Rebuilding money deserves more than a funding announcement.
The Fintech Excellence Awards 2026 are the inaugural recognition of the leaders rebuilding how the world moves money — conferred at The WES AI Excellence Awards in Singapore. Conferred once, carried for a career — recognition that outlasts the news cycle, and that your peers cannot ignore.
The Threshold
One award per field. A 90-day review. A single global stage.
C-Suite
Fintech leaders
Curated
Fintech award categories
10
Fields of finance
Blind
Jury scoring
Global
Participation
1
Global Stage
The Case for Recognition
Finance was rebuilt in a decade — and no one kept the record.
In ten years, the movement of money changed more than in the previous fifty. Payments became invisible, credit became instant, and a phone became a bank for a billion people who never had one.
The leaders behind that shift carry a burden most industries never face: every decision they make is a decision about trust. Yet the recognition available to them is a trade-press listicle or a sponsored trophy — acknowledgment that costs nothing and means the same.
The Fintech Excellence Awards close that gap. One major award per field, judged blind against published criteria — recognition weighted to what the work actually moved: capital, access, and trust.
The Flagship Honours
Two awards above the rest.
Conferred across the whole field, not a single industry. They name the two leaders who set the standard everyone else is measured against.
Fintech Visionary of the Year
For the leader whose conviction redrew what finance could reach — not the loudest pitch in the room, but the one the industry ended up building on.
Fintech CEO of the Year
For the chief executive who turned financial technology into financial infrastructure — growth with trust intact, recognition a board and its peers cannot overlook.
Fields & Impact
Ten fields of finance. One standard of recognition.
One major award is conferred in each. Every other distinguished nominee is named to the recognition tier — because the room itself is the recognition.
Payments & Money Movement
Excellence in Payments Innovation
For making the movement of money instant, invisible, and trusted — at the scale economies run on.
Digital Banking & Neobanks
Excellence in Digital Banking
For rebuilding the bank around the customer — and proving trust doesn't need a branch.
Lending & Intelligent Credit
Excellence in Lending Innovation
For pricing risk more fairly than the models that came before — credit that reaches further without breaking.
Wealth & Capital Markets
Excellence in WealthTech
For opening the instruments of wealth to those who were never offered them.
RegTech & Compliance
Excellence in RegTech
For turning compliance from a cost centre into a competitive edge — rigour at the speed of the market.
Blockchain & Digital Assets
Excellence in Digital Assets
For building the credible layer of digital value — where the speculation ends and the infrastructure begins.
InsurTech
Excellence in InsurTech
For rebuilding insurance around evidence — cover priced honestly, claims settled in hours.
Financial Inclusion
Excellence in Financial Inclusion
For extending the financial system to those it forgot — measured in first accounts, not press releases.
Embedded Finance & Infrastructure
Excellence in Financial Infrastructure
For the rails everyone else's fintech runs on — the plumbing that made finance programmable.
Fraud & Financial Crime
Excellence in Fraud Prevention
For staying ahead of the people who move fastest when money does — defence measured in losses that never happened.
How Recognition Works
One award is conferred. No leader leaves unrecognised.
The Major Award
One per field
Conferred to the single leader or institution whose impact set the standard for the year. Scarce by design — and weightier for it.
The Recognition Tier
Every distinguished nominee
All other shortlisted leaders are named Honourees. Being named at all means being counted among the few — attendance carries value whether or not the top prize follows.
The Selection Process
Scarcity is the point.
A 90-day review built for integrity, not volume. Each stage removes candidates who do not meet the threshold — so that the recognition, once conferred, means something.
Nomination
Candidates are nominated by peers, advisory members, or through a vetted self-nomination.
Internal Screening
Our research team evaluates leadership impact, industry influence, and verifiable outcomes.
Jury Evaluation
A panel of global advisors scores each candidate against published criteria — blind, no pay-to-win.
Final Selection
Only those who clear the threshold are recognised. One major award is conferred per industry — by merit, never by quota.
What the Jury Evaluates
Judged on consequence, not noise.
No pay-to-win, no popularity contest. Four criteria, weighed by a panel of global advisors against verifiable evidence.
Measurable Impact
Outcomes that can be quantified — value created, risk removed, lives or livelihoods improved.
Industry Influence
Whether the work moved the field, set a precedent, or changed how peers operate.
Decision Quality
The judgment behind the deployment — the calls made under uncertainty, and the reasoning for them.
Responsible Deployment
Evidence the AI was built and governed with rigor — safety, fairness, and accountability.
Sponsorship
Stand beside the leaders being recognised.
A select circle of partners shares the stage where The Fintech Excellence Awards are conferred — association by standing, not procurement, and capped each year.
Claim the Recognition
Recognition begins with a nomination.
A nomination is not an entry into a contest. It is a request to be measured against the leaders rebuilding global finance — and to be named among them.
By nomination · Reviewed across a 90-day window