AWARD CATEGORIES

This award recognises work in the voluntary sector, to which many financial services organisations are committed.

Your entry could refer to one worthwhile project, a campaign or a selection of philanthropic endeavours. Criteria to consider could include staff involvement and voluntary activities, community spirit, financial contributions and fundraising.

Conveyancing is a vital part of the home buying process so tell us what sets you apart from your competitors.

This could be customer experience strategy, online case tracking, good communication, robust training, vigilance against cybercrime and identity theft. How have you provided consistently good service in the past 12 months?

This Award is different to Best Community Service Endeavour as it goes further than charitable and community involvement.

What the judges will be looking for is how you run your business to produce an overall positive impact on society.

You can choose one particular aspect of your CSR programme or describe different aspects of it. This can cover social policies, ethical concerns, education and training, the impact your business has on the environment such as reducing your carbon footprint and energy-saving initiatives and how you work with and treat your customers, business partners, staff and other stakeholders. Any further Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) measures can be highlighted within your entry for consideration.

This category is for firms that carry out mortgage servicing for lenders and firms that have acquired mortgage portfolios.

Firms will be judged on performance, including risk management framework, investment in technology, training, arrears management strategy, a robust process for setting up new loans, boarding new mortgage books, MI reporting, customer service and communication with borrowers.

The award covers both valuations for mortgage purposes and all types of surveys from home reports to full building surveys.

The submission could be based on the surveying firm’s relationship with lenders, the quality of surveys, case tracking, reducing post valuation queries for lender clients, customer communication, training programmes and technology.

This award looks to recognise the IT firm who can prove it best improved processes in the mortgage market, be that for lenders, brokers, the borrower, or all areas of the market.

The judges will be looking for evidence of a positive outcome through the use of technology, such as business growth, improved customer service, more efficient processes.

Innovation can relate to anything other than mortgage products that is new to the market over the past year.

The Innovation Award can relate to delivery channels, improving business efficiency or processes, enhancing customer relationships, developing ways of working with and managing people.

These are just examples but the judges will be looking for something that is cutting edge, something that makes a difference to the way you work or the way customers interact, for example.