foreword by Ms.Neira Jones

chair of the judging panel, independent advisor & international speaker

welcome to the mpe 2024 awards!

As the MPE 2024 Awards Chair, it gives me great pleasure to welcome you to the prestigious Merchant Payment Ecosystem Awards for the 17th Annual Conference for the Payments Industry, organised by the Empiria Group.

Last year, the conference was even bigger and better! We had a new design, more floor space here at the Intercontinental Berlin, 1,300 attendees, 163 speakers and 40 sessions. We also had new and spectacular audio-visual technology, and MPE was the first event worldwide to use it! Our gala ceremony was James Bond-schemed, and Alex Rolfe, my co-host for the evening, and I had such fun with the choreography and puns, and of course the outfits... You can see it all here.

You could definitely feel the energy and buzz in the air and I look forward to welcoming you all in person in Berlin in March 2024!

We remain committed to our “Guiding Hand” awards concept, and as various challenges will continue to keep us on our toes, the payments industry will continue to be right in the middle of it. Last year, the theme for our awards was “Sustaining Growth” and the 2023 award winners demonstrated that they had a licence to win ;-). As we continue to grow and innovate, it is fitting that our underlying theme for this year’s awards should be “Cooperate to Succeed” and our popular statuette will reflect this.

In the face of adversity and competition, merchants continue to focus on the customer experience and payments providers continue to be more and more innovative. As market consolidation continues and competition intensifies, fraud and financial crime challenges, technology advancements and regulatory pressures can become overwhelming. All ecosystem players have a tough balancing act to perform. It is amazing how the payments industry never disappoints and continues to rise to the challenges thrown at it.

We also observe that socially conscious ecosystem players are developing and implementing strategies trying to make a positive impact on all the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) pillars. Of course, the MPE Awards continue to honour their commitment to diversification: we have a 50/50 balance between ladies and gents on our judging panel, and our judges come from 6 countries!

We continue to seek those that have been remarkable: those that have identified and capitalised on opportunities, those that have been outstanding in their markets, those that have made a substantial positive impact socially, those that have created successful partnerships making them much more than the sum of their parts, and for those that were exemplary in serving their customers.

The history of MPE Awards began more than a decade ago where we were first to recognise the outstanding role of card acquirers, processors, PSPs and other solutions and services providers, as well as to honour companies and individuals who made an impact on the evolution of this fascinating industry. The awards have now also become an important platform for innovation, and nowhere else will start-ups get the opportunity to gain so much exposure to the right individuals and companies as through the MPE Innovation Hub! They even get a special edition of the POSitivity magazine after the conference, read all about it here. This year, we will also have an additional surprise...

Constantly reflecting market changes, the MPE Awards recognise the best payment companies & individuals in 14 categories divided into three groups:

The Judge’s Choice Awards featuring 12 categories. All shortlisted parties and winners will be selected by the panel of independent expert judges.

The Best Startup Innovation Award: at the MPE 2024 conference our judges will be busy drawing up a shortlist of start-ups who will compete in live semi-finals, dragon’s den style during the conference (Innovation Hub). The finals will take place on Day 2, where the audience will get the opportunity to vote for their favourite. The winner will be announced at the Awards Ceremony.

The People’s Choice Award: MPE Influencer of the Year, where the winner will be determined via public online voting.

It is also my privilege to select the Chairman’s Award, and this year, it will go to the Best ESG Initiative in Payments.

A full list of categories and their descriptions is available in this brochure.

The MPE Awards remain an important benchmark of global excellence in merchant payments, and I wish the best of luck to all competitors! This year, the glittering evening ceremony will take place on 13th March 2024 at the fabulous InterContinental Hotel Berlin and we can’t wait to see you all in person there!

judge's choice awards

- featuring 12 categories

Winners of the Judge’s Choice Award will be selected by the panel of independent expert judges.

Submit your entry

people’s choice award

- featuring 2 categories

mpe influencer of the year
The winner will be determined via public online voting.

Submit your entry

best start-up innovation award
Winner will ber determined by mpe audience.

Submit your entry

f.a.q.

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 2024 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 2023 Awards Winners testimonials here

You can enter the contest until Feb 5, 2024.

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 23, 2024. 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 Awards do not reward its winners with laser-engraved glass or „wannabe Oscars“. Instead, mpe went the harder way of finding highly skilled artists and recognised artists whose task is to create unique Guiding Hand statuettes, using valuable materials with design changed from year to year, reflecting the current trends and important happenings in the payment industry.

From 2014 a Croatian artist Gordana Turuk created her organic glass and gold plated statuettes to please the eye of the winners.

For the 2024 edition, we have partnered with another renowned artist and we shall see completely new statuette!