According to the criteria, in the " MERCHANT ACQUIRER OF THE YEAR " Category, the Award goes 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.

„The winner showed a willingness to flex their strategy in Europe and beyond, the diversity of their customer base which encompasses SMEs and major cross border giants of industry, ensuring quality from the point of interaction through to the operational areas. The judges commended the major focus on chargeback management which added considerable value to the customer base,“ commented Neira Jones, the Chairman of the MPE 2023 Awards Judging Panel.

Hemlata Narasimhan, President of Elavon Europe said: “Putting customers first and doing the right thing is in our DNA, and being named Merchant Acquirer of the Year just reinforces our core beliefs and values in serving our customers. We’re grateful for this industry recognition, and proud of each and every one of our team who made this possible,”

This Awards Category is Sponsored by: Webshield
Marc Bongers, Chief Commercial Officer, Webshield: commented “As a service provider for acquiring banks, we work with a multitude of exceptional companies around the globe and therefore possess a keen understanding of what it takes to be a great acquirer. Elavon's dedication to innovation and customer-centricity sets a standard, and this award is well-deserved.”

According to the criteria, in the "MOST INNOVATIVE FRAUD PREVENTION SOLUTION", Category, the Award goes to the provider who launched an innovative solution in the last 18 months who demonstrated tangible benefits to merchants regarding fraud prevention, identity, or authentication, including quantifiable data to show the product’s impact on its clients through the use of technology.

" The judges thought that strong metrics a vast database, predictive modeling, and machine learning, as well as receive real-time data has significantly increased approval rates while also materially reducing decline, chargebacks & penalties," said Neira Jones, the Chairman of the MPE 2023 Awards Judging Panel.

Aaron Begner, general manager of EMEA, Forter commented: "Forter is thrilled to be named the Most Innovative Fraud Prevention Solution at the MPE Berlin Awards. Our mission has always been to help merchants build trust across the digital commerce journey. We‘re grateful to MPE for recognizing our team‘s commitment to furthering this mission, driving innovation and serving customers."

Thomas Gillan, CEO BR-DGE, the category sponsor, said:

“BR-DGE were thrilled to support the Most Innovative Fraud Prevention Solution at MPE 2023, and huge congratulations to the winning team at Forter. Fraud prevention and security has been cited as one of the top concerns amongst consumers and therefore is of upmost importance for merchants, when managing their end-to-end payments workflow. It is great to see the innovation from Forter being recognised.“

According to the criteria, in the " BEST CROSS-BORDER MERCHANT SOLUTION " Category, the Award is open for solution providers that support merchants to grow revenue by opening up and expanding sales across borders while reducing risks and complexities.

This company was the first to deploy dedicated support to PSPs and their merchants in unlocking non- card payments. PSPs can tap into their infrastructure to speed up target market entry without needing to establish a local presence. They are seen by the judges as the Number One enabler of cross-border payments," commented Neira Jones, the Chairman of the MPE 2023 Awards Judging Panel.

Andrew Edem, Head of Innovation, PPRO said:

“We’re honoured to have won the ‘Best Cross-Border Merchant Solution’ Award at this year’s MPE Awards, a true testament to our industry-leading digital payments infrastructure that’s helping merchants break into cross-border markets faster and increasing their revenue.

Our Chief Growth Officer Oliver Rajic also received the “MPE Influencer Of The Year” Award, for his significant contribution to the merchant payment ecosystem from an orchestration perspective. Thank you to the judges, our partners and all those that voted for us; we look forward to continuing to innovate in the payments space, helping to drive it forward for our customers.”

According to the criteria, in the " BEST IN-STORE PAYMENTS SOLUTION",
Category, the Award goes 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.

The judges were impressed by how this company built a comprehensive in-store retail solution that encompasses EPOS capabilities, retail operations, customer engagement and integrated payments, with a clear focus on mobility. This was a tightly contested category!" said Neira Jones, the Chairman of the MPE 2023 Awards Judging Panel.

