantage of an opportunity to partner with an innovative technology company, Musoni Services, in a joint venture to pioneer their new system – a microfinance and management system that fully integrates Mobile Money Transfer solutions enabling clients to send and receive funds over their mobile phones. This platform for cashless and paperless microfinance has front and back office processes fully integrated into a single system. With improved connectivity, a massive reduction in cash handling has taken place, along with far more efficient processes, allowing staff to concentrate on recruiting and helping clients rather than on administrative tasks. This means that the business has been able to scale up its operations, while staff and clients are more secure without having to carry cash.

Foresters UK – Foresters and Tech Timeout Foresters is a mutual insurance company owned by its members in the UK, US and Canada.

Owning a product makes you a member, entitling you to a range of complimentary benefits such as family events, competitive scholarships and grants to member-directed volunteer activities. With an aim to enrich the lives of members, their families and communities, Foresters wanted to broaden the impact they could have on wellbeing. To do this, they focused on a significant issue impacting family wellbeing, namely the overuse of technology and the importance of maintaining a healthy balance between the possibilities of technology and enjoying activities away from it. In essence, Tech Timeout (TTO) challenges families to pledge to turn off all digital devices within their homes for an hour each day for one week.

With little ad spend available, Foresters focused marketing efforts on a range of social assets in order to reach diverse audiences with news of the challenge on a regular basis. TTO is not anti-technology but encourages moderation of its use, by using online resources to promote the challenge, this is made clear. The project has gained momentum and in doing so has succeeded in gaining almost half a billion media impressions, increasing the Foresters brand profile.

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Best financial crime prevention initiative Akbank – Fraud Monitoring The Fraud Monitoring project was undertaken by the Card Operations Division of Akbank to tackle the realities of fraud in a global market. The goal was to build an enhanced fraud management system for detecting, managing and preventing credit card, debit card, and alternative delivery channel frauds at customer level on a single platform with an enterprise fraud management approach. The system chosen offers both corporate and consumer models which are customisable, offering the ability to write rules across modules, covering transactions from multiple channels. It runs at high speed, in real-time mode, declining transactions, blocking cards and/or accounts. The solution monitors both monetary and non-monetary transactions and flags suspicious activities including Western Union money transfers, mobile phone top-ups and ecommerce transactions related to Akbank cards or accounts. An auto-dialling system allows customers to be contacted in real time if there is suspicious activity relating to their card or account and to confirm via SMS or by pressing a button on their phone whether or not the activity relates to them.

MBNA – Digital Communications Hub The Digital Communications Hub has revolutionised the way MBNA communicates with customers about potential fraud on their credit card. With time of the essence when a potential fraudulent situation occurs, the system has been developed to engage with the customer as quickly as possible via an interactive multi-channel, real-time alert capability, starting with whichever communication method (text, voice, and email) would reach the customer fastest. If a response is not received the system automatically ‘bounces’ the query on to the next channel, until a response is obtained. Business rules are incorporated determining the time allowed to wait for a response before moving to a new channel, based on the characteristics of the fraud alert – transaction value, time of day, location or PoS decline – and these allow the customer to self-serve at a time convenient to them. Significantly, if the transaction is genuine, the customer response will automatically allow an over-ride of the fraud alert, ensuring the customer can continue using their card immediately. Acting in real-time, this entire process takes less than a minute. Equally, an indication of fraud will immediately trigger action by a Fraud Expert. The service provided by the Hub has led to increased levels of customer satisfaction.

Syniverse – International Fraud Intervention Solution This solution is collaboration between Syniverse (a mobile transaction processor) and MasterCard, designed to deliver enhanced payment security and convenience and prevent credit card fraud for consumers travelling abroad. The opt-in system links cardholder account number and mobile number, ensuring that there is no sharing of private account information between Syniverse and MasterCard and allows the user to sign up to a service that authorises payment transactions only when the mobile device is detected in the same geolocation as the linked MasterCard, thus offering a greater level of certainty that the transaction is genuine. This provides greater security to the customer, helping to prevent fraudulent transactions and removing the frustrations of false positives for customers, increasing their satisfaction.

Syniverse will receive real-time information when a mobile phone is detected in a new country. When the cardholder attempts to make a transaction, MasterCard will request the device location and match it against the transaction location before authorising a legitimate request. The collaboration is the first of its kind to provide these real-time, mobile intelligence capabilities and with the ability to reach more than six billion mobile connected devices in nearly 200 countries, the scope of the initiative is truly on a global scale.

