This Award is for a new, up-and-coming FinTech company in Canada that is less than four years old, as of December 31, 2019, and has shown the most entrepreneurial success in the past year in FinTech. Success is measured on a number of factors, including innovative technology, solving a technology need, capturing a new sector or market with FinTech, disruption of a service or market segment, novel application of a product or service, or traction in the international marketplace.

This Award is for an established FinTech company in Canada that has been providing financial products or services for over four years and is actively engaged in innovation creation. Success is measured by a number of factors, including partnerships with banks or providing services directly to consumers, significant growth or adoption, and name recognition or marketplace leadership.

This Award is for an AI company that has shown the most entrepreneurial success in the past year. Success is measured by a number of factors, including innovation, solving a technology problem with AI, disruption of a service or market segment, application of product or service and traction in, or ability to obtain traction in the international marketplace in AI.

This Award is new and is for the company that provides payment services, whatever the model or type, and that is a clear leader in the provision of payments as a service. The nominees must be a Canadian company or have a material part of its business in Canada in order to be eligible. Nominees must have technology that is operational and in use by third parties.

This Award is for a Blockchain distributed ledger technology or smart contracts development company, or a services company in the Blockchain space in Canada that has developed the most novel, practical or utilized technology for digital currencies, Blockchain or for the public. Success could include consumer traction, tech prowess, novel or globally impactful solutions. This Award is for technology in use.

This Award is designed to recognize either a company, a team within an organization, including a bank, NGO or government agency, or a technology solution that has made a material impact with technology for regulatory compliance in Canada or for a Canadian organization related to financial services. The solution or team could be within a large financial institution and could include, for example, efforts to mitigate financial crime or anti-money laundering law, or could be a stand-alone technology solution designed for third party use. The emphasis of this Award is to recognize the important role that technology plays for responsible innovation and to recognize leadership for responsible innovation in Canada.

The Canadian Bankers Association – Bank Innovator of the Year Award is for a Canadian bank that has had a positive impact in FinTech in Canada, either by breaking down silos to support innovation internally, by creating innovating and novel FinTech for the financial institution, or by entering into partnerships that support for the development of FinTech. Judges also look for leadership measured by support for many different players in the ecosystems that demonstrates clear commitment to supporting Canadian innovation. This Award is not designed for financial institutions that adopt, deploy, or purchase FinTech created by third parties, but rather is designed to recognize internal innovative initiatives that engage employees and support innovation designed by Canadians.

This Award is new and designed to recognize the important role that credit unions play in the Canadian financial services landscape, often providing financial inclusion solutions and banking to niche sectors of customers in targeted areas of the country, and importantly to recognize the innovation in financial services they provide to their customer base. This Award is recognizing a credit union in Canada that is a leader in technology innovation, and that has designed and implemented technology to help customers bank better or to help the credit union improve its services to its customer base. Judges also look for leadership measured by support for many different players in the ecosystem that demonstrate clear commitment to supporting Canadian innovation.

This Award is for a Canadian law firm that has been the most impactful in the FinTech or AI space. It recognizes a law firm that has been in the FinTech or AI space for a number of years and has been instrumental in helping to launch or grow FinTech or AI companies through legal advice.

This Award is for a consulting or accounting firm in Canada that has been the most impactful in advisory services in the FinTech or AI space. It is for the firm that has been in the FinTech or AI startup space for a number of years, and impactful in helping to develop FinTech or AI companies, either through consulting or accounting services.

This Award is designed for the investment firm whose financial support has been sustained in Canada and has assisting many companies to launch, and that has helped to create innovative technologies or developed the FinTech or AI space the most in Canada.

This Award is for the accelerator or incubator that has demonstrated success in helping FinTech or AI startups to launch their business and develop technology, or work with others in the sector to develop the most impactful innovative product or service. This Award recognizes the importance of incubators and accelerators in fostering ecosystem support or other forms of support in Canada that drive and advance innovation inclusively.

This Award is for a Canadian person who has demonstrated the most leadership in innovation or entrepreneurship in technology, FinTech or AI. It recognizes the person who has had an impact in shaping the Canadian technology dialogue and supporting the innovation ecosystem. Leadership is measured on thought leadership, the advancement of commercial technology or investment in technology and support for ecosystem.

Tapping into our roots with the launch of the world’s first Women in FinTech White Paper published in 2015 and powered by Innotribe at SWIFT that launched the popular FemTech Leader series, the Digital Finance Institute is celebrating the 5^th Anniversary of the Awards with a FemTech Leader of the Year Award. This Award is designed to recognize a woman who is a leader in technology in FinTech or AI, innovating within Canada. To be eligible, nominees must be leaders in the creation of technology or in a supervisory or oversight role of internal technology creation.  This Award is intended to recognize a woman who supports financial technology in a hands-on manner, that benefits Canada and who is a technology innovator.

This award is to recognize an organization, a company or a person who has demonstrated leadership in diversity and inclusion in Canada in the innovation space. The demonstration of diversity and inclusion must be measurable and transparent and constitute real support for inclusivity. This award is not open to a scheduled bank, a credit union or financial institution.

This is a discretionary award for a company or a person in any type of technology that has demonstrated thought leadership and ecosystem engagement in financial innovation as determined by the Digital Finance Institute and the expert advisors.