Manish Prasad (left) and Mark Fordree.

Ignition Advice has remarkably achieved three finalist places in the global Banking Technology Awards. The innovative partnership between Ignition Advice and Bank of Ireland has earned a place as a finalist in the global category of Best Fintech Partnership amongst an exciting field including Barclays Bank, Lloyds Bank and Santander.

Ignition monopolises the shortlist for the Rising Star category with Ignition leadership team members from around the world, CEO Manish Prasad and CEO Ireland Alan Quinlan both winning finalists honours. With just ten finalists worldwide, securing one fifth of the spots signals Ignition’s people-first growth strategy.

Now in their twentieth year, the Banking Technology Awards are organised by London’s FinTech Futures. The organisation states, “For software providers, a Banking Technology Award is a valuable recognition of the company’s products and services, and an endorsement by the fintech community. For individuals and teams, a Banking Technology Award is a prized acknowledgment of the demonstrated skills, leadership, vision, inspiration and dedication to the industry’s betterment.”

In 2018, Ignition Advice placed as a finalist in the category Best Use of IT in Private Banking / Wealth Management. This category recognises excellence and innovation in the use of IT in financial services worldwide, and the people who make it happen.

The awards will be celebrated at a gala dinner in London on December 5, 2019.

Best Fintech Partnership

The Best Fintech Partnership category lauds the most remarkable partnerships happening in global banking today. The partnership between Ignition Advice and Bank of Ireland has been selected as one of the world’s best (in a total field of 15 finalists).

Named “Life Advice” the Ignition solution gives Bank of Ireland customers a single platform from which to manage their financial needs, from day to day banking through to retirement planning. The Ignition Advice Bank of Ireland deal is a multi year, multi million dollar engagement, seen by both parties as a long term commitment to revolutionise the European digital banking experience.

“Ignition Advice is particularly pleased to be shortlisted as a finalist for the Banking Technology Awards, Best Fintech Partnership category. This reinforces our vision and strategy to form meaningful relationships with the world’s top financial institutions. Bank of Ireland are a great partner for Ignition and we are delighted that together we have now launched live insurance and investment journeys, with a retirement journey to follow in 2020. The early results show Bank of Ireland customers are delighted with the new offerings,” said Manish Prasad, CEO at Ignition Advice.

Ignition Advice delivers world leading bank grade technology combined with a strong drive to innovation and a customer-first ethos. Bank of Ireland’s decision to work with Ignition was driven by their ability to partner in transforming the customer experience and ensuring that customers are supported to make the best possible financial decisions.

“Bank of Ireland were actively looking in the market for a service provider who could support our growth ambitions in this market across all of our business channels and customer segments.

“There are many different types of providers in this market, from pure robo-advisers who are in essence execution only to software providers who can build your current processes to spec and update the look and feel of how your advisers interact with a customer.

“Bank of Ireland is seeking to transform the customer experience by providing omni-channel services but also ensuring that our customers make the best financial decision they could at any given time. We believe this is the key to better financial outcomes for our customers that will improve their financial wellbeing. In our interactions with Ignition Advice we believed they were closest to us in terms of our desire to improve customer outcomes,” said Sean O’Murchu, Director of Wealth Advice and Distribution at Bank of Ireland.

Alan Quinlan, CEO, Ignition Ireland notes that Ignition, Bank of Ireland engagement has evolved and deepened. From a technology and abilities based relationship, the firms now enjoy a true partnership.

“Initially our reasons to partner were all about the technology, the people and our ability to partner with a tier one bank. As we progressed through the proof of concept, we discovered a real alignment on a shared vision we had around how digital advice would evolve over time and the positive impact our platform could bring to our enterprise partners, end customers, advisers and regulators,” said Alan Quinlan, CEO, Ignition.

Ireland Banking Technology Awards – Rising Star

The Banking Technology Awards Rising Star Category recognises individuals who are making a substantive difference to the global world of fintech. Ignition fields a remarkable two finalists out of ten globally.

Ignition Advice, CEO, Manish Prasad and Ignition Advice Ireland, CEO, Alan Quinlan both feature as finalists. This level of industry recognition highlights Ignition’s success in attracting the world’s finest fintech innovators around the globe. With teams based in Sydney and Dublin, attracting leadership staff who are acknowledged as global rising stars speaks to the firm’s commitment to lead from a capabilities and culture ethos.

“Ignition is extremely proud to have not one but two finalists in the global Banking Technology Awards category: Rising Star.

This kind of recognition from the very best of our industry peers validates our company ethos of hiring the best to deliver the best. This ensures that the solutions serving our clients and customers are created with the innovative flair of the world’s rising fintech stars,” said Mark Fordree, Co-Founder and Executive Director, Ignition Advice.

