Two Mexican financial institutions that devised a cheap life insurance policy to protect the families of micro-entrepreneurs. An Austrian banking group that funded the world's first nitrous oxide reduction plant in Egypt, the largest greenhouse gas reduction project in Africa. Two of the world's largest investment banks that effectively securitised future aid payments to raise $1bn for immunisation programmes.

These were among the winners of the 2007 Financial Times Sustainable Banking Awards in June, which attracted 151 entries in five categories from more than 100 financial institutions in 51 countries. This week the FT, in partnership with the International Finance Corporation, the private-sector arm of the World Bank, launched the 2008 awards with two new categories and expectations of even more entries.