Efma and Accenture have announced the winners of their second annual Global Distribution & Marketing Innovation Awards for financial services. The global programme, jointly launched by Efma and Accenture, recognises financial services firms for the most innovative projects and initiatives in distribution and marketing.
More than 250 financial institutions from 69 countries submitted nearly 600 case studies of customer innovations within nine categories - three of which are new categories this year: Customer Experience, Physical Distribution, Digital Distribution, Customer Analytics & Big Data, Digital Marketing (new), Sales Effectiveness, Sustainable Business, Best New Product or Service (new), and Everyday Banking (new), which recognises those institutions that have evolved their business models to fulfill customers’ daily financial and non-financial needs. Three additional awards were granted to recognise the ’Global Bank Innovator,’ ’Most Disruptive Idea’ and ’Most Promising Idea.’
The winners were selected by a combination of votes from a panel of judges composed exclusively of senior retail bankers from around the world and online votes from Efma members, which include 3,300 retail financial services companies in more than 130 countries.
This year’s winners are:
• Global Bank Innovator: La Caixa, Spain, for committing its overall vision to innovation, developing new projects throughout the organisation to continuously challenge and improve the bank’s business model.
• Most Disruptive Idea: mBank, Poland, for mDeals, the first European implementation of merchant-funded transactional marketing, an innovation that redefines financial services business-as-usual.
• Most Promising Idea: mBank, which developed a way to perform online, loan underwriting and credit scoring in 30 seconds. Money transfers instantly into the customer’s account and the customer can repay with debit card or at any ATM.
• Customer Experience: DenizBank, Turkey, for its fastPay Money Withdrawal by Voice Order, a mobile wallet app that allows customers to withdraw money by voice command and finds the closest DenizBank ATM where the transaction is completed.
• Physical Distribution: Umpqua, United States, for its flagship store in San Francisco that uses technology and innovative design to create a unique, customer-centric banking experience that engages customers and the larger community.
• Digital Distribution: InShared, Netherlands, the first fully online insurer, for its end-to-end digital claims handling.
• Customer Analytics & Big Data: Intesa Sanpaolo, Italy, for its multi-banked customer management model, a predictive statistics-driven approach that allows the bank to identify multi-banked customers, perform a root-cause analysis of the ’multi-banked’ status and provide relationship managers with recommendations and solutions that enable them to develop the relationship with those customers.
• Digital Marketing: Kasikornbank, Thailand, for its effective digital social engagement channels to extend the institution’s reach rate.
• Sales Effectiveness: Barclays Bank, United Kingdom, for Barclays’ Digital Eagles effort to close the digital divide and become the most digitally savvy workforce in the world.
• Everyday Banking: mBank, for mDeals, Europe’s first transactional marketing platform offering banking rewards, automatic redemption with card transactions and behaviour-based offer targeting.
• Sustainable Business: Fidelidade - Companhia de Seguros, Portugal, for WeCare, a commitment to the professional and social reintegration of the victims of serious accidents.
• Best New Product: Kotak Mahindra Bank, India, for Jifi, the first-of-its-kind fully integrated social bank account seamlessly incorporating social networking platforms such as Facebook and Twitter with mainstream banking.
’What’s really new in retail financial services with our Efma-Accenture Awards is that they are awarded by peers from the industry,’ said Patrick Desmarès, Secretary General of Efma. ’The panel of judges is composed of 27 senior bankers and insurers from 20 countries on all continents. Thousands of Efma members have also taken part in an online voting process. Our Awards are also truly global, with innovations from 69 countries. Last but not least, detailed fact-based case studies are available for all 600 innovations that have been entered into the competition, making this a unique database.’
Piercarlo Gera, global managing director of Accenture Distribution and Marketing Services, said, ’In a digital world, winning and retaining customers hinges on creating value that enhances the convenience and quality of their everyday lives beyond mere transactions. ’For banks, this means a shift in strategic focus from being just a provider of financial products and services to being a provider of solutions. Banks must learn to play a greater role not only at the moment of the financial transaction, but throughout all its stages. The purpose of this awards program is to identify the best new ideas and recognize the innovators that are driving toward what we call the ’Everyday Bank’ model.’
’We congratulate the winners of our second annual awards,’ said Juan Pedro Moreno, global managing director of Accenture’s banking industry practice. ’The digital revolution is radically reshaping just about every aspect of the banking industry, from customer service expectations to consumers’ understanding of what banks can offer. The innovations we celebrate today give us a glimpse of an exciting future for an industry on the forefront of digital transformation.’
