Vision Independent Financial Planning - Castle Investment Solutions
Investment Portal
As a business with TCF at its core, Vision has launched an in-house investment portal
which completes the complex due diligence required of discretionary fund managers
on behalf of their appointed representative firms free of charge, saving them time
and eliminating duplicated work. Castle Investment Solutions operates completely
separately from the advisory business to offer research, due diligence and operational
support as well as many other advisor benefits to its network.

 

ipagoo - Real-time Payments API for Agency Banking 
As only the second non-bank member of the UK Faster Payments Scheme, ipagoo is providing a new level of service to its agency banks, allowing them to make a real-time payment from their account to another account in the UK. Ipagoo’s approach was to innovate in people, process, technology and partnerships to deliver a total solution using Agile teams to build the Faster Payments engine in less than 60 days.

Itaú Unibanco - Itaú Keyboard
Itaú Unibanco has reinforced its current positioning as an innovative and people-centric bank with its pioneering Itaú Keyboard service, which allows customers to transfer money without opening the Itaú App. It allows the customer to simply switch to the Bank keyboard from within any app that uses a native smartphone keyboard, such as WhatsApp, YouTube, Facebook Messenger etc. and proceed with a secure money transfer without having to leave that app.

Santander Corporate Bank - Corporate Digital Onboarding
Santander and its partners have introduced a fully automated SME and corporate customer onboarding experience, using consolidated dynamic form functionality covering a wide range of banking products, combined with APIs so that due diligence can be completed accurately, first time and in one go. It includes KYB and KYC screening processes prior to initiating customer-facing onboarding activities. It eliminates duplication and includes a counter-signing process believed to be a UK first.

Habito - A different breed of Mortgage Broker
Recognising that the average person finds mortgages confusing and complicated, Habito built a start-up, online mortgage broker business committed to clear communication and designed for the 21st century. Its custom-built sourcing platform uses an algorithm to recommend the best deal for the customer in real time, across all lenders and products, without human bias. It also introduced the world’s first digital mortgage adviser, an AI chatbot that allows consumers to discuss their mortgage needs from any connected device.

Property Master - UK’s first consumer digital access to accurate buy-to-let mortgage sourcing
In 2017, Property Master launched disruptive digital algorithm technology that offers
massive convenience and accuracy benefits in mortgage sourcing to buy-to-let landlords. A unique and extensive proprietary database identifies the best mortgage available based on individual circumstances and offers a fast and fully online solution, saving time and money for users. Backed by a service team who are fully qualified in the complex buy-to-let market, the system allows users to apply with a single click.

Sberbank of Russia - Counterparty Check Service in Sberbank Business Online
Sberbank identified a customer need for instantly gathering information about
potential customers in order to evaluate counterparty risk. By integrating it into their
web-banking solution, the unique service gathers information from official sources
about legal entities and presents it in a user-friendly format which allows drill-down into
deeper layers of detail before agreeing to a business association. The customer can
see the risk status and is automatically offered an escrow service where appropriate for
more risky customers.

Barclays UK - Barclays Mobile Banking
The Barclays mobile banking app has been redesigned to increase customer
engagement by transforming customer journeys through multiple industry-first
experiences, providing a rich bespoke digital feature set and integrating a human touch
from colleagues. Features such as temporary card freeze, and the ability to amend
regular payments with visual confirmation add value to the customer experience, while
the bank benefits through the deepening of customer relationships.

Santander – One Pay FX
Noticing that the traditional means of sending international payments was ripe for
disruption, Santander responded with One Pay FX which delivers a significant decrease
in the time it takes a beneficiary to receive funds, with a transparency that allows the
sender to know the exact cost of sending the payment and the exact amount the
beneficiary will receive. Santander became the first bank to simultaneously roll out this
block-chain-based service to retail customers in multiple countries.

