Infosys Finacle Innovation Awards 2021 Winners Announced

---

Infosys Finacle, part of EdgeVerve Systems, a product subsidiary of Infosys, today announced the winners of the annual Infosys Finacle Innovation Awards 2021. Close to 270 nominations were received for ten award categories. An expert jury comprising global banking and technology leaders evaluated the nominations based on Innovation Quotient, Benefit Quotient and Complexity Quotient, to decide the winners. In its seventh edition, the award program recognizes financial institutions across the world, for breakthrough innovations and novel approaches that create new value for their stakeholders.

Infosys Finacle Innovation Awards 2021 recognized initiatives that impacted the banking business across ten award categories – Product Innovation, Channel Innovation, Customer Journey Reimagination, Corporate Banking Digitization, Ecosystem-led Innovation, Process Innovation, Transformation Excellence, Modern Technologies-led Innovation, Business Model Innovation, and COVID Response Innovation. Given the backdrop of the global pandemic, the categories of Business Model and COVID Response Innovation, were newly introduced this year, reflecting the emergent operational and innovation demand on banks.

Commenting on the innovations nominated for the awards program, Sanat Rao, Chief Business Officer and Global Head, Infosys Finacle, said “We are living in times of unprecedented change. An era that demands relentless customer-centric innovation to stay competitive and relevant. The Covid-19 pandemic has further pushed the situation into overdrive, forcing banks to embrace innovative business models, drive customer-centric value streams, and scale organizational capabilities for the digital era. The nominees and winners in the Infosys Finacle Innovation Awards 2021 clearly display efforts in this direction, creating some of the most impactful technology-led banking innovations around the world. The scale and variety of nominations this year indicate the sustained investment and focus on innovation by banks worldwide. My heartiest congratulations to all the recognized banks, and I wish them continued success in 2021 and beyond.”

Here is the list of recognized banks

Quote excerpts from recognized banks:

Enis Huseyin, Chief Information Officer, Australian Military Bank said “Partnering with Infosys Finacle has allowed the Bank to develop and integrate the Finacle API Connect with our Open Banking ‘Holder as a Service’ (HaaS) platform provider, biza.io. The integration was seamless and delivered within 3 months of contract signing and allowed the Bank to be compliant before the regulatory compliance due date. By providing consent to use Open Banking our members can now have their data shared securely with 3rd party services.”

Rajesh Nair, Senior Vice President, from Axis Bank said “Finacle UPI instance is a parallel Finacle instance on 10.2.25 version offered by Infosys Finacle. The stack is built on Intel platform with Linux as an operating system with Ora19c as a database server making it a cloud ready application. Application is designed to cater to huge volumes coming for fintech giants who offer various payment services like UPI, IMPS, NEFT to their customers via Axis Bank. Currently, bank has enabled top PSP and merchant transactions on this new Finacle UPI instance.

The Finacle UPI Instance processes daily average transaction of 3 Crs per day and has handled a peak volume of 4.5 Crs in February 2021. The segregation of the transactions between Finacle core India instance and Finacle UPI instance is basis the account number. Since launch, there has been negligible technical declines attributable to Finacle UPI instance as there are no branch month end/ quarter end activities/ interest runs/ salary credits posted in this instance that are a cause of system fluctuations/ downtimes. EOD batchframe work is also implemented on this instance to fasten EOD batches and overall completion time of EOD to avoid transaction impact.”

Sanjay Vinayak Mudaliar, Chief Technology Officer, Bank of Baroda said “Bank of Baroda is delighted to be selected as finalist for the forthcoming ‘Infosys Finacle Innovation Awards 2021’. This is an exciting moment for the entire team who has worked tirelessly for past 12 months to achieve this major transition of Finacle CBS from ver. 7.4.3.01 to 10.2.18 across 18 International geographies with precision and value creation. This journey of flawless transitions was possible with strategic planning, unwavering focus to achieve a seemingly unachievable goal, immaculate co-ordination between various teams of Bank (both in India and overseas) and Infosys Finacle and above all a zeal to succeed which even Corona could not dampen! We extend our sincere gratitude to each member of the Infosys Finacle team for their whole hearted support.

In this ever changing and highly competitive environment, challenged by multiple regulations and varied customer needs, up-to-date technology and its efficient intervention is essential to broaden our reach, accelerate product innovation and improve service delivery. Bank strongly believes in continuous technology upgradation and increasing its intervention to meet growing customer requirements and fulfilling stakeholders’ demands. We truly believe that this pivotal project will not only amplify our growth across geographies but will also provide us a launch pad for making significant impact across partner network, eco-system and on the overall industry.”