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Bank of Ireland’s Seán Ó Murchú joined Manish Prasad and Alan Quinlan from Ignition Advice in today launching a new digital advice platform for Irish consumers.

Seán Ó Murchú, Director, Wealth Advice and Distribution at Bank of Ireland, said, “Creating a single, digital advice platform will have a transformational impact on the Irish market,”.

Ignition Advice technology will support Bank of Ireland customers across all areas of their financial lives, from financial wellness and saving, to investment and insurance. Scalable solutions allow the bank to offer digital financial advice to all of their customers, while the Ignition Advice hybrid model allows the bank to fully integrate digital advice with telephone or in-person experiences, as the customer requires. Ignition Advice delivers a custom-designed user experience, for maximum customer engagement.

Seán Ó Murchú, Director, Wealth Advice and Distribution at Bank of Ireland, said, “Consumers are increasingly using digital tools for many of their daily banking, shopping and entertainment needs. They want to complete simple transactions on-line, to easily access information, and to be supported, as appropriate through technology or by advisers, depending on the complexity of their requirements. Our new Life Advice platform provides the appropriate combination of technology and support from advisors and the offering will continue to expand through 2019. This is a genuine opportunity to enhance our customer interactions through a single advice platform which will have a transformational impact on the Irish market.”.

Alan Quinlan, CEO, Ignition Advice Ireland, who leads the European business, said, “Ignition is delighted to partner with Bank of Ireland as they implement a truly customer-centric and ambitious wealth transformation. As we build our European business Ignition will continue to announce partnerships with like-minded enterprise clients across the spectrum of financial services.”.

While Ignition Advice is already established as the leading provider of highly customised, bank grade, SaaS platforms for enterprise clients in Australia, the partnership with Bank of Ireland represents the firm’s first announcement of a major European deal.

Manish Prasad, Group CEO, Ignition Advice, acknowledged the partnership as a significant milestone, commenting, “We are excited to bring our world class digital advice technology to the European market. Ignition is a unique, bank grade, global enterprise solution with significant data security and risk management capabilities. The firm holds ISO/IEC27001 certification and is GDPR compliant. Meeting the technology innovation needs and compliance standards required to partner with a tier one European bank is a significant milestone for Ignition and demonstrates our commitment to innovation and excellence.”.

The Life Advice platform, when fully rolled out, will facilitate end to end online applications for life insurance; personal pensions; savings and investments; providing a digital one-stop-shop for personal financial advice.

The first phase of Life Advice is now live and enables Bank of Ireland customers to calculate their life insurance requirements, receive a quote and complete the application process in minutes. Over the coming months additional insurance products, personal pensions, savings and investments will be added to the platform. During 2019 Life Advice will be launched to New Ireland’s financial advisors and brokers.

The platform also enables customers to identify their financial goals, put targets and timelines in place and monitor their progress. Customers can choose how they access advice and if they need to talk to or meet an adviser.

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Alan Quinlan

Ignition Wealth has announced the appointment of Alan Quinlan as CEO of the burgeoning Ignition Wealth Ireland business. Alan is highly experienced in the international fintech field, having held senior roles at several wealth houses including Australia’s BT Financial Group and Ireland’s Mercer.

“Ignition Wealth has a multi-currency and multi-language platform which we are currently deploying in Ireland. We are pleased to have appointed Alan Quinlan to head our Ireland operations, ” said Mark Fordree, Group CEO, Ignition Wealth.

Ignition Wealth Ireland opened in July 2017 and is now established with offices in the city’s historic St Stephen’s Green and an initial local staff of half a dozen, including technical and business development. The Ignition Wealth best in breed software solution has been initially welcomed by Irish financial institutions and the business is currently completing scoping work for customised digital financial advice applications for large scale distribution partners.

“This is a well timed opportunity to raise the bar on what’s possible in fintech in Ireland. We are working to evolve technology for financial services, bringing a global perspective to development, compliance and customer experience, ” said Alan Quinlan, CEO, Ignition Wealth Ireland.

The Ignition Wealth Ireland development team are working to custom build client engagement solutions, adapting the software for the needs of the local market. The solution will reimagine the financial advice experience for both advisers and clients using guided architecture.

“Following a prolonged period of underinvestment in technology and the increasing regulatory burden, financial institutions are now hungry to provide their customers with compliant consumer-grade experiences. We look forward to building the business and the opportunity to provide the next generation of fintech to Irish institutions, ” said Alan Quinlan, CEO, Ignition Wealth Ireland.

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