The MPE 2023 AWARDS CEREMONY will be part of the 16th annual MPE 2023 (Merchant Payments Ecosystem) conference.
MPE Awards Media Partners
As the MPE 2023 Awards Chair, it gives me great pleasure to welcome you to the prestigious Merchant Payment Ecosystem Awards for the 16th Annual Conference for the Payments Industry, organised by the Empiria Group.
Last year, we had our first in-person event since the start of the pandemic, and you could feel the energy and buzz in the air of finally being able to get to see each other again. I am delighted that we can do this again this year and I look forward to welcoming you all in person in Berlin!
We remain committed to our “Guiding Hand” awards concept, and even as the world continues to recover from the effects of the pandemic, we have entered a new phase of economic, regulatory, and geo-political challenges. These will continue to test us for a while yet, and the payments industry will be right in the middle of it. Last year, the theme for our awards was “Growing Faster” and the 2022 award winners demonstrated that the best of the best can certainly do that. As more obstacles have been thrown our way, it is therefore fitting that our underlying theme for this year’s awards is “Sustaining Growth” and our popular statuette will reflect this.
- featuring 11 Categories
Winners of the Judge’s Choice Award will be selected by the panel of independent expert judges.
- featuring 2 Categories
MPE Influencer of the Year
The winner will be determined via public online voting.
Best Start-Up Innovation Award
Winner will ber determined by MPE audience.
Category sponsored by:
This award will go to the merchant acquirer who has demonstrated success in their merchant relationships through the provision of excellent products and services. Size doesn’t matter. Geography doesn’t matter. This category is open to all acquirers who strive to be best of breed.
Category sponsored by:
This award will go to the provider who launched an innovative solution in the last 18 months that can demonstrate tangible benefits to merchants regarding fraud prevention, identity, or authentication (e.g., support of SCA migration). The entry must include quantifiable data to show the product’s impact on its clients through use of technology (e.g., analytics, AI, biometrics, etc.). The data analytics must be relevant to the fraud area.
This Award goes to the company that uses Data Analytics or AI to support merchants in any way that is NOT involved in Fraud prevention. To stress, this is not about Fraud Prevention using AI/Data analytics but covers areas such as loyalty, customer engagement, customer & merchant support/service, etc. Either technology, platform, or merchants may enter the award.
This award is open for solution providers that support merchants to grow revenue by opening up by expanding sales across borders while reducing risks and complexities.
This award will go to the organization that has developed the most innovative in-store payment acceptance solution that provides value and differentiation for merchants and a great payments experience for customers.
Open to PSPs, ISOs, Facilitators, Aggregators, PAAS Providers, Acquirers and Acquiring-as-a-Service providers, this award will go to the provider who can demonstrate real benefits to merchants either in terms of omnichannel or multi- rail payment acceptance service provision facilitation, embedded finance, customer experience, innovative commercial constructs, or other demonstrable and quantifiable merchant benefits (e.g. fraud reduction, chargebacks management, payments optimisation, value-added services, etc.).
This award will go the organization offering the best, most comprehensive, most useful platform or marketplace supporting merchants or other players in the merchant payments ecosystem such as banks, PSP, service providers, consumers with solutions in any area of the ecosystem.
Category sponsored by:
It is awarded to the company that best uses open banking data or a payment initiation solution that drives end- userpayments to or from merchants or to create a better customer experience as part of the payment process. Includes enabling loans at the point of sale and all account-to-account payments.
Open to any technology provider helping merchants, issuers or acquirers to streamline their regulatory compliance operations in the areas of regulatory reporting, risk management, identity management & control, compliance and transaction monitoring. This may include compliance with regulations such as PSD2, AML, VAT, etc. as well as industry compliance requirements such as 3DS, PCI DSS, etc. Actual metrics and KPIs must be provided in the answers. Case studies (max 2) are welcome to support the entry. The solution must have been commercially live for at least two years.
