
Alper Kara is a finance professor and head of department for accounting, finance and economics at the University of Huddersfield. Alper has a MBA and PhD from the University of Wales, and before academia he worked as a bond and FX trader.
Finder’s series of Innovation Awards recognises financial providers that are innovating in their field by launching impactful features and delivering benefits to customers in new ways.
Now in their third year, these particular Innovation Awards focus on the lending sector. Finder’s subject specialists drew up a shortlist of providers and an expert panel of judges assessed the finalists and selected the winners.
We’re delighted to announce the winning and highly commended companies in the following categories:
Watch our video of the awards announcement or click on the categories underneath it to reveal our winners!
The shortlist of finalists in each category was selected by Finder’s subject area specialists, who identified the providers they felt were displaying key innovations in their field.
The shortlist was then passed to an expert judging panel (details below), who decided the winning and highly commended companies by assessing the finalists across 3 different criteria: uniqueness of innovation, impact in the market and value to customers.
Alper Kara, Professor and head of department of accounting, finance & economics, University of Huddersfield
Emily Herring, Credit & loans senior publishing executive, Finder
Angela Yore, Co-founder, SkyParlour PR
Julian Wells, Director, Whitecap Consulting
Alper Kara is a finance professor and head of department for accounting, finance and economics at the University of Huddersfield. Alper has a MBA and PhD from the University of Wales, and before academia he worked as a bond and FX trader.
Emily Herring is a senior publishing executive at Finder who specialises in credit-based products including credit cards, business cards and personal loans. She’s passionate about helping consumers make the right choices when it comes to credit cards, loans and lending.
Angela Yore is the co-founder of fintech PR agency SkyParlour, where she has helped raise the profile of hundreds of brands in the fintech and ecommerce sectors. She is on the Innovate Finance Standout 35 Women in Fintech Powerlist 2020, and sits on advisory boards for the Emerging Payments Association, Fintech Connect and the European Women Payments Network.
Julian Wells is a strategy consultant with over 25 years’ experience in financial services. He is the director of Whitecap Consulting, which is particularly active in the digital, technology and fintech sectors. Whitecap’s clients have included banks, building societies, technology providers and fintechs, as well as retailers and firms in the intermediary financial services market.