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Austrian Payments Innovation Award 2024
04.04.2024
Advancing digitalization is fundamentally changing the way we pay. This poses major challenges for the economy and society.
Therefore, oenpay aims to promote the digitalization of payments in Austria and beyond. As a hub of a cross-industry innovation community, oenpay supports the development of innovative, sustainable, inclusive and secure payment solutions together with all stakeholders involved.
Under the motto “Together for innovation in payments”, oenpay launched the Austrian Payments Innovation Award for the first time this year under the patronage of the OeNB.
The prize was awarded by oenpay – Financial Innovation Hub (oenpay) under the patronage of the Austrian National Bank (OeNB) and with active support from Austrian banks, payment service providers and FinTechs. The award was established to recognize the best innovations in payments in Austria and to strengthen the domestic payments community.
Over a period of four weeks, 22 innovation projects were submitted for the award. An overview of all submissions is listed below:
| Unternehmen | Eingereichtes Projekt |
| Authentic Vision | Holographic Fingerprint Since 2021, the integration of the “Holographic Fingerprint” – a holographic, forgery-proof label – into debit cards in collaboration between UniCredit Bank Austria and Authentic Vision has been revolutionizing the protection of customer accounts. |
| BAWAG P.S.K. Bank für Arbeit und Wirtschaft und Österreichische Postsparkasse | BAWAG Business Banking EBICS Web and App BAWAG developed a web-based solution that can communicate not only with BAWAG-accounts, but also with all EBICS-enabled bank accounts in Europe. |
| Blocktrade | Blocktrade Blocktrade is the first fully EU-regulated and gamified crypto platform, bringing together digital assets, gaming, and commerce. |
| Bluecode | Payment Roaming in Europe The solution pursues the vision that users can pay with their usual mobile payment solution via the network of other European mobile payment providers. |
| Bluecode | Bluecode Instant Bluecode has developed Bluecode Instant – a system that combines the advantages of instant payments and classic P2M transactions. |
| Die Zweite Wiener Vereins-Sparcasse | ‚Account with gambling protection‘ for 2. Sparkasse With the initiative ‚Account with gambling protection‘, 2. Sparkasse is the only bank in Austria that has created the possibility of blocking gambling transactions (and only these). |
| Erste Bank | Smart- and Premiumcard The “Smart and Premium Card” project, implemented in September 2022, was about redesigning the entire credit card portfolio of Erste Bank und Sparkassen. |
| Erste Bank | VISA Premiumcard Privat Banking Together with the Erste Bank‘s private banking department, Erste Bank has replaced the previous private banking card with the VISA Private Banking Card and equipped it with new and exclusive features. |
| Erste Bank | Google Pay Erste Bank und Sparkassen was the first major Austrian bank to launch Google Pay in December 2022. |
| fiskaly | Digitale Beleglösung With it’s digital receipt solution, fiskaly offers modern software that meets the needs of today’s retail industry. |
| Iknaio Cryptoasset Analytics | Iknaio Cryptoasset Analytics Iknaio Cryptoasset Analytics GmbH is revolutionizing the fight against cybercrime and crypto fraud, while promoting financial inclusion by making cryptocurrencies safer to use. |
| IM Polymer | The first card to grow back! For environmentally conscious companies, the biocard made of bioplastic is the sustainable and environmentally friendly alternative to conventional products made of petroleum plastic or petroleum plastic-coated paper. |
| K42 Ventures | BANKpay+ BANKpay+ has launched a new version of its SEPAinstant+ SEPAid service, enabling real-time payments and bank status notifications across 5300+ European banks. |
| Linde Verlag und Georg Tuder | Handbook Payments 4.0 The 23-person team of authors from the areas of practice, law, science and supervisory authorities takes a closer legal look at the topics mentioned in the ‚Handbook Payments 4.0‘. |
| Oberbank | Order foreign currency online Oberbank offers customers the opportunity to order selected foreign currencies directly in the Oberbank customer portal and in the Oberbank app – in the future also with shipping directly to customers. |
| Paysafe | Paysafe: Alternative to the bank account Account & Card is like a conventional account where customers receive a personal IBAN, a physical and a virtual Debit Mastercard. |
