CaixaBank has won the Model Bank 2017 award from US consultancy firm Celent, an annual accolade that honours the world’s most innovative bank. Celent, a subsidiary of the international firm Oliver Wyman, specialises in research in the use of information technology in the global financial industry.
The award recognises R&D projects that have a significant bearing on an organization’s business, seeking those that demonstrate the highest degree of innovation, technological achievement, and excellence in implementation. The panel of judges specifically picked out CaixaBank, presided over by Chairman Jordi Gual and CEO Gonzalo Gortázar, for “demonstrating a true digital transformation process” in three major categories: improving the customer experience, products, and innovation projects.
User experience, innovative products, and emerging technology
Celent first emphasised CaixaBank’s achievements in terms of customer experience, particularly applauding its new website, which serves more than 5 million customers. It likewise pointed to other initiatives such as the exclusive “My Finances” service, which harnesses big data to provide customers with income and spending information, giving them a detailed understanding of their financial positions; and the new mobile-only banking model harnessed by imaginBank, which is aimed at the millennial generation and provides banking services exclusively via a mobile app and social networks.
Celent also commended some of CaixaBank’s outstanding products, such as its innovative services in payment methods, account management and digital correspondence, via applications and services such as CaixaBank Pay, MailBox and Mi Hucha.
Finally, Celent distinguished CaixaBank’s engagement with emerging technologies, including deployment of the imaginBank chatbot, the first such chatbot in the Spanish banking industry; and the annual app programming marathon, imaginChallenge, aimed at driving shared innovation and co-creation.
CaixaBank collected the award at the Innovation and Insight (I & I) Day, Celent’s foremost annual event held in Boston. In excess of 150 projects were submitted to the 2017 Celent awards from more than 100 banks in 30 countries around the world.
CaixaBank’s leadership in innovation
CaixaBank is considered a leading innovator in financial services worldwide, serving 5.3 million online customers and 3.7 million active mobile banking customers.
The bank leads the electronic banking market, with more than 15.2 million cards in circulation and a market share in terms of turnover of 22.9%. It was one of the first banks anywhere in the world to commercially launch contactless payment systems and mobile payment platforms, winning it numerous international awards.
In 2016 the bank was distinguished as “Global Innovator 2016” by Efma and Accenture, for the world’s best innovation strategy during the year from any bank, as well as the “World’s Best Technology Project” from The Banker for the launch of the mobile-only bank imaginBank. CaixaBank was also rated as the best provider of mobile banking services in Europe, and the second best worldwide, according to analysts at Forrester Research. CaixaBank is well-established as a global leader in innovation and new technologies.
CaixaBank is not only the leading operator in emerging channels in quantitative terms, but also in qualitative terms, topping the AQMetrix European rankings for service quality provided to customers.
