On Wednesday 6th October 2010, Financial News hosted the 8th annual ‘Awards for Excellence in Trading & Technology, Europe 2010' at Plaisterers’ Hall, in the City of London.

Technology is crucial to every aspect of financial services operations and Financial News has celebrated its importance with eight respected and successful annual events since 2003. IT is used to quicken financial operations, promote efficiencies and cut down costs, and is indispensable to the smooth operation of the financial markets.

The Awards provided a forum at which the European financial services industry - from investment banks to fund managers, data providers to exchanges - gathered in the City of London to be honoured by Financial News and industry peers for excellence in their technology operations. Photos from the awards evening are shown above.

The event was supported by both the companies and individuals nominated for recognition and also by the consultants, the vendors and the event sponsors, along with over 200 guests. The guest list included senior figures from banks and consultants, along with those companies nominated for the awards.

The winners of the 22 categories were presented awards on the evening and the full list can be found on this website. To decide the Awards, Financial News sought the expertise of a distinguished independent panel of industry practitioners to vote on the nominated groups in each category. The panel judged which of the many firms within European operations had the most success in their technology development and investment over the past year.