Rajesh Kumar Ram, General Manager Information Technology, Bank of India said “BOI partnered with Infosys Finacle for CBS Software. The centralization provided immense facilities for integration through Digital Banking channels, thus removing the impediments of geo-specific transactions.

Finacle offers easy customization by users. The Bank can quickly customize the requirement with their own team and system Integrator and ports it almost seamlessly to Core Banking. Innovation has been part of BOI. Infosys Finacle has been continuously upgrading the software to meet banks, customer’s, and technology requirements. Being recognized through innovation programs always motivates in improving our solutions and services. Ease of integration has helped BOI to grow and serve customers in better way.”

Mulugeta Alemayehu, Chief Executive Officer, Bunna Bank said “The future is bright but more challenging than before and hence require collaborative effort of our key Stakeholders.”

T Kameswara Rao, Chairman, Chaitanya Godavari Grameena Bank said “As envisioned in our Banks’s Vision Statement, Technology is leveraged in all aspects of our banking operations. The RBI Mandate to generate CKYC identifiers for all the account level relationships since 2017 has been conceived as a technological challenge to the bank and standing as one of the finalists, for the solution thus arrived to tackle the challenge, has been a great moment and inspires us to find business solutions through technology. We are glad to get associated with Infosys Finacle through all our technological journey.”

Masihul Huq Chowdhury, Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer, Community Bank Bangladesh Limited said “Community Bank Bangladesh commenced its commercial journey with a promise to serve customers with a unique digital banking experience. Leveraging on a cutting-edge core banking system developed by Infosys Finacle enabled us to offer customized solutions even under a stressed situation of COVID-19. We are serving more than 99% of our customers from digital platforms ensuring round-the-clock banking services with no practical downtime. A significantly large portion of our customers are newly on-boarded to formal banking channel of which more than 72% are now actively using our mobile application to perform banking transactions. This is a unique example in the banking industry in Bangladesh.”

Venkattesh R, President & Head Information Technology, Banking Operations, Human Resources & CIO, DCB Bank Ltd said “Frictionless experience for customers is at the core of the digital transformation journey for DCB Bank. The Pandemic crisis presented an opportunity for developing unique and innovative products for the Bank’s customers. DCB Zippi is built on an open API framework and Video KYC platform, giving an opportunity to the Bank to source Fixed Deposit accounts with straight-through processing. The customer was delighted with the speed and contactless account opening procedure. More so during the pandemic lockdown, customers were able to bank comfortably from the security of their home via this unique frictionless experience. We are glad to get positive feedback from our customers for DCB Zippi. As a part of our digital transformation agenda, the Bank will continue to improve customer experience through launch of innovative products and services in the future.”

Babu Thomas, Vice President and Head – Information Technology, Federal Bank said “Federal Bank is a pioneer in path-breaking digital innovations and efficiently utilizes technology to leverage its operations. Over the years, the Bank has transformed itself into a technologically innovative organization that offers services beyond par. ‘Digital at the Fore, Human at the Core’ has been one of our guiding mantras in our endeavor to create delightful customer experiences. The Bank, in partnership with Infosys Finacle, has been able to create several innovative financial products and this award is a testimony to these innovations. We will continue to raise the bar and script new success stories in collaboration with our partners”

Callistus Obetta, Group Executive, Technology & Services, First Bank of Nigeria said “In Africa, we say “if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” Collaborating with Infosys Finacle has helped accelerate our digital transformation and empowered us to do our number one job which is to provide our customers with an exceptional experience. At Firstbank Nigeria, overcoming our customer’s challenges is what makes every day more meaningful for us and we believe that Innovation is the direction of the future.”

Mandakh Sainbileg, Chief Information Officer, Golomt Bank said “To be pioneer for technology-based product and services in the banking sector and to solve customer’s real-life problems are the main principles we take at the bank. Even though we have implemented many new solutions during the pandemic. We have already had base systems, architecture, and solutions came from Infosys Finacle supporting these new solutions and saving the time. We are very grateful for partnering Infosys Finacle and having flexible, international high class Finacle core banking and internet banking solutions at the bank and are confident for coming years unexpected challenges.”

