Categories and Criteria


ENTRY DEADLINE: 14th February 2020


Entries can cover either type of innovation – Momentum (taking an existing product or service and improving it) or Disruption (a step change in a product or service, or developing an entirely new category) – or a combination of both, as often happens in practice.

Categories include best innovation in:

  • Customer Interaction and User Experience
  • Customer Service
  • Data Usage and Analytics
  • Financial Inclusion & Diversity
  • Innovator of the Year
  • Insurance
  • International Award
  • Investments
  • Marketing & Communications
  • Mobile & Cybertech
  • One to Watch
  • Payments
  • Product Development
  • Security
  • Transforming the Workforce


Judges’ Special Awards


In addition to the category awards listed above, the judges will have the discretion to make some special awards, who they believe deserved special recognition for value added to the Financial Services marketing world.


Members’ Award


Members of The Financial Services Forum will vote on your nomination of Innovator of the Year. Nominations, for either a company or individual, can be made via this website and require the name of the individual or company, as well as a short summary for your reasons to nominate (max 200 words). 

The judges recognise that the life cycle of disruptive innovations can be rather different from more conventional marketing and product initiatives. In particular, it can take longer to achieve cumulative profitability, because of the level of investment required and the time it may take to fully engage a critical mass of customers with the new concepts. Yet it can be perfectly clear from a much earlier stage that the idea (rather than, in some cases, its execution) is a winner. Also, it sometimes happens that it is the second- or third-mover that delivers the lasting success with a major innovation, but in those circumstances we still believe it is right to recognise the vision and commercial courage of the originator.


 Because of these factors, we are prepared to accept entries at a much earlier stage of development, provided that cogent answers can be given to all the judging questions.