Categories & Criteria
The qualifying period for entries is 1 January 2024 – 30 April 2025.
All submissions should provide evidence of success, or a product within the market during this period.
19 Jun – Entry deadline - £249 +VAT per entry
24 Jul – Late entry deadline - £349 +VAT per entry
Entries are invited from financial institutions – or organisations that have partnered with FIs – that have utilised Open Banking, Open Finance or Smart Data to bring new products to market, streamline processes and deliver better outcomes for consumers and SMEs.
Judges will be looking for evidence of success in the following criteria:
- Demonstrable increase in your product and services portfolio to offer better value to customers
- Data analysis that uncovers enhanced value, e.g. spending patterns, sources of income, debt (including assistance where required) and identity verification
- How data has saved time, money and enhanced the customer experience
- Uptake in consumer adoption and customer satisfaction
- Innovation: e.g. what is unique about your offering?
- KPIs & commercial success; please demonstrate your metrics, including real numbers, not just percentages
Entries are invited from organisations that have partnered to create an Open Banking product for consumers or SMEs. The partnership or collaboration between two or more businesses should be beneficial to both parties and not be just a commercial supplier-customer relationship. The entry may be submitted by either company in the partnership
Judges will be looking for evidence of success in the following criteria:
- Success metrics for both parties in the partnership; making it a mutually beneficial relationship
- Solving a real customer need based on quantifiable market research and/or customer feedback
- Ease of access to new financial products that the customer might not have otherwise had access to
- Offering the best value to the customer
- Uptake in consumer adoption and customer satisfaction
- For SME clients: Increasing the customer’s productivity, efficiency, and profitability
- Innovation: e.g. what is unique about your offering?
- KPIs & commercial success; please demonstrate your metrics, including real numbers, not just percentages
Entries are invited from organisations – or those who have partnered* with them – that can demonstrate the value Open Banking has brought to their sector. This category is intended for any sector excluding banking, for example – but not limited to – retailers, investment and wealth management firms, utilities providers, telecoms firms, travel operators, gaming firms, Government, and local councils
*The entry may be submitted by either company in the partnership.
Judges will be looking for evidence of success in the following criteria:
- Demonstrable increase in your product and services portfolio to offer better value to customers
- How Open Banking data has saved time, money and enhanced the customer experience
- How Open Banking has helped to address legacy and any other issues that have been resolved/mitigated by the use of it
- Uptake in consumer adoption and customer satisfaction
- Innovation: e.g., what is unique about your offering?
- KPIs & commercial success; please demonstrate your metrics, including real numbers, not just percentages
👉 All data submitted will be treated in the strictest confidence. If necessary, we can anonymise sensitive information - such as client names or jurisdictions - when publishing the shortlist.
This award recognises a solution that has effectively helped detect, prevent, or reduce fraud — either by using Open Banking-powered technology, or by protecting the Open Banking ecosystem itself.
Entries are invited from technology providers, financial institutions, or collaborative initiatives that have implemented a fraud prevention solution within the qualifying period. This could include solutions deployed during onboarding, authentication, payment flows, or wider infrastructure safeguards that secure Open Banking interactions.
Judges will be looking for evidence of success in the following criteria:
- How Open Banking tools, APIs, or datasets were used to combat fraud (e.g. Confirmation of Payee, account verification, secure onboarding, real-time transaction monitoring)
- Or, how the solution has strengthened the security or integrity of Open Banking-enabled services or infrastructure
- A measurable reduction in fraud losses or increase in fraud detection rates
- Improved customer experience while maintaining or enhancing privacy and security
- Innovation: e.g. what’s unique about the approach or solution?
- KPIs & commercial success — please demonstrate your metrics using real numbers, not just percentages
Entries are invited from organisations that have made a significant contribution to the advancement of digital access to the financially excluded and underbanked populations via Open Banking.
Judges will be looking for evidence of success in the following criteria:
- Initiatives that have advanced social & financial inclusion, and/or assisted customers on the path towards financial rehabilitation at an affordable rate
- KPIs / statistics that demonstrate the success of the initiative
- Innovative nature of the financial inclusion initiative
- User satisfaction and/or customer testimonials
👉 All data submitted will be treated in the strictest confidence. If necessary, we can anonymise sensitive information - such as client names or jurisdictions - when publishing the shortlist.
Entries are invited from users or providers of payments solutions that have allowed easier access for third party providers or enabled financial institutions to comply with the regulations and broaden their own service offerings.
Judges will be looking for evidence of success in the following criteria:
- Showcasing a significant reduction in payment costs with demonstrable statistics
- Innovative use of technology
- How the project has enhanced the speed and increased the security of transactions for merchants
- Making a case for transforming and fixing a pain point in the disbursement of payments
- Improvements to the customer experience and a corresponding uplift in user adoption and user satisfaction
- KPIs & commercial success; please demonstrate your metrics, including real numbers, not just percentages. For example, demonstrate your Share of Checkout (3 months after implementation)
Entries are invited from financial services or start-up companies that offer an Open Banking product and founded less than 36 months ago, and with equity funding (including SAFE notes) of under £3 million.
Judges will be looking for evidence of success in the following criteria:
- Traction obtained in the market
- Innovation: e.g. what is unique about your offering?
- How it differentiates from the competition
- Business model, how it will make money, the business proposition?
- How it solves a real problem, or delivers a better efficiency
- KPIs & commercial success; please demonstrate your metrics, including real numbers, not just percentages. For example revenue, P/L or burn rate
Entries are invited from all organisations offering Open Banking products and services to consumers or SMEs that can demonstrate what activities they have undertaken during the qualifying period to set them apart as a strong advocate of frictionless commerce.
