American Banker honors six top innovators and female fintech leaders

The winners of two new recognition programs American Banker launched this year were announced last week at the publication's Digital Banking Conference in Boca Raton. 

Innovators of the Year is an effort to find people within financial institutions and fintechs who are leading groundbreaking projects. Most Influential Women in Fintech is a new program that recognizes women who are leading or supporting fintech startups. In both categories, a panel of American Banker editors and reporters selected 20 honorees and three overall winners.

The three top innovators were Caitlin Long, Jack Ingram and Scott Nathan.

Caitlin Long, founder and CEO of Custodia Bank in Wyoming, was honored for her pioneering work creating a special purpose depository bank that would provide cryptocurrency custody and settlement for traditional institutions and investors. 

Jack Ingram, chief information officer at Whatcom Educational Credit Union in Bellingham, Washington, was recognized for a technology overhaul he led at his organization that helped drive its net promoter scores from 27 to 73 and led to a 4.8 star rating in Apple's App Store.

Scott Nathan, global head of anti money laundering risk detection and customer insights at Citi, was chosen for his work replacing an anti-money-laundering system at his bank and for his broader efforts to help the industry fight financial crime and human trafficking.

The top three selected for Most Influential Women in Banking were Maria Gotsch, Katie Palencsar and Jo Ann Barefoot.

Maria Gotsch, president and CEO of the Partnership Fund for New York City, helped conceive of and helps run the Fintech Innovation Lab, an annual accelerator that brings bank executives together with fintech startup founders and that has made New York City a fintech hub.

Katie Palencsar leads the Female Innovators Lab Fund at Anthemis. Under her leadership, the $50 million fund has become one of the largest funds solely dedicated to female founders in fintech. 

Jo Ann Barefoot co-founder and CEO of the Alliance for Innovative Regulation, works to bring innovation into regulatory processes, to make the financial system more equal, profitable and safe.