Here's a look at some of the press coverage we received from FinovateEurope last week:

Our third FinovateEurope wrapped up a few hours ago. At the end of each of the two jam-packed days, the London audience voted for their favorite three demos. The top eight overall were named Best of Show (see notes).

The winners (in alphabetic order):

• Credit-Agricole for its app store where it is wooing outside developers
• ETRONIKA for its BANKTRON e-channel management platform
• mBank with Efigence for their Facebook & social platform 
• Meniga for its PFM platform, including "buy" vs "not buy" feature
• Moven (Movenbank) for the worldwide launch of its mobile-optimized bank
• Pockets United for its group purchasing mobile solution
• SumUp for its mobile point-of-sale system
• Virtual Piggy for its kids' payment system with parental controls

We'll have videos of all 64 demos posted at Finovate.com within a few weeks.

Congratulations to the presenters for our first Finovate with zero demo fails (sure their where a few glitches here and there). And thanks to everyone who attended, tweeted, networked, blogged, and set up an enormous number of post-show meetings. You are pushing fintech forward, and consumers everywhere will benefit.

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Notes on methodology:  
1. Only audience members NOT associated with demoing companies were eligible to vote. Finovate employees did not vote.     
2. Attendees were encouraged to note their favorites during each day. At the end of the last demo, they chose their three favorites.    
3. The exact written instructions given to attendees: "Please rate (the companies) on the basis of demo quality and potential impact of the innovation demoed."  
4. The eight companies appearing on the highest percentage of submitted ballots were named Best of Show.  
5. Go here for a list of previous Best of Show winners.

Wrapping up the first session this morning, Meniga demonstrated its platform that helps users make smart purchasing decisions:

"To buy or Not to buy is a white-label module for mobile banking applications, that uses PFM functionality to empower and influence consumers at the point of sale or when considering buying something. 

It allows users to check if they can afford what they are about to purchase or see how much closer to their savings goals they would get if they save the money and use it to feed their goal instead.

One unique aspect of this innovation is allowing users to leverage their social networks and direct messages to crowd-source the decision and instantly collect feedback before making the purchase. This fun and simple feature uses gamification to engage users and their network of friends."

Personal finance software provider Meniga announced yesterday that it partnered with Rubik, a company that builds software for banks, to bring its PFM to Australia:

"Both of them are offering a hosted option as well as a classic, enterprise play with on premise, white-label PFM, Rubik and Meniga will account for the needs of all sizes of Financial Institutions..."

The partnership is built on Meniga's PFM solution and leverages Rubik's relationships with Australian-area financial institutions.

To learn more about Meniga, watch its FinovateEurope 2012 demo.

We recently looked back at Finovate's Best of Show Awards archives and wanted to share the list of the 41 award-winning companies.

Here's the Best of Show history that stretches back to 2007, the inception of Finovate:

Forrester Blogs

Wrapping up the third session, Meniga demonstrated its enhanced PFM:

"Meniga is expanding its PFM Solution so that it completely merges with the traditional online/mobile bank, adding highly user-centric interfaces for several key online banking functions, such as bill-pay, alerts, and account presentation.

The interface de-emphasizes real accounts and actual balances and instead shows 'uncommitted balance' and virtual accounts that are better aligned with how people think about their money. It allows users to automate routine tasks and includes an alert framework designed to bring peace of mind by alerting users before bills go unpaid or before any account's balance becomes too low to meet commitments and forecasted expenses."

Product Launched: December 2009

HQ Location: Reykjavik, IcelandCompany
Founded: March 2009
Metrics: $1.3 million raised, 18 employees, 5 implementations with retail banks in Sweden, Norway, and Iceland
Website: meniga.com

It was a fantastic day at the first FinovateEurope as 35 banking and financial technology companies debuted their latest innovations in front of a packed house. It was the first Finovate without at least one demo blowing up, though there were a couple close calls.

At the end of the day, attendees voted for their three favorite products. The four leading vote getters were named FinovateEurope "Best of Show" (see notes on methodology). Every company that presented was named Best of Show by some portion of the audience. But the ones that ended on top today were as follows (in alphabetic order):

• eToro launched OpenBook (CopyTrade & CopyTrader) which allows users to follow & copy trades of other users
• Finantix introduced a suite of iPad applications for financial advisors to use in face-to-face client discussion
  
• Liqpay.com showed its new "$hop app" which allows a bank's small business customers to easily set up a Facebook shop for ecommerce
• Meniga  demoed its personal financial manager with an added gaming layer that combined humor with "social curiosity," for example, to compare spending to peers

Congratulations! And thanks to everyone who presented, sponsored, attended and followed the @finovate tweets.

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Notes on methodology:
1. Only audience members not associated with demoing companies were eligible to vote. Finovate employees did not vote.
2. Attendees were encouraged to note their favorites as the day went on. Ballots were turned in at the end of the last demo session. The exact written instructions given to attendees: "Please rate (the companies) on the basis of demo quality and potential impact of the innovation they demoed. Note: Ballots with more than three companies circled will not be counted."