Project Overview
Objectives
Key insight
Reducing Human Error associated with manual data entry and processing.
Regulatory Compliance by centrally allowing banks to adapt to regulatory changes
Enhancing Security by reducing the risk of data breaches and unauthorised access
Savings Costs creating more efficient processes
Technical
Legacy systems and technical debt since many technologies in use are archaic.
Regulation
Data privacy and compliace given that complying with these regulations is a very complex task.
Cybersecurity
Risks related to the increased reliance on digital technologies
Technical
- Integration & compatibility
- Scalability & flexibility
- Cost saving
Regulation
- Built-In Compliance Features
- Regular updates & monitoring
Cybersecurity
- Strong Security Protocols
- Real-Time Threat Detection
- Redundancy & disaster recovery
Five automatable processes account for 2/3 of back office. Automating these processes would reduce up to 60% of the back office workload.
challenges
b2b Benefits
Context
Digitalization and automation of banking internal processes in Germany are essential for reducing human error, enhancing security, ensuring compliance with regulations, improving efficiency, and saving costs.
However, transitioning to digitalization and automation of banking internal processes in Germany is challenging due to legacy systems, data privacy and regulatory compliance concerns, and increasing cybersecurity risks.
B2B SaaS products can significantly expedite the transition to digitalization and automation for banks in Germany. They provide a cost-effective, flexible, and compliant solution to modernise processes, address legacy system challenges, and enhance cybersecurity measures.
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Benefits of Digitalization and Automation in Banking
Digitalization and automation of banking internal processes are of paramount importance in Germany, due to various factors that contribute to operational efficiency, security, and customer satisfaction. Some of the main benefits are:
Reducing Human Error
Financial transactions and data handling require a high degree of accuracy, and even minor mistakes can lead to significant financial losses.
Compliance and Regulatory Requirements
In order adapt quickly to ever evolving regulatory changes, reducing the risk of non-compliance and associated penalties.
Enhancing Security
By reducing the risk of data breaches, continuously monitoring for suspicious activities and responding swiftly to minimize the potential risks.
Cost Savings
By automating routine and repetitive tasks, and optimized flows of the previews three aspects.
Main Challenges of the Transition and the Potential of B2B SaaS
The transition to digitalization and automation of banking internal processes is indeed challenging due to several factors. However, B2B SaaS (Business to Business Software as a Service) products can play a crucial role in helping banks overcome those precise challenges.
challenges
Legacy Systems and Technical Debt
Banks' legacy IT systems are often complex, outdated, and not easily compatible with digitalization and automation technologies. Upgrading or replacing these systems is a significant challenge as it requires substantial financial investments and poses operational risks.
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B2B Potential
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- Integration and Compatibility: B2B SaaS solutions designed to be modular and easily integrated allow gradual modernisation without a complete system overhaul.
- Scalability and Flexibility: scalable B2B SaaS products can grow with the bank’s needs. A small-scale implementation can expand gradually.
- Cost Savings: a subscription-based pricing model, can be cost-effective compared to building or maintaining in-house software.
Data Privacy and Regulatory Compliance
Ensuring that automated processes comply with data privacy regulations is a complex task. The highly regulated banking industry forces banks to navigate a complex web of regulations when implementing automation.
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- Built-In Compliance Features: incorporate robust security and compliance features to meet regulatory requirements. Banks can thus ensure that processes are compliant “out of the box.”
- Regular Updates and Monitoring: maintaining and updating software, including security and compliance enhancements to reduce the risk of non-compliance.
Cybersecurity Risks
As banks increase their reliance on digital technologies, they become more vulnerable to cyberattacks. Protecting sensitive customer data and financial assets is a top priority, and banks must invest in robust cybersecurity measures to mitigate these risks.
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- Advanced Security Protocols: prioritise state-of-the-art cybersecurity measures for banks.
- Real-Time Threat Detection: allows swift response capabilities, thus identifying and mitigating cyber threats promptly.
- Disaster Recovery and Redundancy: ensuring that critical data is protected and accessible in the event of a cybersecurity breach or other disasters.
The key takeaway: 5 automatable processes accounting for 2/3 of back office
With its insights into the banking system, FinGate has actually spotted 5 back office processes which can be automated and account for 2 ⁄ 3 of the workload. This is a huge deal, since automating these processes would precisely mean that: a reduction of up to 2 ⁄ 3 of the back office workload.
