American Banker’s Innovation of the Year 2025: How to apply

American Banker has opened nominations for our new Innovation of the Year awards, which recognize the most groundbreaking and important tech launches at banks and financial institutions in the U.S. The award celebrates achievements from new markets and infrastructure to tools, products and services, and the teams that brought them to life.

Winners will come from across the tech landscape, including in the following categories: 

1. Digital + Mobile-First Banking
2. Open Banking + Open Finance 
3. Regulation + Compliance + Risk Management
4. Artificial Intelligence + Cloud Computing
5. Embedded Finance
6. Payments
7. Banking as a Service
8. Cybersecurity + Fraud 
9. On-Chain Finance (Crypto + Blockchain)

Finalists will be announced in May and recognized in person at Digital Banking, our live event in Boca Raton, Florida, June 1-4, 2025. The winner will be named at the event. 

Eligibility

Eligible innovations were launched during 2024 and involve a bank or financial institution that is based in the U.S. or conducted the project here. We welcome nominations for tech innovations that banks or financial institutions launched with partner firms, including fintechs, tech vendors, agencies, law firms and venture or private equity funds. 

There is no limit on the number of individuals who can participate in a winning project, but only the project leader and four colleagues or partners will be recognized by name. 

We will accept nominations until April 14, 2025. We do not require a nomination for a project to win an award.

A selection committee of American Banker journalists will judge the applications. We will consider the return on investment for the financial institution and its customers, any other impacts or benefits the financial institution derived from it, how novel the tech application is, and whether it moves the field forward or influences the market. 

All information provided in the nomination form, with the exclusion of personal contact information, may be used for publication.

Important instructions

Please do not hit the “submit” button at the end until the application is fully completed. Once you hit submit, you will not be able to access your application again. Please note that we are not accepting printed nomination forms, only those submitted through our online portal.

Submit a nomination here. 

Deadline: Monday, April 14, 2025, at 11:59 p.m. ET 

Please send any questions to Banking Herald [email protected].

For information about sponsoring Innovation of the Year, contact Brad Bava at [email protected].