Ibtissam El-Ayoubi, Chief Operating Officer, Housing Bank said “The past two years have demonstrated to the world at large the importance of innovation, adaptability, agility, and digitization, particularly with regards to core services that are crucial for the function of critical sectors. This is precisely where Housing Bank’s digital transformation strategy comes into play, by allowing individuals and organizations the flexibility and scalability to undertake all of their banking activities with ease, convenience, and top-notch security, free from the limitations of conventional approaches.”

Partha Pratim Sengupta, Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer, Indian Overseas Bank said “Our bank has embarked on the complete Digital Transformation Journey and we are in the process of transforming the Customer experience into a whole new level digitally. As part of our innovation strategy to tackle the challenging COVID times, we have launched Digitization of Jewel Loan product and it created positive vibes among the customers during the pandemic. Finacle CBS has helped us in leveraging the Digital Technology and ongoing Digital Transformation goals.”

CA Virag Shah, AGM, Kalupur Commercial Cooperative Bank said “Finacle- the name is enough, we are used to say to our bank’s customers that We have one of the Best CBS in the World. It has made ease of operation as it’s an open structure architect and capability to integrate with any other systems. The APIs provided by the company is great, by using the same many manual works is automated without human intervention and i guess the same should be the ultimate aim of any organization. Perfection without Intervention.”

Mahabaleshwara M S, Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer, Karnataka Bank said “Karnataka Bank was among the early adopters of CBS Finacle and the technology platform which is helping Bank to drive digital transformation. Bank has formulated plans using emerging technologies to drive digital transformation to emerge as ‘The Digital Bank of Future’ using concept ‘KBL NXT’. Data infrastructure, analytics, AI, ML, Blockchain etc. are most important constituents. These ingredients in unison will help Bank to digitize swiftly in an efficient manner to serve the customers.”

Shreenath Joshi, Chairman, Karnataka Gramin Bank said “Karnataka Gramin Bank is making huge strides in Technology adoption and innovation to provide customer friendly services. Bank’s objective is to leverage phenomenal growth of IT in a significant way to retain business leadership amongst RRBs in India.

Finacle has enabled the Bank to easily design Banking products to satisfy ever-growing needs of our 1.5 Crore customer-base, which is pre-dominantly rural. Finacle has also enabled our Bank to tap new avenues for growth of Business.”

Bishwambhar Neupane, Deputy General Manager (Operations), Machhapuchchhre Bank Limited said “Banking has undergone profound transformations from computerization to digitalization in last two decades greatly propelled by digital innovation. Adaptation by adopting digital transformation to bring operational efficiency through reduced cost and frictions, increase business and operational efficiency and competiveness with agility and greater resiliency has encouraged MBL to partner with Finacle and we have done nothing wrong.

Finacle has provided us greater flexibility in MIS, third party integration, product development and enhancement coupled with process simplification and automation.”

Anil Keshary Shah, Chief Executive Officer, Nabil Bank said “It is an honor for Nabil Bank to be recognized at the Infosys Finacle Innovation Award 2021. As part of our endeavor of Transforming Together, we created Nabil DigiBank, a separate vertical in the Bank’s structure, to champion our digital-first initiative. As the Bank undergoes a digital transformation, Nabil DigiBank has been instrumental in enhancing our internal processes as well as external service delivery and paving the path to Digital Excellence. We thank Infosys Finacle for their support for being a partner in helping us lead the way forward in digitization in the Banking Industry in Nepal, and in recognizing Nabil DigiBank as a key contributor towards Transformation Excellence.”

Mr. Sudesh Upadhyaya, Chief Business & Strategy Officer, NMB Bank Nepal said “NMB Bank is committed to its pioneering role in digitizing banking services in Nepal. We are working to create a paperless environment and to enrich our customer value proposition while creating better accountability and transparency both internally and externally. The use of Finacle FIs has allowed us to efficiently digitize internal processes for resource optimization and cost reduction while ensuring best in class MIS with minimal manual intervention.”

Thilini Ramanayake, Senior Manager Systems Development and IT Projects, Pan Asia Banking Corporation said “Pan Asia Bank being a ‘Truly Sri Lankan Bank’, our priority is to see that our customer’s needs are taken care at all times. In order to make a satisfied customer, from start to end the journey should be smooth and effective. Technology being an enabler to this process plays a vital role by selecting the right platform to implement Customer Centric solutions empowering our team to understand the customers proactively.