And here relies the potential of such a B2B SaaS solution. It would enable any private bank to implement this automatisation in a cost-efficient manner.
The design process
The user personas and the problem definition
With this context, we finally arrive at our user persona, or better said user personas. Yes, plural. We will focus on the person on the one side, but also on the institution on the other side. Being a B2B SaaS product, Fingate will impact the work of individual professionals but it will as well have significant repercussions on the whole structure of banks’ back office. So let’s see.
User Persona One: the Engaged Banker
On the one side, there is the person. The Engaged Banker is very hardworking and responsible, being capable to work on highly technical and demanding back office processes. However, crucially, these processes involve a very long and tedious set of repetitive tasks. This leads to a very high risk of mistakes. This is of course frustrating, builds up their stress, and makes it difficult to keep motivation high.
User Persona Two: the Efficiency-Seeking Bank
On the other side we have the institution. The Efficiency-Seeking Bank is in a conundrum: on the one side, it wants to improve the performance of its inefficient back office system; on the other side it would be very costly to develop and maintain an automatisation solution by itself.
The problem definition
- The Engaged Banker needs a tool that automates banking processes to reduce the risk of human error and at the same time allowing the banker to focus on decision taking.
- The Efficiency-Seeking Bank needs a b2b solution that can be implemented with the highest security standards and in compliance with regulatory requirements while still being cost efficient.
Seizure processes: the first out of five
In this MVP we will focus only on the first of the five automatable processes: seizures. In a nutshell, a seizure is the process of legally blocking and taking possession of debtor’s assets usually due to unpaid debts.
traditional seizure workflow
A seizure process has to occur swiftly, with a deadline of 24 hours after an order has been issued. However as it can be seen above, the process is usually very complex, involving a relatively high risk of human error and involving a set of tedious, repetitive tasks.
conceptual optimised seizure workflow
What would a fully automated seizure look like? The answer is zero click. This is what full automation means. A seizure order arrives to the system, it gets processed, and all the steps are done without human intervention. This is called a zero click solution, and this is what FinGate is aiming for.
Well, there is another case worth mentioning. In case of uncertainty, there is a one click solution, or one step solution. Let’s imagine there is a document that was scanned, but the scan quality is too poor. In this case, the system would report an error, and the person would have to perform one step: reload the scan ensuring readability.
References
There is not currently a product on the market that can be directly compared to Fingate. So, not having direct 1:1 references, we looked for references for different aspects the product will have.
In terms of functionality, we focussed on how the back office of neobanks such as Solarisbank or Penta work. For the dashboard’s UI we studied UX agencies that specialise in fintech. In terms of usability, we analysed productivity tools currently used by bankers to perform these processes.
Delights and pain points
For all of these references, it was crucial to understand the positive and the negative aspects. What did they get right? What part the users experience is a pain? For example, for Penta back office, the clean minimalistic interface is a delight while a big pain point bankers experience is having to switch between the back office’s software and external tools because of the lack of an all-in-one solution.
key takeaway
Even when creating a new product, we are never creating from zero. Recognizing the different areas of the product to design allowed us to find references for those specific areas in order to later put them together as pieces of a puzzle.
Moodboard & Style
The references also allowed us to hypothesise about our style. We are looking for a fresh yet professional neobanking flair. We want to be perceived as modern and minimal in order to simplify the user experience. We aim to be structured but engaging, since we deal with complex charts and numbers. Finally, we seek for a design that is clean and sober yet dynamic and energised.
Key feats
One very important key feat of Fingate is its format: a desktop-only web-app. This is important because of the nature of its use handling very delicate information and connected to banks’ cybersecurity systems. As we will see in the prototype, other key feats include fully automated back end processes, user’s profiles linked directly with the bank’s intranet.
Next steps
- Further user test with different banks, iterate
- Next process: insolvencies
- Language availability DE / EN for outsourcing
- Back end development
Key learnings
- Automatization tools like this need to be designed scalable from the beginning. It is advisable to define this in the early steps in order to know what to prioritise especially knowing that scalability is key for this project.
- An intuitive navigation as well as progressive disclosure are very important in orderto allow ease of use.
- Banking back office needs good UX. Especially in automation software, this makes information easily comprehensible and further allows the user to take better decisions.
