BrazilFidor and ADIB win Efma-Accenture award for innovative banking platform
The German online bank Fidor has been awarded gold at the Efma Accenture Awards for its work with the Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank to establish a Shariah compliant community banking platform for the region.
Launched as a joint initiative between global professional services firm Accenture and the international retail banking association Efma to encourage and celebrate innovative projects in the banking industry, the Efma-Accenture Distribution & Marketing Innovation Awards have since their 2012 inception received more than 2,750 submissions from 650-plus institutions based in 94 countries.
Held this year in Lisbon, awards were granted to projects across eight categories: Analytics and Artificial Intelligence, Digital Marketing & Communication, Offering Innovation, Phygital Distribution & Experience, Workforce Experience, Social, Sustainable & Responsible Banking, Global Innovator, and Neobanks & Specialised Players – with German online bank Fidor picking up gold in the latter category for its moneysmart digital community project launched in collaboration with the Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank.
“We're thrilled to win gold in the category of 'Best Neobank,” commented Fidor Group CEO Matthias Kröner. “It's truly an honour to be recognised as the best new business in the space, and our work with ADIB is the perfect example of how we're striving to change fintech and bank partnerships, while also making banking more transparent and accessible for customers all over the world.”
With a customer-centric banking philosophy based on the ideals of openness, fairness, and a community-based approach to decision-making, Fidor has through its digital open banking software platform fidorOS built up a global community of some 800,000-plus members. Working with the Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB), Fidor adapted its platform for full Shariah compliance for the launch of ADIB’s moneysmart, an online community akin that of the one in Europe.
Launched for the UAE market, the moneysmart community platform is according to the firm already thriving, and was designed to be highly interactive with a range of blogs, articles, community ratings and user tips and comments, with members receiving cashable reward points for their input. The portal also features independent experts who will be available to offer objective advice or answers to questions from the community.
“The online community brings openness to the world of personal finance and is in line with our objective to guide people to make better financial decisions,” said ADIB’s Global Head of Retail Banking Philip King. “Through the platform, customers can talk about financial issues, exchange advice, and create solutions. Fidor's technology enables our customers to feel engaged with many aspects of modern living that are tied to personal finance, from smart tips for saving when travelling, to big life decisions, such as buying a house.”
Piercarlo Gera, Senior Managing Director of Accenture Distribution and Marketing Services, said of the event; “Digital industrialisation in managing the underlying processes in customer engagement is rapidly increasing year after year as customer experience is increasingly critical given the competition that retail banks are facing from non-traditional competitors… We continue to be impressed with how DMI Award winners leverage digital technologies to create innovations that generate value for clients – in terms of customer experience – and also for banks.”
The winners, which were this year selected from 421 innovations from 59 countries through a combination of votes by a panel of judges comprising senior retail bankers from around the world and those lodged by Efma members – assessing three criteria; originality; strategic capacity to generate long-term competitive edge; and adaptability for use in other markets – further included banks from Brazil, Colombia, Japan, Austria and Poland. “The geographic diversity of this year’s winners shows that innovation truly knows no boundaries,” Gera said.