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UBS AG – UBS Access Card NFC and Access Card Display for UBS Mobile Banking

As the world’s leading wealth manager, security comes first at UBS. In 2002, UBS developed an online banking infrastructure with unparalleled security – a solution based on a personal access card and a card reader which were jointly used to generate personalised and short-lived, one-time passwords. While this is a good system for desktop banking, the drive towards mobile banking challenged the validity of this system.

Customers do not want to carry a card reader around with them all the time. UBS sought an authentication solution that offered the same leading security level as the existing system but tailored to banking ‘on the go’. That solution was NFC. With a UBS Access Card, NFC users can login to the UBS Mobile Banking App simply by holding their card close to their mobile device and entering their PIN. This is believed to be the world’s most convenient mobile authentication solution that offers the highest possible security level, NIST level 4. For phones that do not support NFC, a built-in keypad and display on the UBS Access Card provides a personalised one-time token which can be used to login, assuring the same leading security level. This combination of security and user convenience has proved very attractive to digitally-committed customers.

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Most effective cultural transformation or staff participation initiative Barclays – Digital Eagles The digital world now impacts everyone and is moving at such a pace that it is difficult to keep up.

Barclays’ colleagues had experienced this first hand with a constant stream of changes to work patterns and a small group of them identified this challenge and wanted to share their passion for technology with their colleagues, in order to help them engage with new and existing digital initiatives, and ultimately to help them serve customers better. With the aim of making Barclays the most digitally savvy workforce in the UK, an initial 18 people visited branches and operations centres to bring digital empowerment into the hearts of colleagues training a ‘Digital Eagle’ in every branch. Furthermore, it was recognised that more could be done to help the nine million people in the UK who lack basic online skills, and a holistic campaign to promote Digital Eagles to the public was planned. Now there are more than 12,000 employees around the world who have voluntarily joined the initiative, providing a completely free service to both customers and non-customers, allowing many to move into the digital age with more confidence, ensuring that no one misses out on what the internet has to offer both in banking and in wider life.

HSBC – GBM Regulatory Change Client Coordination team HSBC Global Banking and Markets (GBM) is HSBC’s investment banking arm. In 2013, the Regulatory Change Client Coordination Team (a group of six experienced banking professionals), was created with the express intention of educating staff and clients about the importance of financial regulation. The team developed an information hub and central resource for the dissemination of financial regulation intelligence, creating awareness and making the bank more adaptable to the changes required by compliance and regulation. During 2014, the team undertook two major initiatives that strengthen the ability to communicate regulatory change both internally and externally, in the form of financial regulation intra and internet sites, which provides a one-stop-shop for financial regulation information presented in a form that makes the sometimes difficult-to-digest world of financial rule-making more palatable. HSBC is one of only two financial institutions worldwide with a dedicated financial regulation homepage. Information is consolidated into an easy to navigate quadrant system enabling users to identify which regulations apply to their area of business and then to access detailed information about them. In little over a year the team has driven cultural change within the bank and is raising awareness of the growing importance of regulation in the modern financial world.

HSBC – UK Retail Risk Academy When HSBC became aware of skills deficiencies within the UK Retail Risk Analytics team, it worked in partnership with SAS to create a programme that would help staff maximise the potential of the SAS platform, helping the geographically dispersed analysts to perform better, build focus and increase their job satisfaction. The brief was to develop a self-sustaining programme that would foster a proactive learning environment, where staff were empowered to use the full range of tools available. The UK Retail Risk Academy was formed with a framework for the standardisation of processes and best practices, addressing concerns about people, process, data and technology at an individual as well as at whole business level. At the heart was a mentoring system, delivering customised workshops on business processes, as well as coaching and one-to-one tuition. An innovative range of training media, from e-learning and video to workshops and bootcamps helped to develop both hard and soft skillsets within the team. Training was practical and focused, immediately transferable to the work environment and devised around daily tasks performed by the team. Scalable and repeatable, it can be rolled out across different departments, and has already generated better morale, staff retention and in-depth competency.

