FinTech Awards: Citadele Bank wins Digital Banking Award

Citadele Bank has won the Digital Banking Award at The Global FinTech Awards 2024.

After receiving the award, Vladislavs Mironovs, Chief Strategy & Business Development Officer at Citadele Bank, explained how "it's a honour which goes to the entire team who made it happen for many, many years of transformation."

Citadele Bank has emerged as a leader in digital banking through its advanced mobile application, designed with user experience and innovation at its core.

The app offers a seamless, personalised experience, allowing customers to instantly check balances, execute payments and even customise visual elements, such as the app icon and dark or light mode settings.

The integration of personalised offers further enhances user engagement. With features like biometric authentication through Face ID and Touch ID, as well as the ability to manage payment wearables, Citadele ensures that convenience never comes at the expense of security.

What sets Citadele apart is its focus on innovation and differentiation. The app incorporates contactless payment options and supports digital wallets such as ApplePay, Google Pay, GarminPay, and FitbitPay. Its MobileSCAN tool provides additional security by using biometric data for logins and transactions.

The inclusion of a rewards programme - X REWARDS - incentivises everyday banking, while the Task Tool feature allows parents to set financial challenges for children, fostering good financial habits from an early age.

Furthermore, the app’s fully digital onboarding process, combined with automated KYC checks and instant access to products like loans and insurance, underscores its commitment to delivering a frictionless user experience.

Security remains paramount, with multi-factor authentication, encrypted data transmission and real-time notifications ensuring customers' information is protected.

Citadele’s use of emerging technologies such as biometric authentication and instant SEPA payments, alongside its focus on personalisation and gamification, positions the bank as a frontrunner in digital banking innovation.

The awards

Launched in 2024, The Global FinTech Awards 2024 debuted at FinTech LIVE London Global Summit 2024.

Across 12 categories, the awards celebrated those companies, professionals and projects that consistently ensure that excellence and innovation lie at the forefront of their work. 

The awards set a benchmark for excellence across the industry and drive innovation in payment technology, digital banking, fraud verification and more.

“It was an honour to spotlight such a wide range of incredible companies at the inaugural FinTech  Awards,” said Glen White, CEO of BizClik, FinTech Magazine.

“At a time where digital inclusion and easy access to finance is crucial for fostering economic growth, reducing poverty, and promoting social equity, it is important to celebrate the success of those in the fintech industry that are revolutionising traditional financial services through the integration of technology.

“To host the awards during FinTech LIVE London is an incredible moment for the sector to celebrate, we encourage many more companies to enter our awards for 2025. 

“Thanks to every company that entered - it's important that you stay focused, motivated and continuously innovate and I am excited to see so much more of Generative AI when we meet again in a year’s time.

And a big congratulations to every company who entered, those that are highly commended and of course to our 14 winners – we appreciate your input more than you know.”

The Digital Banking Award

The Digital Banking Award honours companies that demonstrate excellence in leveraging technology to deliver innovative and seamless banking experiences.

• How does your digital banking solution enhance user experience and convenience for customers?
• What innovative features or functionalities does your digital banking platform offer to differentiate itself from competitors?
• How does your digital banking solution ensure robust security measures to protect sensitive customer information?
• How does your digital banking platform embrace and integrate emerging technologies to stay ahead in the rapidly evolving banking industry?

Shortlisted companies included- 

• Citadele Bank
• TransferMate
• Wells Fargo

Highly Commended: Transfermate & Wells Fargo

TransferMate and Wells Fargo are driving advancements in digital banking through innovative technologies that enhance user experience and streamline global payment processes.

TransferMate’s solution for banks and financial institutions enables seamless cross-border transactions across more than 200 countries and 140 currencies, all without relying on the traditional correspondent banking system.

This platform automates client onboarding, reducing the friction typically associated with international payments.

Through its API integration, banks can provide its customers access to reduced international fees, preferential foreign exchange rates and faster cross-border payments.

Additionally, TransferMate is set apart by its compliance strategy, integrating real-time risk assessment tools from ComplyAdvantage to ensure adherence to regional AML and KYC regulations. By leveraging emerging technologies such as REST APIs and, soon, generative AI for data adaptation, TransferMate continues to innovate, offering global institutions and its customers a highly secure, compliant and cost-effective digital banking experience.

In contrast, Wells Fargo’s focus has been on improving domestic payment accuracy and customer convenience through the application of machine learning.

The bank’s Biller Name Prediction Model, developed to tackle common issues like misspelling or outdated company names in Bill Pay, uses advanced data analytics to predict the correct biller information.

This significantly reduces errors, late payments and returned transactions, improving customer satisfaction. The model, accessible across mobile, tablet, and desktop, goes beyond simple spell check by including legacy business names, aliases and regional biller data. Wells Fargo also ensures high-speed performance and reliability using sophisticated cloud-ready databases and distributed systems.

Both TransferMate and Wells Fargo highlight how digital banking platforms are embracing cutting-edge technology to address distinct challenges, from seamless global payments to optimised bill pay processes, ensuring its customers receive secure and efficient banking services.

In contrast, Wells Fargo’s focus has been on improving domestic payment accuracy and customer convenience through the application of machine learning.

The bank’s Biller Name Prediction Model, developed to tackle common issues like misspelling or outdated company names in Bill Pay, uses advanced data analytics to predict the correct biller information.

This significantly reduces errors, late payments and returned transactions, improving customer satisfaction. The model, accessible across mobile, tablet, and desktop, goes beyond simple spell check by including legacy business names, aliases and regional biller data. Wells Fargo also ensures high-speed performance and reliability using sophisticated cloud-ready databases and distributed systems.

Both TransferMate and Wells Fargo highlight how digital banking platforms are embracing cutting-edge technology to address distinct challenges, from seamless global payments to optimised bill pay processes, ensuring its customers receive secure and efficient banking services.

The Global FinTech Awards 2024

Thanks to our esteemed panel of industry leaders who judged the awards:

• Stephen Roche, President and Co-Founder of Saphyre
• Nick Levy, Partner at IBM Consulting
• Daniel Yubi, Chief Executive Officer at Payable
• Jaideep Pawar, Founder & CEO of GRAMePAY
• Steve Suarez, External Advisor at Bain & Company
• Georgios Samakovitis, Professor of FinTech at University of Greenwich
• David Palmer, Blockchain Lead Vodafone Business IoT at Vodafone Business 
• Russell Fisher, COO Admiral Pioneer at Admiral Group
• Jsmeet Narang, Chief Transformation Officer and Director of Financial Crime at Santander

The full list of awards categories for 2024 is:

• Digital Banking Award
• Payment Technology Award
• Financial Services Award
• AI in FinTech Award
• Fraud & ID Verification Award
• Sustainable FinTech Award
• Finance Technology Award
• FinTech Consultancy Award
• Future Leader Award
• Executive of the Year Award
• Project of the Year Award
• Lifetime Achievement Award
• Social Enterprise Award
• Start-Up Award

Essential diary dates for 2025

FinTech LIVE continues to expand its LIVE events with more to come in 2025 - discover the essential diary dates below.

2025:

• FinTech LIVE Singapore | 25 February 
• InsurTech LIVE | 1 May
• FinTech LIVE Dubai | 6 May
• FinTech LIVE New York | 17 June
• FinTech LIVE London | 7-8 October
• FinTech Awards | 7 October

Make sure you check out the latest edition of FinTech Magazine and also sign up to our global conference series – FinTech LIVE 2024.

FinTech Magazine is a BizClik brand