TransferMate Global Payments –Global Receivables
TransferMate, the world’s leading cross-border B2B payments provider, announced the
launch of Global Receivables earlier this year, a new solution for businesses to bill and
collect overseas payments from thousands of customers in seconds, tracking the full
payment life-cycle on one platform. This automated solution helps those businesses
with high volumes of receivables in different currencies to streamline their processes,
offering transparent, secure, same-day transfers, billable in domestic or client currency
and improving cash flow.

Barclays Corporate Banking – A dog’s tale
With a smaller budget than its competitors, Barclays has developed a campaign
that has cut through the congested sector advertising. They used client stories to
demonstrate how they support clients in a human way, including a very cute puppy
video highlighting Guide Dogs for the Blind, a corporate customer. This successful,
highly targeted, 100% digital campaign was delivered through premium real-estate for
positive brand association and cost-effective network buys to deliver extensive reach,
using an innovative ‘test and learn’ cycle.

Israel Discount Bank - In-app Triple Layered Service
Addressing the need among banks to balance the digital and the human, Discount Bank developed an in-app banking experience based on a triple-layered service, combining Artificial Intelligence with human bankers. From push insights based on analysis of a user’s recent banking activity, to a free-speech chatbot to assist users, the third layer offers an IM chat with a banker for resolving more complex questions. This unique combination offers an excellent digital customer service at the customer’s convenience.

Santander Corporate Bank - Corporate Digital Onboarding
Santander introduced an innovative, streamlined digital process for onboarding SME and
corporate customers. Instead of a slow and cumbersome manual process involving multiple forms and signatures, they have created a secure system which fulfils all the regulatory demands around money-laundering, KYB and KYC. It concludes due diligence efficiently before customers complete the single, merged, de-duplicated, dynamic and multifunctional form that supports smooth onboarding and a greatly improved customer experience.

Barclays Corporate Banking – Specialist Support Managers
The SSM role is a brand new role within Barclays and was created in response to client
feedback concerning digital adoption and cyber security. Designed to be a face-to-face
role, each SSM received in-depth training which not only helps them to assist clients in
assessing business risk but also to share knowledge and best practice with colleagues
and clients alike. Many clients have been able to prevent fraud attempts as a result of
their increased awareness.

Nationwide Building Society - Colleagues Discover Mobile 
With a goal of helping more of its members to use mobile banking functionality to its fullest potential, Nationwide realised that simply delivering an app would not drive mass usage. So they invested heavily in a gamified training methodology called Discover Mobile to ensure that all colleagues are digitally fluent. A second in-branch platform allows colleagues to demonstrate the core features of the app, helping members to manage their money better as well as experience an excellent, supportive customer service.

Moody’s Analytics - D.R.I.V.E.ing a Customer-Focused Team
In 2015, Moody’s Analytics Customer Service set the department’s mission statement and strategic direction: to deliver innovative customer-focused solutions through a talented and empowered workforce. For the past three years, this strategy has been rolled out and honed within Customer Service through the D.R.I.V.E. acronym’s guiding principles, leading to better employee engagement within this award-winning department through shared purpose and values. Innovative initiatives have put people management first, with a view to inspire teams to deliver a superior customer experience.

Elliptic - Elliptic’s proprietary anti-money laundering software
With cybercrime on the rise, Elliptic has developed a unique proprietary dataset that powers two distinct software products; one to enable compliance transaction monitoring on cryptocurrency transactions in order to help financial institutions meet anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terror financing (CTF) compliance obligations and the other to enable the forensic investigation of cryptocurrency transaction flows, helping to identify who is behind a spectrum of cybercriminal activity

Azuri Technologies – Azuri Quad
The expansion of digital finance systems in the developing world has altered financial context and enabled new business models that rely on small, regular payments. This change in digital payment structures is the reason Azuri pioneered the integration of mobile money payments with innovative solar technology. Azuri’s innovation is to leverage the mobile phone network as a means of affordable, clean energy provision, opening the opportunity for financial inclusion to millions of people.

