Starling, Snoop and Zopa among the big British Bank Awards 2021 winners

Less glitzy, but still just as important.

Last week the seventh annual British Bank Awards were announced, with a fantastic haul of challenger brands scooping the top slots at a virtual-only awards ceremony for 2021.

Starling Bank defended the coveted title of Best British Bank for the now forth year in a row, an exceptional record given the over 90,000 votes cast for this year's awards.

“It has been an extraordinary year for our customers and we have spent a lot of time listening to what they have to say via our 24/7 customer service channels,” said CEO and founder Anne Boden on receiving the award.

“From responding to their needs by quickly introducing product innovations, such as cheque imaging and our Connected card - a second debit card for those self isolating to lending to SMEs via the government loan schemes, I believe the key to our success is listening to our customers. And long may it continue.”

As well as Best British Bank, Starling also scooped awards for Best Banking App, Best Current Account Provider and Best Business Banking Provider.

Indeed, in fact Starling’s main rival Monzo was knocked further down the rankings, securing only a ‘highly commended’ recognition for Best Current Account Provider this year, while Revolut was absent from the results entirely.

Other standout winners were Snoop, with Jayne-Anne Gadhia’s fintech winning Innovation Of The Year, and Zopa securing Best Credit Card Provider for its newly-launched card and Best Personal Loan Provider.

High street banks were entirely absent from the awards for 2021, with none winning or coming ‘highly commended’ across any of the categories.

Sustainable bank Triodos Bank had a great evening however, winning Best Savings Provider and coming ‘highly commended’ for Best Ethical Financial Provider.

“The British Bank Awards 2021 has been fantastic. We’ve had a great mix of winners this year from companies retaining their title for another year to new entrants winning for the first time,” said Jacqueline Dewey, CEO of Smart Money People which runs the awards.

The 2021 winners of all 27 categories can be found below:

• Best British Bank – Starling Bank
• Best Building Society – Newbury Building Society
• Innovation of the Year – Snoop
• Treating Customers Fairly Champion – Ecology Building Society
• Customer Service Champion – Habito
• Online Financial Influencer of the Year – Selina Flavius, Black Girl Finance
• Personal Finance Journalist of the Year – Amelia Murray
• Best Newcomer – Kroo
• Best Banking App – Starling Bank
• Best Current Account Provider – Starling Bank
• Best Business Finance Provider – CapitalRise
• Best Business Banking Provider – Starling Bank
• Best Personal Finance App – Money Dashboard
• Best Specialist Mortgage Provider – Newbury Building Society
• Best Mortgage Broker – Trussle
• Best Credit Card Provider – Zopa
• Best Online Trading Platform – Freetrade
• Best Personal Loan Provider – Zopa
• Best Investments Provider – WiseAlpha
• Best Savings Provider – Triodos Bank
• Best Ethical Financial Provider – Ecology Building Society
• Best Children’s Financial Provider – gohenry
• Consultancy of the Year – 11:FS
• RegTech Partner of the Year – Qomply
• Technology Partner of the Year – SurePay
• Marketing Partner of the Year – mark-making*
• The Pioneer Award – 11:FS

The following were ‘highly commended’ for award categories:

• Best Banking App – Plum
• Online Financial Influencer of the Year – Conversation of Money
• Treating Customers Fairly Champion – Money Dashboard
• Best Business Finance Provider – Fleximize
• Best Current Account Provider – Monzo
• Best Mortgage Broker – Vincent Burch
• Best Online Trading Platform – Wombat
• Best Personal Finance App – Plum
• Best Ethical Financial Provider – Triodos Bank
• Consultancy of the Year – Savings Guru