Partnering with Infosys Finacle as the main stakeholder, we have been able to make advantage of the present Finacle Core Banking system to integrate with many such solutions which has been a success story. We further trust the ability and the flexibility to customize within the Finacle application and connectivity options will help us to bring more strategic innovations to serve the customer better.”

Indra Utoyo, Managing Director of Digital & IT (Chief Information Officer) Bank Rakyat Indonesia said “Finacle has been a dear partner to Bank Rakyat Indonesia. Together with BRI’s AI-based analytics foundation, we have built Indonesia’s first bank-issued digital lending platform named Ceria, which has revolutionized the lending space by providing the safest and the quickest credit approval. Thanks to this collaboration, BRI is getting even closer to being the Most Valuable Banking Group in SEA and Champion of Financial Inclusion.”

Hemant Verma, General Manager, Information Technology Division, Punjab National Bank said ” The amalgamation of two leading sector banks, Oriental Bank of Commerce and United Bank of India, with Punjab National Bank was carried out which was met with some best practices in place. A detailed implementation plan, efficient project management, and architectural foundation laid out by the bank helped minimize risks that arise with such a large transformation. The long-standing partnership with Infosys Finacle ensured that we were closely aligned across the change management process and proactively managed the challenges involved. Further, the bank delivered uninterrupted services to all customers by leveraging Finacle Mobile Teller to offer 14 interoperable services across our brand network. This was probably the first time in India where such an arrangement ensured that a customer from any of the 3 merging banks could go to a branch from the combined network and avail services seamlessly. As part of amalgamation, the products, processes and core systems of the 3 banks were standardized and harmonized without disrupting the service to customers. Further the amalgamation was achieved within 9 months as against the stipulated timelines of 12 months. This has been a landmark transformation for us, providing us with a robust foundation for our digital strategy and growth going forward.”

Sankarson Banerjee, Chief Information Officer, RBL Bank said “We are embracing technology and innovations not only for efficient operations but also to understand customer preferences and provide contextual experiences. In a world of multi-generational customer base, customer experience is a lot more complex. Infosys Finacle has been a critical backbone to create these contemporary customer-centric propositions and has helped us change the way we operate. At RBL Bank, our constant focus is to bring in features and experiences that our customers want and redefine their digital banking journeys.”

Raul Martin J. Uson, Senior Vice President Branch Services Support Segment Head, Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation said “Infosys Finacle has been among key vendors for several years now. Amidst the pandemic, Finacle’s ease of customization enabled us to come up with solutions to speed up the processing of transactions at our branches, something that our clients value and appreciate. This also allowed us to develop new products whose flexible options appeal to our target market and enhanced our reputation as a market innovator.”

Pawan Kumar Acharya, Chief Information Officer, Sanima Bank said – “Technical Innovation’ Department of Sanima Bank works relentlessly with other departments and Infosys Finacle for optimal adaptation of technology and effective utilization of Finacle Core Banking Solution to boost up bank’s efficiency and competitive advantage. We will be gratified when all stakeholders including our customers and employees are not only satisfied but are also delighted in our common digital journey. We took off for this journey by partnering with Infosys Finacle and it has been pleasant so far.”

John Carroll, Head of International and Transactional Banking, Santander UK said “Santander Global Connect allows us to help UK businesses of all sizes to seamlessly manage their international transaction and cash management banking needs, as well as to develop and grow relationships with existing customers and support the international growth needs of new customers. There has never been a more important and exciting time for businesses to consider international expansion. The tool is crucial to assist both customers and our own international banking strategy, now and in the future.”

Jassem AlBlooshi, Head of Organizational Excellence, Sharjah Islamic Bank said “We at SIB set a very ambitious goal for ourselves, in not only wanting to create a secured, digital-first and intuitive banking experience but also in doing it in a very simple manner for our customers. To be successful, we needed IT partners who are very knowledgeable, reliable, flexible, and with proven industry experience. Infosys Finacle has proven to be all that and more.”

Ankit Khare, Chief Technology Officer, Shivalik Small Finance Bank said “Shivalik has had a strong digital first approach from the very start. In its two-decade-long journey, Shivalik has achieved many firsts in banking. The move to Finacle in 2018 was one such initiative where Shivalik switched over core banking and digital banking suite on a cloud-hosted model. Today digital penetration of our customer bases stands at over 65% with approximately 95% of savings accounts getting opened through digital means. Transactions through digital channels form more than 80% of the total transactions count. Innovation and digital is a way of life at Shivalik, it is ingrained in our ethos, embedded in our vision and how business is conducted every day.”