X-Forces Enterprise CIC & NatWest - Empowering UK Military Widows with Enterprise
In the UK, military widows receive a significant amount of support to rebuild their lives following bereavement but the guidance on business or for self-employment was very limited. What was needed was combined and amalgamated support for this community, reaching each military association equally. This is where XFE and NatWest could help. By creating a regional programme of formal and post-classroom enterprise training, individuals are brought together in a support network that builds a stronger community within a community.

Albaraka Turk - Albaraka RPA Project
Albaraka Turk has introduced an innovative robot application class in a layer between business processes and employees in order to improve customer service. Taking up no space, they can use all interfaces and do anything a human user does with a keyboard and mouse. Robots can undertake mundane tasks much faster and more accurately than humans, leaving the staff to work on more motivating and complex tasks.

Fiserv - European Instant First with a Market Solution
Fiserv is enabling the shift to real-time payments for banks with a presence in a total of nine European countries. Dovetail Instant Payment solution from Fiserv was the first to be tested and confirmed ready for SCT Inst. Fiserv technology is supporting multiple ‘wave one’ banks for EBA RT1, the first pan-European clearing platform for real-time payments in Euros. The Dovetail payment solution offers unmatched support for real-time clearings 24/7/365 via its cost-effective platform with instant payments capability.

Elliptic - Elliptic’s proprietary anti-money laundering software
With cybercrime on the rise, including the illicit activity surrounding cryptocurrencies, Elliptic’s founders have developed a vertically-integrated cybercrime analytics platform, and creating a unique dataset that powers two distinct software products, : one to enable compliance transaction monitoring on cryptocurrency transactions, and one to enable the forensic investigation of cryptocurrency transaction flows. This is the world’s first software product focused on providing investigators with the ability to trace and de-anonymise cryptocurrency payments.

Sensibill - Sensibill Receipts
Sensibill Receipts is a native, white-labelled iOS and Android solution that allows banking customers to capture photos of paper receipts using their smartphone camera or forward email receipts to the service. It is fully searchable and can be exported into other software. The smart solution uses AI to pick up 150+ types of receipt data offering unparalleled insights which can help banks to achieve broader business goals such as digital engagement, personalisation or cross-selling.

Albaraka Turk - Albaraka Biometric Signature Project
‘DigitAlbaraka’ is the digitalisation transformation project at Albaraka Turk. Dedicated to excellent customer service, one of its facets is the implementation of biometric signature technology which uses a complex algorithm to record a customer signature made on a tablet with a digital pen and turns it into a secure, unchangeable .pdf file containing all the biometric parameters to create a signature template which is almost impossible to fake in any future customer transactions and meets all legal requirements for digital documents.

Amplify - AmplifyME
Amplify aims to revolutionise education in the finance sector through the use of technology. Its simulation technology gives students a variety of real-world experiences across the industry and helps them to learn by doing. From the simulations, Amplify builds a user profile based on technical and soft skills, allowing candidates to understand their strengths and helping recruiters to identify talent matched to specific roles. It has been adopted by many global companies as part of their recruitment process.

first direct & Bud Financial – artha by first direct
artha by first direct is a new, standalone money management app which tests the concept of a bank as a service provider. Offering consumers access to Marketplace Banking, and powered by FinTech Bud Financial’s platform, artha is an integrated offering designed to give people an easy way to keep track of their finances all in one place, while offering a range of financial and non-financial products and services from across the market, including third parties where appropriate.

Token - Open Banking with Token
Token is a platform that allows a global ecosystem of bank customer and developers to move money and information securely, at a low cost, without friction, instantly and across the globe. Token is the only open banking solution that covers the entire value chain, using a single API for both payments and data, with cloud-based Smart Token technology that enables flexibility and scalability in handling transactions using a unique security model, dramatically improving the end user’s payment experience

GoSimple Software - GoSimpleTax
Established in 2013, GoSimple Software provides an innovative solution to the filing of Self-Assessment tax returns from any device. It is specifically designed for ordinary taxpayers to manage their taxes in an easy to understand way that ensures smooth transition to the HMRC Making Tax Digital regime. AI built into the product provides hints, tips and prompts based on previous years to assist users to pay the right amount of tax while ensuring no allowances are missed.