This award goes to the payments orchestration platform that unifies the various aspects of payments processing and enables merchants to optimise their payment processes and simplify the ongoing management of payments acceptance. The judges will be looking for ease of integration, connectivity choice, acceptance & conversion rates, fraud protection improvements, reconciliation & settlement simplification, enhanced analytics and reporting as well as security and compliance. Actual metrics and KPIs must be provided in the answers. Case studies (max 2) are welcome to support the entry. The solution must have been commercially live for at least one year.
Category sponsored by:
Open to any payments businesses with a clear and well-developed ESG strategy who can demonstrate how their strategy is making a substantial positive impact in any of the E,S,G pillars, particularly when supported by technology. This will show evidence of how progress is being made against specific near and long-term objectives such as net-zero, carbon offsetting, UN Sustainable Development Goals, social purpose and supply chain transparency goals. Entries should include a case study of a live initiative or programme as well as up-to-date supporting data/evidence of its impact against the set objectives and a clear definition of KPIs.
To be awarded to the individual (or team) who has provided a significant contribution to the development of the Merchant Payments Ecosystem either on a domestic or international basis.
MPE Awards - are The Only European Awards recognizing TOP merchant payments acceptance companies and their achievements.
With a category for each player of the merchant payment ecosystem, the Awards are all-inclusive. No other European awards program provides such industry-wide recognition in true reflection of the breadth and strength of our industry.
MPE Award winners will be able to promote their accomplishment all year long.
All winners will be given a MPE 2023 Awards logo and jury testimonials to be used in their PR & marketing activities in addition to special coverage from Merchant Payments Ecosystem Awards & conference. Winners will record personal acceptance video that will be uploaded on MPE Awards website and MPE TV YouTube channel and further promoted through MPE channels.
See MPE 2022 Awards Winners testimonials here
You can enter the contest until Feb 10, 2023.
Important note: Contestants enrolling for the Innovation Hub at MPE, aspiring to win the „MPE Innovator of the Year“ award, should submit their entries also until Feb 28, 2023. Also, their submission process and overall management differs from the rest of the award categories. Please refer to the MPE Innovation Hub section to see the steps and eligibility to enter.
Any company qualifying as part of the payment acceptance value chain worldwide.
Anybody working as part of a team or department responsible for a particular solution/service (one to become a subject of the entry), a marketing, communication or PR specialist whom has been appointed this task or who is generally responsible for awards submissions.
The sole process of sending the application is done via an online form and is thoroughly described in the next section as well as the steps you need to do before you actually submit anything.
You can enter maximum of three categories.
Yes, you can enter the same category/categories with the same or different product/service. You can also enter category/categories you have not attended before with a product/service you have previously used. However, if you previously won any of the categories, please also refer to the next point.
Definitely, the only condition here is that you cannot enter neither the same nor the rest of the categories with the same product/service you won with previously. However, you can enter the same category you won previously with a different product/service.
MPE Awards is very prestigious and unique in its concept. Therefore, you should carefully consider your choice. The awards ceremony traditionally takes place on the second night of the three day conference. Since the conference itself is attended by senior representatives, there is a pretty good chance you already have the right person on spot. As winning parties are notified several days prior to the ceremony, you will have enough time to appoint the proper member of your crew to pick up your prize. If you won the „Acquiring Personality of the Year“ category, well, it is your call to take what is yours :-)
Recognition and prestige. You being the winner, it is our commitment to make sure your name is spelled in the organizer.
The major card and payments acceptance media after the conference. A separate PR campaign utilizing the world-class media distribution companies follows your success hand-in-hand with social media coverage performed by us.
The MPE went the more challenging way of finding highly skilled and reputable artists to create unique Guiding Hand statuettes, using valuable materials with designs changed from year to year, reflecting the current trends and important happenings in the payment industry.
In 2014 we started our cooperation with renowned Croatian artist Gordana Turuk. Gordana creates all her masterpieces by skillfully mixing organic glass and precious metals.
She continues to design the MPE statuette also for 2023...