Engaging freelancers with free banking

An entrepreneurial bank spotted an opportunity to fill a gap between consumer and large enterprise banking services. This would allow them to better serve the growing market of freelancers and small companies.

They approved a project to build an entirely digital, branchless bank from scratch, and asked us to support the creation of a mobile app. This included developing the code and processes for the back end, through to the customer experience, proof of concept and go live.

Our key objectives were to develop product functionalities including powerful self-serve tools, personalisation and authentication, and seamless integration with the bank’s customer-focused operational processes. These capabilities would enable our client to attract users to the new digital offering and build an initial customer base.

Working with a small in-house team, we defined a technical architecture that supported the bank’s vision. Our approach allowed rapid market deployment of an MVP banking service, with real-world testing of the product market to guide its direction.

We also built mobile app functionalities that empowered end-users to self-serve. Examples include the ability to update personal data – such as addresses and pin numbers, an envelope feature that enabled apportion of funds to different budgets, and the digital capture of cheques for electronic deposits.

To make all of this possible, we embedded A.I. models in both the back and front end, which were vital in minimizing maintenance costs, enabling seamless real-time experiences through automation, and ensuring robust security of all customer and business data.

First, we worked out the scope, defined the solution needs, and built and integrated an entire back-end API banking suite to link the front-end
offerings to a core banking infrastructure.

This suite included integrations with multiple third-party providers, enabling automation of several key processes. An element of prediction
was also used to anticipate customer needs to further inform these
processes.

Automated processes included obtaining the risk rate of new credit customers for approval during onboarding, the scheduling of jobs such as
creation of monthly statements, address updates, and the continuous
delivery of new features.

Our team worked in a very intuitive way, using a combination of best practice development approaches to create and maintain the mobile
application. This was done with a strong testing culture involving
Acceptance Test Driven Development (ATDD), a focus on DevOps, and the
scrum methodology.

With the mobile application in full working production, the bank attracted a customer base of over ten thousand freelancers and small business owners. Self-service tools empowered these users to bank on their own terms, with convenient and personalised experiences. This led to an impressive adoption rate of 90% among customers who signed up for the service.

Automation of back end processes enabled significant time and cost savings throughout development, facilitating the bank’s objective to keep its new digital offering a fee-free service. The development testing practices used also ensured an incredibly low rate of technical incidents and enabled the continuous development and deployment of new features, updates, and patches with speed and efficiency.