In the innovation programs I have run for large financial services companies, a primary objective is to get the participants to build strong networks as they collaborate with their peers and seek assistance from seniors, vendors and clients. Participants regularly report that working with others outside their area and learning about other parts of the [...]

http://www.filene.org/blog/post/filene-i3-unveils-7-industry-innovations

…inventive solutions to respond to market needs in the credit union industry…developed by teams of credit union officials participating in Filene’s i3 innovation program, sponsored in part by America’s Corporate Credit Unions.
These seven innovations are natural evolutions of products and services that may find their way into credit union operations in the near future:
Decision Point. [...]

The list of the stock index winners of the William F. Sharpe Indexing Achievement Awards at the annual Super Bowl of Indexing Conference:

Most Innovative Benchmark Index

o 2004 – CBOE S&P 500 BuyWrite Index (BXM)
o 2005 – FTSE/RAFI Fundamental Index Series

Most Innovative ETF

o 2004 – iShares MSCI EAFE (EFA) and Emerging Markets
o 2005 – EasyETF GSCI [...]

From an article about the Scottish Financial Enterprise Innovators 2006 awards (link)
Ten Scottish financial services innovations through the ages
1694 – Bank of England founded by Scotsman William Paterson
1728 – Royal Bank of Scotland invents the overdraft
1750 – British Linen Bank – now part of HBOS – develops the first retail bank branch network
1810 – [...]

From New York Times, August 11, 2006

THERE is a new cold war on the horizon. An intellectual property arms race is escalating on Wall Street, where financial services firms like Goldman Sachs and Citigroup are building up stockpiles of patents on processes like software-based pricing, trading and risk analysis systems and products like credit [...]