The jury of the Banking Innovation Awards has chosen CaixaBank for its “outstanding commitment to digital innovation, with new features such as the renewed omnichannel customer experience, the voice banking chatbot, the online mortgage registration and application services, and the successful neobank, imagine ”.
CaixaBank has been chosen ‘Most Innovative Bank in the World 2021’ ( Global Innovator 2021), in the EFMA-A cce nture Banking Innovation Awards that, for eight years, have awarded the most innovative entities in the financial services sector in the world .
It is the second time that the entity has obtained the highest category ( Gold Award ) in these awards, in which CaixaBank has been placed in the Top 3 in four of its eight editions: Gold , in 2021 and 2016; Silver in 2015, and Bronze in 2019, which represents a sustained recognition of CaixaBank’s long history of innovation and excellence.
The awards jury, made up of 40 representatives of EFMA member banks and financial institutions, this year awarded CaixaBank the highest award for its “outstanding commitment to digital innovation, with innovations such as the renewed omnichannel customer experience, the chatbot voice banking, online mortgage registration and application services, and the successful neobank, imagin ”.
The EFMA-Accenture Banking Awards each year choose the “Most Innovative Bank in the World” from among the entities that stand out in the 7 sectoral categories of the awards. In this edition, records have been broken with the participation of nearly 300 entities from 73 countries, and 816 projects presented.
In addition, in the sector awards, CaixaBank has obtained the second position ( Silver Award ) in the category “Workforce of the future” with its ‘Customer Experience LABs’ project. For its part, imagin, the digital services and lifestyle platform promoted by CaixaBank, which has 3.7 million users, has been placed in second position ( Silver Award ) in the category “Reimagining the customer experience”.
A successful omnichannel strategy
The award recognizes CaixaBank’s commitment to continuous innovation and excellence in the use of new technologies to continue offering the best customer experience. The entity is committed to an omnichannel strategy that, through its CaixaBankNow platform, allows customers to access the bank’s products and services comfortably and easily at any time and from anywhere.
CaixaBank is the financial institution in Spain with the largest digital banking customer base. Currently, 71.4% of CaixaBank’s clients in Spain are digital (September 2021).
This year, CaixaBank has incorporated new innovations thanks to the deployment of ATM Now, a technological platform that offers the same experience of using digital banking at ATMs as that offered by mobile and web. In this way, CaixaBank became the first bank in the world to offer a totally omnichannel experience, with the same level of quality, image and service in all its digital channels.
Among other novelties, EFMA and Accenture highlight Noa, CaixaBank’s virtual assistant, which, using artificial intelligence, is capable of solving all customer questions and also allows access to detailed information about their finances, following instructions through the voice.
The 100% digital registration service ( digital onboarding ) and MortgageNow, a service to apply for mortgages digitally for non-residents in Spain, has also deserved recognition .
Imagin success
For its part, imagin has been one of the protagonists of this edition, having obtained the second position ( Silver Award ) globally in the category “Reimagining the customer experience”.
imagin is a lifestyle platform promoted by CaixaBank that offers digital, financial and non-financial services, which help its users, mostly young people under 30 years of age, in their daily lives and in their future projects. It currently has a community of 3.7 million users, a figure that is constantly growing thanks to the wide range of content and services – a good part, free access -, the ease of registration and the creation of various levels of linkage, which Unlike traditional banks, they do not necessarily imply registration as a financial customer.
The digital contents of imagin are organized around six main verticals: music (imaginMusic), video games (imaginGames), trends (imaginCafé), technology (imaginShop), sustainability (imaginPlanet) and solidarity (imaginChangers). In addition, imagin offers special experiences and benefits in areas such as travel or urban mobility.
In addition, the imagin application develops an offer of financial products to cover the savings and financing needs of young people who have entered adulthood and who are beginning to have their first income and their own lifestyle projects.
In all cases, imagin maintains the characteristics that have made it a banking leader for young audiences: mobile-only operations (services are provided exclusively through the app, without offices and without a website, which only fulfills informational functions), without commissions for the user and with its own, simple and clear language, especially suitable for direct communication with young people.
International awards for innovation
This award is added to those obtained in the field of digital banking and innovation this year, such as’ Most innovative financial institution in Western Europe 2021 ‘,’ Best digital bank for private banking in Spain 2021 ‘,’ Best web design in Western European retail banking 2021 ‘and’ Best Western European retail banking mobile app 2021 ‘, by Global Finance .
In addition, in the field of private banking, CaixaBank has been chosen ‘Best Private Banking entity in Big data analysis and Artificial Intelligence in Europe 2021’ by PWM magazine (FT Group) and ‘Most Innovative Private Banking Entity in Europe Occidental 2021 ‘by Global Finance .