Charity Bank has won the Institute of Financial Service’s award for outstanding innovation.

The bank, which provides support to various charities and is itself also a registered charity, beat competitors HSBC, Lloyds TSB and Royal Bank of Scotland at the Financial Innovation Awards on 2 December.

Additionally Charity Bank won the award for social responsibility and community banking and was nominated in three other categories. These included innovation in social enterprise and inclusion, excellence in customer communication, excellence in risk and management control.

Suzanne Chadwick, chair of the judging panel commented: “It's (Charity Bank's) commitment to transparency, hands on support of the business it lends to and its encouragement of staff to volunteer, are just a few examples of how the Charity Bank has used innovative approaches to embed its core principles throughout the organisation”.

Charity Bank has given over £111m to various charities and enterprises across the UK.