World-class Product from Germany: Fidor Bank is Celent's "Model Bank of the Year"

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Mar 27, 2015, 09:00 ET

MUNICH, March 27, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --

International Banking Award from the US market researcher Celent
Overall winner amongst eighteen other Model Banks
Awards ceremony at Carnegie Hall, New York

Accolade for Fidor: to add to the numerous innovation prizes it has won in the past, Fidor Bank AG was recognized as the "Model Bank of the Year" at the Model Bank Awards sponsored by the US market research agency Celent. This not only underlines Fidor Bank's trailblazing role in Germany, but is also an impressive international acknowledgement of its innovation leadership. Matthias Kröner, the speaker of the Executive Board, accepted the honour at Celent's annual Innovation & Insight Day, held on Monday at Carnegie Hall, New York. "That we are proud and delighted probably goes without saying. Being honored as the Model Bank of the Year 2015 highlights our strategic direction for the coming months and years: We not only want to keep on growing - nationally and internationally - we want to create a new model for a bank, a model that is able to deal successfully with today's digital world. This goes well beyond the usual questions about a mobile app or a Facebook page."

Celent, a global research and advisory firm focused on financial services, has been presenting the Model Bank Awards for the successful implementation of innovative information technology in the global financial services industry since 2008. This year roughly one hundred banks vied for recognition in five categories; Fidor Bank from Munich was honored as "Model Bank of the Year", this year's overall winner.

Celent explains the reasons for Fidor Bank's excellent performance in a specially prepared study on the bank (http://bit.ly/1OvInBl).

As an internet-based direct bank with a banking licence, Fidor completely redefines classical banking. It focuses on an innovative and differentiated customer experience, which includes a full range of financial products and services. Fidor Bank's community concept receives a special mention: instead of simply accepting clients' increasing alienation, the aim is to reunite them with the bank and also to network clients with one other.

Celent also commended the openness of Fidor Bank and identified this as the root cause for its innovative business model. Openness is understood as flexibility and agility, which enables the bank to build a comprehensive ecosystem of partners and resources. Fidor is one of the first banks in the world to provide application programming interfaces (API) for third parties to integrate new applications. This gives software developers, start-ups or financial services providers the opportunity to present their products on a "grand stage" and customers the ability to profit from a growing and permanently updated set of banking services.

After being voted a Global Growth Company by the Global Economic Forum last year, this latest distinction at the Model Bank Awards is further confirmation of Fidor Bank's innovative Web 2.0 banking. Indeed, the title, "Model Bank of the Year" points to the function of role model that the prize-winners are intended to have. We are happy to lead the way and our course is set firmly on growth. We are permanently in negotiations with investors and potential partners to expand our offering and to continue the internationalisation of our business," says Matthias Kröner.

About Fidor Bank AG:

FIDOR Bank AG (http://www.fidor.de ) is an internet-based direct bank, licensed in Germany, and a B2B bank for innovative banking and community software solutions. Private and corporate customers use the Fidor Smart current account with its classic and innovative finance apps as their main bank account. The banking middleware Fidor OS enables the bank's B2B partners to profit from novel functionalities and a community solution for a global target group of digital natives.

Press contact
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SOURCE Fidor Bank AG