Showcasing the Innovations Driving Banking Forward
American Banker is now accepting nominations for the Innovation of the Year 2026 awards, recognizing 10 groundbreaking initiatives that are redefining the future of digital banking.
These standout innovations will be selected for their bold impact, real-world results and forward-thinking approaches to solving key challenges across the financial services industry.
Winners will be announced and celebrated at DIGITAL BANKING, taking place June 15–17 in Orlando, Florida, during a special awards gala honoring the innovators and their teams.
Submit your application by Friday, December 5, 2025, at 5:00 PM EST.
Innovation: Delivering Embedded Finance to Contract Workers
Category: Embedded Finance
By focusing on contract workers, Starion Bank was able to expand its footprint across the country, massively increasing its customer base and total deposits.
The community bank, along with fintech partners Fiserv and Central Payments, teamed up with one of the nation’s largest gig economy employers to launch an embedded finance initiative focused on helping contract workers manage their finances.
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Category: On-chain finance (Crypto + Blockchain)
Innovation: Citi Token Services
Bank: Citi
In the age of cross-continent, real-time payments, Citi has made it a priority to stay ahead of the curve. The bank’s Treasury and Trade Solutions customers were asking for multinational cash management and trade services available 24/7, and that’s where Citi Token Services was born.
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Category: Open Banking + Open Finance
Innovation: Citizens Open Banking API
Bank: Citizens
Open banking is rapidly becoming standard practice in the banking industry through the embrace of application programming interfaces, or APIs. Citizens Bank, with the launch of its open banking API, takes this standard a step further by folding in commercial customers as well.
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Innovation: Triangle of Fraud Protection
Category: Cybersecurity + Fraud
Triangle of Fraud Protection combines real‑time payment screening, AI‑driven fraud scoring, and settlement‑administrator tools to halt fraudulent mass tort and class action claims, which spiked 190‑fold between 2021 and 2023.
Developed by Digital Disbursements — a subsidiary of Western Alliance Bank — and partner ClaimScore, the solution launched in June 2024 in response to the surge in bogus filings.
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Innovation: Triangle of Fraud Protection
Category: Cybersecurity + Fraud
Triangle of Fraud Protection combines real‑time payment screening, AI‑driven fraud scoring, and settlement‑administrator tools to halt fraudulent mass tort and class action claims, which spiked 190‑fold between 2021 and 2023.
Developed by Digital Disbursements — a subsidiary of Western Alliance Bank — and partner ClaimScore, the solution launched in June 2024 in response to the surge in bogus filings.
Read more
Category: Payments
Innovation: High-Fidelity ACH
Bank: First Internet Bank
When banks send large wire transfers on behalf of business clients, a lot can go wrong. Large automated clearinghouse (ACH) files can exceed transaction limits and require manual approval. Sometimes transfers are bundled into ACH files and processed asynchronously, and it’s not clear whether they will make the settlement
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Innovation: Delivering Embedded Finance to Contract Workers
Category: Embedded Finance
By focusing on contract workers, Starion Bank was able to expand its footprint across the country, massively increasing its customer base and total deposits.
The community bank, along with fintech partners Fiserv and Central Payments, teamed up with one of the nation’s largest gig economy employers to launch an embedded finance initiative focused on helping contract workers manage their finances.
Read more
Innovation: High-Fidelity ACH
Category: Payments
First Internet Bank was one of the first online-only banks; it was founded in 1999. The bank, which is headquartered in Fishers, Indiana, decided last year it wanted to be able to offer its business customers reliability, timeliness and visibility into their ACH transfers.
The $5.9 billion-asset bank worked with Increase, a provider of an API-centric banking core, to develop a system in which the bank sends out canary transfers, so it knows when files are being received and distributed by the Federal Reserve. Customers are given a dashboard that tracks the progress of every ACH file and its expected settlement time. Check and Ramp are among customers who have reported that they now know precisely when payments will clear.
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Category: Generative AI
Innovation: LLM Suite
Bank: JPMorganChase
JPMorganChase created a buzz last year when it revealed its plan to provide generative AI technology to all employees, to let them do things like draft emails and reports. Several banks followed suit.
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Category: Regulation + Compliance + Risk Management
Innovation: Regulatory Inquiries Compliance Platform Automation
Bank: Morgan Stanley
When regulators ask a bank for information about transactions that occurred on its system, they expect a detailed answer quickly. Morgan Stanley’s compliance staffers used to answer these incoming requests by hand, logging inquiries in a database, finding the relevant data and responding to the regulatory agency.
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Category: Digital + Mobile-First Banking
Innovation: Under 18 Financial Empowerment
Bank: Nubank
In Latin America, access to financial services is often limited to the privileged few who can afford high bank fees. Nubank, a Brazilian neobank, is expanding banking access to underserved Latin teenagers with Under 18 accounts.
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Innovation: Faster Payments for a Network of Community Banks
Category: Other Innovation
United Bankers’ Bank, a correspondent bank based in Bloomington, Minnesota, and real‑time payments fintech Pidgin teamed up to develop a platform that provides the connective tissue and plumbing a bank needs to offer real-time payments through FedNow, RTP or the automated clearinghouse. The platform made instant payments a possibility for more than 1,000 community banks.
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Category: Embedded Finance
Innovation: Delivering Embedded Finance to Contract Workers
Bank: Starion Bank
By focusing on contract workers, Starion Bank was able to expand its footprint across the country, massively increasing its customer base and total deposits.
Read more
Category: AI + Analytics
Innovation: Truist Client Pulse
Bank: Truist
What if a bank could see every piece of feedback every customer has ever provided, encompassing call center conversations, surveys, app store reviews and formal complaints, and incorporate that into decisions? This is the aim of Truist’s Client Pulse system.
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Category: Other Innovation
Innovation: Faster Payments for a Network of Community Banks
Bank: United Bankers’ Bank
United Bankers’ Bank (UBB) and real‑time payments fintech Pidgin teamed up to bring instant payments to more than 1,000 community banks.
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Category: Cybersecurity + Fraud
Innovation: Triangle of Fraud Protection
Bank: Western Alliance Bank
Triangle of Fraud Protection combines real‑time payment screening, AI‑driven fraud scoring, and settlement‑administrator tools to halt fraudulent mass‑tort and class‑action claims, which spiked 190‑fold between 2021 and 2023.
Read more