Daniel Holden, CEO of Trust Payments, said: "We are committed to providing our customers with innovative payment solutions that are secure, reliable, and convenient. We also believe that our success should be shared with our communities and the environment, and we will continue to work towards creating a sustainable future. Trust Payments recognition at the MPE Awards is a testament to the company‘s commitment to providing exceptional payment services while promoting sustainability and social responsibility.”

According to the criteria, in the "BEST MERCHANT PAYMENT ACCEPTANCE PROVIDER", Category, the Award goes to organisation 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.

This year has seen a strong line up in this category and was closely contested. The winner this year demonstrated that their proposition continues to push the boundaries in advancing payment acceptance through use of innovation, ease of use and increasing value-add benefits for both merchants and customers," commented Neira Jones, the Chairman of the MPE 2023 Awards Judging Panel.

Angelina Babic, Payment Platform Product Manager, Outpayce from Amadeus, commented:

“Outpayce is committed to simplifying travel payments, and our Xchange Payment Platform (XPP) is at the forefront of this mission. Travel players must contend with accepting a wide variety of complex international payments, and XPP makes it easy to visualise, understand and manage these flows, while also giving our customers easy access to payments innovation. We’d like to thank our many airline customers for their support and engagement in refining XPP, as well as our 100+ partners who add to the richness of our platform. Congratulations to all MPE Award winners!”

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Beatrice Bouju, Head of Partnerships, Outpayce from Amadeus said:
“Winning the 2023 Best Merchant Payment Acceptance Provider Award for Outpayce is a fantastic achievement for our team.
Outpayce from Amadeus is committed to deliver best in class global payment solutions. The 2023 MPE award highlights Outpayce’s transformational role in the global travel industry. We are thankful to our partners for helping us cocreate to deliver rich functionality to global markets.”

According to the criteria, in the "BEST PLATFORM/ MARKETPLACE PROVIDER",
Category, the Award goes 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.

This company ranked best in each of the assessed criteria. With the largest customer base in excess of 2,500 marketplaces with global coverage, it also offers the widest scope of core services and value- added services." commented Neira Jones, the Chairman of the MPE 2023 Awards Judging Panel.

Guido Kuhring, Head of Sales Central and Northern Europe, Mangopay, comments:
“We are very proud to be recognised as Best Platform and Marketplace Provider by MPE. This recognition rewards our vision and the energy we put into building the most comprehensive payment environment to suit each marketplace and platform's needs. This is a shared, company-wide award. It represents the daily hard work we do in every aspect of the business and how we devote ourselves to designing, building, marketing, selling and operating the most effective payment platform for global marketplaces and platforms.”

According to the criteria, in the " BEST USE OF OPEN BANKING FOR PAYMENTS " Category, the Award goes to the company that best uses open banking data or a payment initiation solution that drives end-user payments 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.

„Facilitating payments of more than 42 billion euros per year for financial entities, this company brings innovative and complete technologies integrating instant payment, SEPA direct debits and open banking solutions, helping merchants to embrace modern payments based on open banking,“ commented Neira Jones, the Chairman of the MPE 2023 Awards Judging Panel.

Brian Hanrahan, CEO, Nuapay said:
"This is a significant win for us, as the Merchant Payment Ecosystem conference and awards ceremony is a major event in the European fintech industry. I want to acknowledge the team's dedication to providing innovative Open Banking solutions that save businesses time, money, and resources. This award is a testament to our progress and reinforces our commitment to driving the future of payments."

This category was sponsored by Tietoevry.

Andrejs Vinakovs, Senior Product Manager, Tietoevry, commented:

“Enabling businesses to receive funds fast, easy and reliably is essential for the future development of our economy. And we believe that Open Banking is an essential element of this future. And this is the reason, we have chosen to sponsor this awar category.”

