Lloyds manager Will Ashman wins FICO fintech award

FICO has named Lloyds Banking Group Senior Manager for Risk Decision Systems Will Ashman a top fintech innovator in its 2026 Decision Hero Awards. The awards also recognised executives from TD Bank and Siam Commercial Bank.

Ashman was singled out for his work on risk decision systems at Lloyds, where he has been involved in the bank's Risk Transformation programme since 2021. FICO said he has led the development of multi-product decisioning strategies across the group's consumer originations operations.

The recognition places a UK banking executive among a small group of international recipients identified by the analytics software company for work in banking and financial services. Other honourees were Sasha Radulovich and David Bordeleau of TD Bank in North America, and Sarut Ruttanaporn of Siam Commercial Bank in Thailand.

Ashman's career spans four decades at Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group. FICO said that background has given him deep experience in risk decision systems, an area central to banks' lending and customer management operations.

At Lloyds, his role has focused on decisioning across consumer originations, covering how lenders assess and process applications for products such as loans and credit. FICO said the work has combined technical delivery with practical implementation inside one of the UK's largest banking groups.

FICO added that Ashman's team is now expanding that work into customer management. This points to a broader use of decision systems beyond initial product approval and into how an established customer base is managed over time.

Industry Awards

Now in their second year, the Decision Hero Awards recognise individuals in financial services who use advanced analytics in operational decision-making. FICO said this year's recipients reflected efforts to apply artificial intelligence and analytics in live banking environments.

"Each of this year's Decision Heroes has done something remarkable," said Nikhil Behl, President, Software, FICO.

"They've taken the complexity of AI and analytics and made it work for real people, in real markets, at real scale. That's an achievement worth celebrating."

The choice of recipients points to a focus on executives working inside major banks rather than founders of newer financial technology companies. In Ashman's case, the recognition centres on changes within established banking infrastructure, particularly in risk and credit decisioning.

Lloyds Role

Lloyds Banking Group has been carrying out a broader transformation of its risk operations, and Ashman has been involved in that programme for several years. FICO said his contribution has supported business resilience and regulatory confidence as the bank expands its use of decision systems.

The bank was not separately quoted, but Ashman described the work as a collective effort rather than a purely technical exercise.

"Transformation at this scale is never just a technology project, it's about teamwork. It's about building capability and making the right decisions so you can move from good ideas to real-world impact faster, more safely, and with greater confidence," said Ashman.

FICO, which develops analytics and decisioning software used across financial services, has long been associated with credit risk assessment and fraud monitoring. It said businesses in more than 80 countries use its technology across sectors including banking, insurance, telecommunications, healthcare and retail.

In banking, its tools are commonly used in credit scoring, fraud prevention and operational decision-making. The awards programme appears intended to highlight executives who oversee those systems inside large institutions.

For Lloyds, the recognition gives visibility to a back-office discipline of growing importance as banks seek to automate decisions while meeting regulatory requirements. For FICO, it underlines the prominence of its software in the internal systems of large lenders in the UK, North America and Asia.

Ashman's award comes alongside recognition for peers at TD Bank and Siam Commercial Bank, reflecting the global spread of decisioning and analytics work across the banking sector.