Communications & Digital Infrastructure Award

Evaluation

100% automatic, from the data and evidence you submit

Minimum score to win

70 / 100

Measurement period

The last full financial year before nominations open (2025), compared with 2024 for growth measures

Who can apply

• A licensed telecoms, data-centre, cloud or network provider serving licensed financial institutions
• Serving at least three licensed financial institutions during the period
• Serving the financial sector for at least three years
• No final material regulatory or judicial sanction against the nominee during the measurement period

Indicators and weights

1. Availability for financial clients

   Average actual availability of services to financial institutions in 2025, excluding agreed maintenance

   20%
   Show points and evidenceHide

   Points

   • 99.99 – < 100 % 100
   • 99.95 – < 99.99 % 80
   • 99.9 – < 99.95 % 50
   • 95 – < 99.9 % 20

   Evidence

   Monthly service level reports sent to clients

2. Mean time to restore

   Average hours between the start of an outage affecting a financial client and full service restoration in 2025

   15%
   Show points and evidenceHide

   Points

   • ≥ 12 hours 15
   • 4 – < 12 hours 45
   • 1 – < 4 hours 75
   • 0 – < 1 hours 100

   Evidence

   Incident log with start and restoration times

3. Months with an SLA breach

   Number of the 12 months of 2025 in which at least one contracted service level for financial clients was breached

   15%
   Show points and evidenceHide

   Points

   • 4 – < 12 10
   • 2 – < 4 40
   • 1 – < 2 70
   • 0 – < 1 100

   Evidence

   Monthly service level reports and any penalty or credit log

4. Facility tier certification

   Highest valid certification of the main data centre or network centre serving financial clients (Uptime Institute, TIA-942 or equivalent)

   15%
   Show points and evidenceHide

   Points

   • Tier IV / Rated 4100
   • Tier III / Rated 375
   • Tier II / Rated 235
   • Not certified0

   Evidence

   The valid certificate

5. Recovery tests within target time

   Share of disaster recovery tests run in 2025 that restored service within the contracted recovery time objective

   10%
   Show points and evidenceHide

   Points

   • 95 – < 100 % 100
   • 80 – < 95 % 80
   • 50 – < 80 % 50
   • 0 – < 50 % 10

   Evidence

   Recovery test reports signed by clients or the auditor

6. Share of country banks served

   Licensed banks in the nominee's main market (the country where it serves the most banks) relying on it for a critical service (connectivity, hosting, cloud, network) under a contract in force at end-2025, as a share of all licensed banks there, so a provider in a small market competes on equal terms

   15%
   Show points and evidenceHide

   Points

   • 50 – < 100 % 100
   • 25 – < 50 % 80
   • 10 – < 25 % 50
   • 0 – < 10 % 20

   Evidence

   List of bank clients with service contracts, and the central bank's list of licensed banks

7. Information security and continuity certificates

   Valid certificates: ISO/IEC 27001 for information security and ISO 22301 for business continuity

   10%
   Show points and evidenceHide

   Points

   • Both valid100
   • One valid50
   • Neither0

   Evidence

   Copies of the valid certificates

Each indicator gives 0 to 100 points; its share of the total is its weight. Ties are decided by the indicators listed first in the scorecard; payment or package never affects the score.

1. Done

   Nominations open

   26 October 2026 · 13:10

2. Upcoming

   Nominations close

   27 November 2026 · 01:10

3. Upcoming

   Judging starts

   27 November 2026 · 01:11

4. Upcoming

   Judging ends

   4 December 2026 · 13:00

5. Upcoming

   Results announced

   4 December 2026 · 13:10

Times are in Asia/Riyadh (UTC+03:00).