Manjula Balasuriya, Manager – IT, Siyapatha Finance PLC said “Siyapatha Finance PLC considers it a distinct privilege to have been recognized for the Infosys Finacle Client Innovation Award 2021, for its Digital Leasing Platforms.

As a subsidiary of Sampath Bank PLC, we have undertaken to introduce technological innovations designed for every aspect of our IT processes and focusing mainly on the instigation of innovative products & services in order to accelerate the provision of financial inclusion in Sri Lanka. Our partnership with Infosys Finacle is further strengthened by the support extended by them towards our vision of embellishing our organization to be equipped for full automation with fintech services.”

Anton Nicolaisen, Chief Executive, Standard Lesotho Bank said “Our future is towards being every person’s platform of choice that offers more than just financial services. This future-ready state requires technology that fuels innovation and ensures our services are safe, reliable, and convenient. Our innovation strategy puts our clients at the center of everything that we do, enabled by technology platforms, data environment, ecosystems, partnerships, and the workforce of the future. The cloud-native Infosys Finacle universal banking solution is therefore significant for the success of our strategy.”

Ravindra Pandey, Dy. Managing Director & Chief Information Officer, State Bank of India, Global IT Centre said “State Bank of India is proud of having launched uniform, user-friendly and feature-rich yono Global Mobile Banking application for the customers of SBI’s international operations, in eight countries so far. The technology change has already started globally where the everything is evolving around mobility and mobile and Internet are becoming intrinsic part of our daily routine. We thank our tech partner, Infosys Finacle, for having converted our digital vision into reality. We are sure that our yono Global mobile application will meet our customers’ expectations of ‘Banking on the Go’ with ease and convenience.”

Arti Dhole, Chief Information Officer, Cosmos Bank said “The Cosmos Bank is pioneer in implementing the Infosys’s Finacle Core banking solution recognized as world’s best CBS solution. Now this year, being the CIO the focus was more on automation, state-thru-processing, integration, reduce revenue/income leakage and speedup the customer services as well as use of localization to reduce clumsy customizations. As a CIO, have revamped bank’s agenda to digital banking and has rolled out online, mobile, and social banking extensions to its core offerings in an effort to respond to this changing consumer demographic. We take a great pleasure to share moment of glory for the Bank and feel proud to announce that our Bank has received Infosys Innovation award 2021 in ‘UPI based Channel innovation’ and ‘Covid response innovation’ category.”

Manoranjan Sahu, Chief Technology Officer, Übank said “Übankis one of the first digital neo banks by VP Bank, One of the largest Private sector bank and FECREDIT, a market leader in consumer lending in Vietnam. Übank aims to become the leading technological bank in providing basic banking & financial solutions solely through a digital platform. The innovation journey is achieved by the state-of-the-art Finacle platform from Infosys. The Finacle-as-a-Service (FaaS) has not only helped in launching the core banking platform in a short span of 6 months, but also played a critical role in interfacing with all the partners and payment platforms through the readily available APIs & Microservices. Definitely Übank is on top gear in achieving 5 million accounts by 2025.”

Pravin Sharma, CGM & Chief Technology Officer, Union Bank of India said “Bank is architecting the future by driving business growth and creating competitive advantages through emerging technologies and continuous innovations.

Bank’s innovation strategy is centered around customers to provide superior experience at all stages of customer journey in every sphere of Banking through superior touch point experience and agile services. Banks’ IT Architecture enables seamless integration with ecosystem and ensures continuous delivery of responsive, resilient, and secure IT Systems/Services using latest technologies and continuous innovations.

APIM uses Finacle Integrator (FI) that enables seamless integration of Finacle Core Banking Solution, for real time communication with Finacle for all APIs that are hosted at Finacle.

Infosys Finacle being Bank’s premier technology partner has provided continuous support all these years with special mention during amalgamation period.”

Kennedy Uzoka, Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, United Bank for Africa Plc said “Our quest for undisputable and unquestionable digital dominance is based on the premise of delivering our customer first promise. We centered our digital innovation around customer experience through iterative improvements consolidated on an Omni Channel Hub (OCH) provided by Infosys Finacle. Customers now have 24×7 secure access to carry out banking transactions from anywhere in the world and this has translated into massive increase in the adoption and activity rate on this platform across 20 countries in Africa.”