Judges will be looking for evidence of success in the following criteria:
- Offering a standout, frictionless offering to users
- Improvements to the customer/user experience and a corresponding uplift in user adoption and satisfaction
- Innovation: e.g. what is unique about the challenges you overcame, how you conceived your solution and what the offering looks like?
- KPIs & commercial success; please demonstrate your metrics, including real numbers, not just percentages
This award celebrates the power of collaboration - recognising teams who’ve worked together, or in partnership with others, to deliver beyond expectations.
Entries are welcome from internal teams, cross-functional groups, or partnerships across organisations that have united around a shared goal and delivered exceptional results.
Judges will be looking for:
- A clearly defined, ambitious objective the team set out to achieve - and why it was a stretch
- Evidence of collaborative working, including how individuals or partner organisations came together to deliver against the objective
- Measurable impact - how the team’s efforts delivered meaningful outcomes for the business, customers, or the wider industry
- Creativity and innovation - examples of new thinking or approaches that made the difference
Entries are invited from financial institutions and third-party providers (TPPs) who offer an innovative application for customers or SMEs to enhance their financial wellbeing.
Judges will be looking for evidence of success in the following criteria:
- Offering a superior proposition to customers; for example, enabling them to make better financial decisions, increase their savings or investments, or expand the choices that are available to them, or to SMEs; for example, enabling businesses to manage their finances better. This could include – but is not limited to – financial management, payments, cash flow, ID verification, loans, accountancy and tax, debt management or consent management tools.
- Uptake in user adoption and user satisfaction
- Innovation: e.g. what is unique about your offering?
- KPIs & commercial success; please demonstrate your metrics, including real numbers, not just percentages
- A video demo of the app and its features that should be no more than 3 minutes long.
Have you delivered a regulatory win for a customer using Open Banking? This award recognises initiatives that have enabled regulatory compliance through Open Banking or Open Finance solutions - whether mandated by government or proactively developed in response to regulatory frameworks.
Open to: Technology providers, financial institutions, industry consortia, or regulated entities that have built or deployed solutions enabling compliance with requirements such as KYC, AML, fraud prevention, data integrity, safeguarding, or access to accounts.
Judges will be looking for:
- Clarity on the regulatory requirement addressed and how the initiative supports or enables compliance
- Who has adopted the solution - and the scale or significance of its usage
- Tangible benefits delivered compared to previous or legacy solutions (e.g. cost, efficiency, customer experience, security)
- How big a job it was to make it happen. (Feel free to explain without naming names - confidentiality is assured!)
- Collaborative elements - where applicable, how public and private sectors, or multiple partners, worked together
👉 All data submitted will be treated in the strictest confidence. If necessary, we can anonymise sensitive information - such as client names or jurisdictions - when publishing the shortlist.
This award recognises organisations that have embraced the principles of Open Banking and Smart Data to give consumers or businesses greater control over a broader set of financial data - spanning savings, insurance, mortgages, pensions, investments, consumer credit and beyond.
Entries are welcome from either:
- Organisations delivering the service directly to customers or businesses
- Technology enablers or partners who played a key role in powering the application
Judges will be looking for evidence of success in the following criteria:
- Demonstrable increase in your product and services portfolio to offer better value to customers
- Improvements to the customer experience and a corresponding uplift in user adoption and user satisfaction
- Innovation: e.g. what is unique about your offering?
- KPIs & commercial success; please demonstrate your metrics, including real numbers, not just percentages
This award recognises a junior-level professional who identifies as a woman and is in the early stages of her career in Open Banking or Open Finance.
Entries are invited from individuals who have less than two years’ experience in the sector and have already made a noticeable impact within their organisation—showing strong potential to become a future leader in the industry.
Judges will be looking for entrants to:
- Provide an overview of the rising star’s experience and work in Open Banking or Open Finance, including past roles, memberships and third-party organisation roles, and chief accomplishments
- Demonstrate how has the rising star contributed to the development and release of a product or service, or made significant improvements
- Demonstrate what has the rising star done internally to benefit the organisation and push it forward
- Demonstrate how has the rising star contributed to the wider Open Banking, Open Payments or Open Finance sector
Entries are invited from anyone who identifies as a woman and has made a significant impact in Open Banking or the Open Finance sector, and served as a role model for other women in both her own firm and / or the wider industry or her community.
Judges will be looking for entrants to:
- Provide an overview of their experience and work in Open Banking or Open Finance, including past roles, memberships and third-party organisation roles, and chief accomplishments
- Demonstrate how and why they are an outstanding leader
- Demonstrate how they have significantly contributed to their organisation’s growth
- Explain their reputation in the Open Banking, Open Payments or Open Finance sector and how has it been earned
- Demonstrate their dedication to clients
- Demonstrate their contribution to staff development and welfare
This award recognises an individual - of any gender - who has actively supported and championed the advancement of women in Open Banking and Open Finance. Through mentorship, advocacy, policy influence, or cultural change, they have made a meaningful impact in creating a more inclusive and equitable industry.
Entries are invited from those who have shown a sustained commitment to helping women advance their careers and reach leadership positions within the sector.
Judges will be looking for entrants to:
- Provide an overview of the nominee’s contributions to the advancement of women in Open Banking or Open Finance
- Demonstrate how they’ve driven positive change - whether through policy, programmes, culture, or external influence
- Share examples of mentorship, sponsorship, or direct support given to women in the industry
- Highlight measurable outcomes - such as increased representation, promotions, retention, or impact stories
- Outline how the nominee continues to advocate for progress and inspire others to follow their lead
