Last week John Barlow, President of Barlow Research Associates, Inc. announced the winners of Barlow Research’s 2009 Monarch Innovation Awards. Digital Insight, Wells Fargo and Bank of America were honored among others for their innovative products. The award was arranged to recognize financial institutions that provide the most innovative products to business customers and to recognize risk takers who create/promote innovation within their organizations.

The “Overall Most Innovative Award” was granted to Digital Insight for its Small Business FinanceWorks solution. This product represents a suite of tools that enable such services as invoicing, online payroll, payment processing, home scanner remote deposit, and legal filings.

Wells Fargo Foreign Exchange Online for Small Business received the “Most Innovative Product” award. Small businesses using this solution can make international payments in more than 100 foreign currencies, with real time exchange rates and settlement by wire or desktop printed draft. In addition Wells Fargo was honored for its My Spending Report with Budget Watch solution. The service allows small businesses to manage their money by automatically comparing total account inflows by categories to total account outflows each month.

Bank of America was granted the “Most Innovative Customer Service Enhancement” award for its Small Business Online Community solution which enables business owners and experts across different industries to learn, connect, and share with each other.