| P19 | P19 Payment Podcast With the P19 Payment Podcast, P19 wants to bring payment closer to everyone – experts, laypeople and everyone in between – and shed light on all its facets. |
| Raiffeisen Bank International | Virtual IBAN (VBAN) Virtual IBAN – a simple time and cost‐saving solution – can change the way our corporate customers or non-bank FIs do accounting by helping automate this process. |
| Raiffeisen Bank International | Virtual Accounts Virtual Accounts fulfil the corporates’ desire to centralize their cash and liquidity management while always keeping a transparent overview on payment flows as well as simplifying bank account structures. |
| Raiffeisenbankengruppe Österreich & Raiffeisen Bank International | RaiPay The RaiPay payment wallet offers customers access to a state-of-the-art payment solution for digital debit and credit cards; P2P payments, card management and much more, independent of other X-Pays such as Google Pay and Apple Pay but also of providers of payable wearables (Garmin, Swatch, …). |
| Raiffeisenlandesbank Niederösterreich-Wien | Investments in digital assets from one euro and without delay By integrating Bitpanda Technology Solutions’s investment infrastructure into the mobile banking app ‚Mein ELBA‘,RLB NÖ-Wien gives its customers easy, fast and secure access to more than 2,500 digital assets (including cryptocurrencies and precious metals) starting at just one euro. |
| SocialCard | SocialCard SocialCard is a cashless and direct donation option to homeless and poverty-stricken people, including those whose situation excludes them from cashless payments. |
Innovation pays off! Three winning teams were awarded at the Austrian Payments Innovation Gala, which took place for the first time on April 4, 2024. The governor of the Austrian Central Bank, Univ.-Prof. Dr. Robert Holzmann, kicked off the event. The winning teams of this year’s Austrian Payments Innovation Awards received exciting prizes.
The high-tier expert jury, made up of nine payments, startup and innovation experts, evaluated the submitted projects based on oenpay’s four core values.
Raiffeisenlandesbank Niederösterreich-Wien (RLB NÖ-Wien) was awarded the first prize with their solution for investments in digital assets from one euro and without waiting times, which was implemented in cooperation with Bitpanda. By integrating Bitpanda Technology Solutions’ investment infrastructure into the mobile banking app ‚My ELBA‘, the winning solution provides customers with an easy, fast and secure access to over 2,500 digital assets (stocks & ETFs, raw materials, precious metals and Cryptos) from just one euro. Payments are processed very conveniently directly via the customer’s checking account.
As the main prize, the first place winners won a four-day learning trip to Silicon Savannah in Nairobi. The Learning Journey offers the winners exciting insights into the startup ecosystem and digital transformation in East Africa. In addition to discussions, field visits and networking, participants can explore the regional payment ecosystem – from M-Pesa Mobile Money, to banks and FinTechs.
SocialCard was able to secure the second place with its solution for a cashless and direct donation option to homeless and poverty-stricken people (including those who are excluded from cashless payment transactions due to their situation). Using a QR code, people can receive donations without an account or digital device. Donations can be made via credit card and soon also via the monetary value of unused loyalty points from various loyalty programs for customers. The person can then redeem these donations with partners for services and everyday products. In a pilot project, SocialCard has already been successfully implemented as a cashless payment option for the street newspaper “Apropos” in Salzburg.
The third place went to Bluecode for their innovation project Payment Roaming in Europe, which enables seamless payments across national borders. Bluecode has founded the European Mobile Payment Systems Association (EMPSA) together with other European mobile payment solutions. The solution pursues the vision that users can pay with their usual mobile payment solution via the network of other European mobile payment providers. The principle of roaming, which is already known from telecommunications, hence, is also used in payments. In an already successful pilot test, it was shown how the mobile payment solutions Bluecode (Austria and Germany), TWINT (Switzerland) and Bancomat Pay (Italy) pay at each other’s acceptance points.
The second and third placed teams were also awarded smaller prizes.
You can find further impressions of the Austrian Payments Innovation Gala here:
Contact
OeNPAY Financial Innovation HUB GmbH
Seegasse 3/1
1090 Wien
office@oenpay.at
