The Emerging Payments Association (EPA), which promotes collaboration and innovation across payments, announced the winners of the 13^th annual Emerging Payments Awards yesterday, at its first fully virtual ceremony.

Fintech has been the UK’s top performing sector in tech for several years, which contributes more than £130bn to the economy annually. In such a burgeoning industry, the EPAwards attracted some of the most influential fintech companies at this year’s ceremony.

Among the winners were Global Processing Services (GPS) that picked up 5 awards, including the Industry Contributor of the Year award for Neil Harris, Group Chief Commercial Officer at GPS. Airtel Uganda and Comviva picked up three awards, including Best financial inclusion, merchant services and mobile or financial services payments awards. With a 50% increase in entries from 2019, it was the most competitive year for the esteemed judging panel who reviewed hundreds of submissions from across the world to select its final winners of the 20 awards.

Tony Craddock, Director General of the Emerging Payments Association, said: “I am always truly astounded by the innovation, creativity and passion of our UK FinTech and payments sector. All of our winners are truly deserving of their accolades and it’s inspiring to see the quality of entries grow on a yearly basis.”

The judges praised this year’s winners as demonstrating high-quality and innovative payment solutions that benefit the industry as a whole. The full list of winners for 2020 is as follows:

• Best International Payments, Remittance or use of FX: Ebury – Faster and Smarter Global Payments
• Best Financial Inclusion Payments Programme: Airtel Money Uganda by Airtel Uganda and Comviva, Easypaisa by Telenor Microfinance Bank
• Best B2C Payments Programme: Stocard
• Best B2B Payments Programme: Bottomline – Bottomline PTX
• Best Banking or Open Banking Initiative: Currensea & Global Processing Services (GPS)
• Best Partnership Initiative: Lloyds Bank – I-safe
• Best Use of Payments Data or AI in Financial Services: Visa Europe – Visa Advanced Authorisation
• Most Innovative Mobile or Financial Services Payments Solution: Airtel Money Uganda by Airtel Uganda and Comviva
• Most Innovative Merchant Services Solution: Airtel Money Uganda by Airtel Uganda and Comviva
• Best Back Office Innovation: Mastercard – Threat Scan by Mastercard
• Best Customer Facing Experience: FIS – Premium Payback
• Marketing Campaign of the Year: Fame & Fortune in Fintech: Launching Tribe Payments by CCgroup
• Leading Financial Services or Payments Start-Up: Currensea & Global Processing Services (GPS)
• Leading Emerging Payments Organisation: Global Processing Services (GPS) – The Super Processor™
• Best Use of Blockchain in Financial Services: Nuggets
• Best Direct Account to Account Solution: mobiquity® Money – COVID-19 Response by Comviva
• Best Lending Initiative: Starling Bank
• Best CSR or Charity Initiative: allpay – Herefordshire Flooding – Prepaid Programme
• Best Market Expansion: Global Processing Services (GPS) Launch of APAC Hub in Singapore
• The Industry Contributor of the Year - Neil Harris, Group Chief Commercial Officer at @Global Processing Payments

The Emerging Payments Awards celebrate innovation, collaboration and emerging payments by recognising companies that have made significant advances in how we pay today. The winners were announced at the EPA’s first fully virtual ceremony, attended by the industry’s most senior opinion-formers and decision-makers. This year’s presenter was Sara Pascoe and there were some special messages recorded in by some very familiar names including, singer Gloria Gaynor and actors David Hasselhoff, Elijah Wood and Charlie Sheen.

To find out more about the EPAwards, please visit: www.emergingpaymentsawards.com

To donate to the EPA’s chosen charity for 2020, Mind, please visit: https://shop.forgoodcauses.org/products/mind-epa-award-donation-1?utm_source=general-donation&utm_medium=QR+Codes&utm_campaign=mind-donation&utm_content=&utm_term=

For more information on the work and services of the EPA you can visit: www.emergingpayments.org you can speak directly to the EPA at: info@emergingpayments.org