Nourbakhsh Banking Innovation Awards Presented

Winners of the Nourbakhsh Banking Innovation Awards were announced during the closing ceremony of the Sixth Conference on E-Banking and Payment Systems in Tehran on Tuesday.

Mohsen Nourbakhsh (1948-2003) was a two-term governor of the Central Bank of Iran (1981–86 and 1994–2003). He was also Iran’s minister of economy for 1989-93.

The Central Bank of Iran and the Monetary and Banking Research Institute hold an annual festival to commemorate his distinguished services by awarding banks and banking solution companies active in successful innovation.

eFarda, affiliated with Ayandeh Bank, received an award in non-bank category for the development of a customer loyalty platform and implementation of “Iran Card”. The service is capable of offering services to cardholders after identifying their needs. Returning a portion of the transacted money to cardholders’ account is the main feature of the platform.

Tosan Boom, a marketplace for banking applications, and Paya fraud detection system, developed by Informatics Services Corporation were other notable services in non-banks category, which received recognition for their innovation.   

Development of an ecosystem for linking banks, innovators and customers is the special feature of Tosan Boom.

Bank Melli Iran’s electronic banking platform (BAM) won the award for top innovation in banks’ category. The system offers a wide range of services in a user-friendly and highly-customizable environment.

BAM has more than 600,000 users, according to Bank Melli’s website.

Bank Refah’s comprehensive financial management system, SAMIM, came second. The platform allows customers to plan their income and expenditure.

Shahr Bank was placed third for development of “Forex ATM”. The machine allows users to exchange foreign currencies into Iranian rial at the open market rate, after affirming the cardholders’ identity.

Last year Bank Ayandeh’s financial management application, HADAF, and Bank Maskan’s two-factor authentication system won the award.