Ecommpay shortlisted for UK PayTech award on AI push

Ecommpay has been shortlisted for UK PayTech of the Year at the Banking Tech Awards 2026, with the nomination recognising its recent investment in artificial intelligence for online payments.

The London-headquartered payments company has focused on tools designed to improve payment acceptance and reduce failed transactions for merchants. The systems analyse payment declines, simulate bank risk scoring, and compare live merchant configurations with technical standards before producing recommendations for clients.

The shortlisting places Ecommpay among the finalists in an awards programme run by FinTech Futures. Now in their 27th year, the Banking Tech Awards recognise companies and individuals in financial technology.

Failed payments remain a commercial problem for online merchants because declined transactions can mean both immediate lost sales and customers who do not return. In response, Ecommpay has made what it describes as its strongest AI-based payment analysis tool a standard part of client relationships rather than an add-on service.

Founded in 2012, the company operates a payments platform for businesses that need local and cross-border acquiring, payment processing, and orchestration. It also offers more than 100 payment methods through a single application programming interface, according to the company.

AI Focus

Ecommpay has placed particular emphasis on using AI to interpret complex payments data in ways merchants can act on more quickly. Rather than leaving clients to work through dense technical reports, the system is intended to translate transaction patterns and decline reasons into clear operational changes.

That approach reflects a wider trend across the payments industry, where providers are using machine learning and automated analysis to address one of eCommerce's most persistent issues: the gap between attempted and completed purchases. Banks, merchants, and payment firms all have different fraud, compliance, and authorisation requirements, which can lead to legitimate transactions being rejected.

By modelling how banks assess risk and testing whether merchant settings align with technical rules, Ecommpay aims to identify avoidable points of friction in the checkout process. It says this work has already improved eCommerce performance for clients.

Awards shortlists in the financial technology sector are closely watched by investors, customers, and partners because they signal where providers are placing their strategic bets. In this case, the nomination highlights AI-led payments optimisation as a key area of competition among UK payment technology firms.

Daniella Sjarki, Business Growth Specialist at Ecommpay, commented on the recognition: "Being named a finalist alongside other industry leaders and innovators is a huge testament to our team's hard work, dedication and drive to transform the payments landscape. It is our mission to push checkout performance to its absolute limit. We have put tech that drives payments at the centre of our operations, and the AI investment and innovation is already transforming eCommerce performance. We look forward to celebrating an extraordinary year of excellence and leadership in banking technology with the global FinTech community."

Ecommpay says its broader platform includes services such as open banking, recurring billing, and direct debits integrated into the same system used for payment acceptance. The group argues that this reduces the need for merchants to rely on separate third-party services for different parts of the payment process.

The company is authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority under the Payment Services Regulations and is a principal member of Mastercard and Visa. Its platform has also been certified to Level 1 PCI DSS.

The nomination comes as payment companies face rising pressure to improve conversion rates while meeting tighter fraud controls and customer expectations for smoother digital checkouts. In that environment, the ability to diagnose why a payment fails and adjust systems quickly has become a competitive issue for merchants and their payment providers alike.