Group Operations, Lloyds Banking Group – ONE Voice With 20,000 colleagues in eight business units across 88 locations, Group Operations uses a serviceexcellence-based approach to ensure that the business is managed, developed and continually improved in the round, in line with the Bank’s aim to become the best bank for customers. In 2013, Group Operations embarked on a change initiative designed ‘to enable all colleagues to discuss, collaborate and engage in decisions that solve key cross-business challenges.’ A working group of volunteers from across the division worked tirelessly to bring ONE Voice to life. This high performing group created, built and successfully deployed a high quality, online solution to the challenging brief in a way that has captured the imagination of colleagues across the division, requiring zero budget and lasting, from start to finish, just a few months. ‘ONE Voice’ works by opening a topic for discussion online for a specific period of time. Big Questions run quarterly and are sourced from Colleague Engagement, Culture Assessment, Diversity & Inclusion activity; while Hot Topics run monthly and are sourced from our Root Cause Analysis data, business performance information or executive request. Colleague participation has been above expectation and staff are keen to be actively engaged in the debate, decision and resolution of division-wide big issues.

LV= – Removal of Sales Incentive With the majority of business originating online, LV= reviewed the possibility of removing the sales incentive scheme for customer service representatives (CSRs). A project was initiated to review the best option for customers, staff and the business in order to fully understand the impacts of stopping the incentive scheme. At the time no other insurers had publicly announced the removal of sales-based incentives and LV= was innovative in the way it engaged staff throughout the transition of moving Sales CSRs from a monthly bonus scheme to the annual Group Scheme, putting it in a leading position to lead the market in transforming its call centre culture. Team leaders were briefed first, then given change management training, delivering information in a controlled manner and providing the offer of an individual meeting for each employee.

A series of career building incentives such as cross-skilling and working flexibility meant that attrition was less than anticipated, while the overall approach has set a blueprint for future cultural changes and the chance to share best practice with other parts of the business.

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University College would like to wish all of our finalists a great evening and best of luck for the awards.

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University College

Professional qualifications for careers in financial services ifs University College qualifications support financial professionals throughout their careers, from entry level to senior management, and help organisations ensure their staff are operating to the highest standards of professionalism.

Programmes include: Certificate in Retail Banking Conduct of Business (CertRBCB®) Certificate in Business Banking and Conduct (CertBB&C®) Certificate in Consumer Debt Collection (CertDC®) Certificate in Regulated Complaints Handling (CeRCH) Professional Certificate in Banking (PCertB®) Professional Diploma in Banking Practice and Management (PDipBPM®) BSc (Hons) in Banking Practice and Management MSc in Banking Practice and Management

Visit www.ifslearning.ac.uk to find out more about our qualifications. ifs University College is a registered charity, incorporated by Royal Charter.

With Thanks We would like to thank the following: Awards host

Live Band

Gyles Brandreth

Hula Groove www.HulaGroove.co.uk

Awards Category Partner Magicians Magic4Events www.magic4events.co.uk www.grant-thornton.co.uk

Trophy craftsman Chair of judges

Alan Kemp

Mark Sismey – Durrant

Script Judges Coordinator

Dick Foster, Trimedia Enterprises

Alison Thomas Steer

Judges Graham Flower

Set, audio visual and lighting SE1 Events www.se1events.co.uk

Jane Fuller Professor James Devlin Professor Nigel Waite Paul Lynam Suzanne Chadwick Dr Tina Harrison Dr Tony Gandy Eric Leenders

Photography Jason Dodd www.jasondoddphotography.com

Venue Grand Connaught Rooms www.grandconnaughtrooms.com

project team ifs University College Chris Ray, Director, Professional Services & Marketing Annabel Newton, Head of Events Nicola Hobbs, Events Co-ordinator William Morrish, Events Co-ordinator Susanna Abel, Designer Clare Williams, Designer Neil Butler, Web Developer Eoghan Hughes, Communications Manager

If you are interested in partnering with ifs University College for any of our programme of events please contact Annabel Newton at anewton@ ifslearning.ac.uk.

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ifs University College is the university for financial education. London-based, it is a registered charity, incorporated by Royal Charter that exists to ensure a flow of talented individuals into the financial services industry and related sectors.

Its qualifications enable individuals to reach their full professional potential and encourage appropriate and ethical practice. It also works to enhance the financial wellbeing of future generations through its unique personal finance qualifications and wider financial capability initiatives.

It is also the only specialist financial education institution that is able to award its own taught degrees, a status that reflects the quality of all its programmes.

Its financial capability, regulatory and higher professional qualifications are directly informed in terms of content and learning experience by the needs of those it exists to educate. They bridge the academic / technical divide to provide students with essential practical skills and the conceptual and analytical abilities of academic study.

It is this unique and innovative approach that makes ifs University College the provider of choice for organisations and individuals seeking to improve knowledge, skills and career prospects in the area of finance and financial services.