FF Awards 2025
Categories

Consumer Banking

For this, our judges are looking for the solution that has had the biggest impact, both directly interacting with a consumer, or indirectly (via employees, back off etc)

Business banking

Traditionally retail consumers have all the bells and whistles, with slick front end interfaces and the newest products. Businesses have had the practical side of the stick, with little to no updates and uninspiring interfaces. Business banking needs have not been understood. In reality they need to make larger, more frequent payments, with everything tracked for their accounts. They need to manage cash flows, even across multiple departments, and in multiple currencies. Clearly easy. Banks have offered improved security at the expense of experience. Tony Stark asks “Is it too much to ask for both?” How have businesses been enabled by banking? What is out there that will tip someone over the edge into entrepreneurship? What would make someone want to do business banking?

Invisible Security

The Invisible Security award honors innovative technologies and solutions that enhance security in fintech without disrupting the user experience. The focus is on the seamless integration of security measures that operate behind the scenes to protect users, transactions, and sensitive data in the financial technology space.

In an era where customer trust is paramount, the best solutions will prioritize convenience and ease-of-use while ensuring that robust security mechanisms are silently working in the background. This category celebrates the solutions that achieve a delicate balance of advanced security protocols without compromising the user experience.

Real-Time Payments

The Real-Time Payments Award honors innovations and technologies that enable instantaneous and seamless payments in the fintech industry. Real-time payments (RTP) are transforming the way money is transferred, providing both consumers and businesses with an improved experience in terms of speed, security, and convenience.

Merchant Payments

The brand new Merchant Payments Award recognizes excellence and innovation in the solutions that streamline, secure, and enhance the overall payment experiences for merchants and their offering to the end customer. This award honors organizations who have developed/partnered with cutting-edge technologies, platforms, or services that improve the way businesses manage transactions, reduce costs, increase security, and optimize customer retention at the point of sale (POS) or online, in the card present/not card present world.

Cross-Border Payments

The FF News Cross-Border Payments Award recognizes outstanding innovation, efficiency, and impact in the realm of international (across border) payments. This award celebrates organizations, platforms, or individuals that have made significant contributions to simplifying, securing, and accelerating cross-border transactions, fostering financial inclusion, and enhancing the overall customer experience.

ID Verification & KYC

The ID Verification & KYC (Know Your Customer) Award recognizes excellence in identity verification solutions that enhance the security, accuracy, and efficiency of customer onboarding and compliance. This award celebrates innovative technologies, systems, and strategies that have made a significant impact on streamlining KYC processes while maintaining regulatory standards and improving user experience.

The solution should be able to demonstrate how it helps businesses verify the identity of their customers, ensuring compliance with financial regulations, such as anti-money laundering (AML), and preventing fraud while providing a seamless, user-friendly experience.

Artificial Intelligence

The FF News Artificial Intelligence Award celebrates pioneering advancements in AI technologies that have transformed financial services. This award honors organizations, products, or individuals that have leveraged AI to drive innovation, improve decision-making, enhance customer experiences, and deliver measurable impact within the fintech ecosystem.

Data Insights

The Data Insights award celebrates exceptional use of data and analytics to drive innovation, enhance decision-making, and create value within the fintech ecosystem. This category recognizes companies, products, or solutions that leverage data-driven insights to transform business models, improve customer experiences, and optimize financial services.

Innovative Insurtech

The Insurtech Award recognizes innovative solutions that transform the insurance industry using next-generation technology and consumer-driven innovation. The award recognizes companies, products, or partnerships utilizing AI, data science, or automation to customize underwriting, claims, and risk assessment using seamless, bespoke experiences. The winner will showcase how insurtech is transforming accessibility, affordability, and trust, and optimizing consumers and business in the next financial system.

Wealth Management

The Wealth Management Award honors excellence in wealth management and investment product innovation that makes it possible for individuals and institutions to become financially successful. The award honors platforms, technologies, or approaches that leverage AI, robo-advisory capabilities, or data analytics to make wealth-building opportunities more accessible, portfolios more efficient, and user experience easier. Through sustainable finance or inclusive investing, victors redefine wealth management by assigning precedence to transparency, scalability, and quantifiable impact at the fintech sector’s core.

Embedded Finance

“The Embedded Finance Award celebrates the outstanding integration of financial services within non-financial platforms and ecosystems. This award recognizes innovative solutions that enable businesses across various sectors (e.g., retail, healthcare, mobility) to seamlessly offer financial products and services, such as lending, payments, insurance, or banking, directly to consumers.
The winning entry will demonstrate how embedded finance is revolutionizing customer experiences, driving new business models, and providing seamless, scalable financial services within the broader digital ecosystem.”

Open Banking

The Open Banking Award recognizes innovative and impactful solutions in the open banking space that transform how financial data is shared, accessed, and utilized. Open banking allows third-party providers to access banking data and initiate payments on behalf of customers, promoting innovation, improving customer experiences, and increasing competition within the financial services sector.

This award celebrates companies and technologies that have advanced the concept of open banking by providing seamless, secure, and scalable solutions that create value for consumers, businesses, and financial institutions alike.

Bank Builder

The Bank Builder Award recognizes platforms, products, and services — including Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) — that are transforming the foundations of banking.

This category highlights innovations that provide both access and customization, enabling a wide range of players: from ambitious startup challengers entering the market, to large, established multinational banks rebuilding their core infrastructure from the inside out.

Expected entrants: Bass Platforms, Core Banking Providers, Embedded Finance Enablers, Fintech First Toolkits, and Modular Banking Service Providers

Partnership

The Partnership award honors exceptional collaborations between fintech companies, banks, financial institutions, or other industry players that have significantly contributed to innovation, customer satisfaction, and business growth. This award recognizes the seamless integration of technologies, expertise, and strategic alignment between partners that have advanced the financial services landscape.