6/12/2013 At this year's CIO Awards, Bankgirot won the Project of the Year award for the development of its unique platform for payments in real time.
In 2012, Bankgirot introduced a new payment system in the form of payments in real time.
The significance of the real time system is that it handles payments in seconds 24 hours a day. At this year's CIO Awards, Bankgirot won the Project of the Year award for the development of this unique real time platform.
In this month's issue of CIO, Carina Olsson, Platforms and Processes Manager at Bankgirot, is interviewed about the award. Read CIO's interview with Carina Olsson, Platforms and Processes Manager (the interview is in Swedish).
The first service to be linked to payment in real time is Swish, which permits payment in seconds from one bank account to another by private individuals, with the aid of a mobile phone. The banks that own Swish are Danske Bank, Handelsbanken, Länsförsäkringar Bank, Nordea, Swedbank, SEB and Skandiabanken.
The jury's announcement reads:
With a platform that in the manner of a true visionary creates the conditions for mobile solutions the winner has hit the nail on the head. The project is unique and strengthens Sweden's position as a forerunner in IT while creating direct benefits for end users. Despite great complexity and a broad range of stakeholders the project successfully reached its objective on time – Swish! Bankgirot's Apollo Project is Project of the Year 2013."
The nominees in the Project of the Year category, in addition to Bankgirot, were Geodis Wilson, IP-Only, the Swedish Board of Agriculture and the Swedish Police.
The CIO Awards have been presented since 2004 by CIO Sweden in collaboration with Accenture. A short-list of candidates is drawn up after open nomination and five go through to the final. The winner is decided by an independent jury.