According to the criteria, in the " BEST REGTECH SOLUTION" Category, the Award goes 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 or transaction monitoring.

„As long as there are criminals performing fraud it is reassuring to know that there are companies like this trying to prevent it - They demonstrated in-depth knowledge, applied expertise, the pursuit of perfection and continuous improvement - reducing fraud and improving payment experiences.,“ commented Neira Jones, the Chairman of the MPE 2023 Awards Judging Panel.

Peter Frick, Managing Director of Secure Digital Payment at Netcetera, said:

“The MPE Best Regtech award for the Netcetera 3DS Server and SDK is a recognition of our dedication to creating authentic and reliable solutions that absorb the needs of our customers. It’s a confirmation of the professionalism of Netcetera’s highly qualified teams. That is why we dedicate this prestigious award to all great minds working on the solutions and to our customers and payment partners whose work aligns with our mission to secure the digital payment world. Thank you for trusting us. We promise to keep delivering excellence in all we do for you.”

According to the criteria, in the "BEST PAYMENTS ORCHESTRATION SOLUTION" Category, the Award goes to the platform that unifies the various aspects of payments processing and enables merchants to optimise their payments processes and simplify the management of their payments stack from start to finish.

„The winner was the company that demonstrated its ability to give: greater control over data, improve transactional flows and create new business rules, create new revenue opportunities through business intelligence and take advantage of ISO 20022 and APIs,“ commented Neira Jones, the Chairman of the MPE 2023 Awards Judging Panel.

Debbie Guerra, CPO, ACI Worldwide

“We are honored to receive this recognition from Merchants Payments Ecosystem (MPE) as the Best Payments Orchestration Solution, acknowledging the investment we have made in creating a unified, sophisticated, customer-centric Payments Orchestration Platform that optimizes conversion, enables growth, and reduces the cost of ownership in payments,” said Debbie Guerra, ACI Worldwide’s Chief Product Officer. “I would be remiss if I did not thank the amazing team of professionals across the entire ACI Worldwide organization who were involved in the development of this solution and who continue to innovate and enhance our payments orchestration to support our customers as they evolve their payment flows and expand to capitalize on new trends.”

According to the criteria, in the CHAIRMAN’S AWARD – BEST ESG INITIATIVE IN PAYMENTS" Category, the Award goes to For 2023, the Chairman’s Award goes to the organization with a clear and well-developed ESG strategy and the winner demonstrated how they made a substantial positive impact in any of the E,S,G pillars, particularly when supported by technology.

„Trust Payments demonstrated positive Environmental impact though migrating from in-house to cloud-based, procuring the bulk of electricity from fully renewable sources, preventing electronic waste through refurbishment, reuse and recycling of IT equipment, and establishing a “Green Team” to identify opportunities for sustainability improvements deployed through various employee engagement initiatives. Social responsibility was evidenced through their “Kickstart” programme, supporting young people with limited opportunities, as well as achieving a female gender balance ratio between 35-42% of the workforce. Governance was achieved through incorporating climate & social risk as new categories within their Enterprise Risk Management framework and a clear set of KPIs,“ commented Neira Jones, the Chairman of the MPE 2023 Awards Judging Panel.

Daniel Holden, CEO of Trust Payments, said: "We are committed to providing our customers with innovative payment solutions that are secure, reliable, and convenient. We also believe that our success should be shared with our communities and the environment, and we will continue to work towards creating a sustainable future. Trust Payments recognition at the MPE awards is a testament to the company‘s commitment to providing exceptional payment services while promoting sustainability and social responsibility.”

This Category is Sponsored by: AIB Merchant Services

Hubert Hubert O'Donoghue, CEO, AIB Merchant Services commented: “Trust Payments have a well-articulated and robust approach to their ESG strategy. They did a fantastic job of showcasing the positive impacts that ESG can have in the payments space, when underpinned by strong technology. Heartfelt congratulations to their team on this win"