At the end of 2024, Efigence, a leading technology company, along with its creative agency subsidiary Artegence, entered a new phase of growth under the leadership of Marcin Petrykowski, who took on the role of CEO of Efigence in December and joined the board of Artegence.

These leadership changes were initiated by Riyad FinTech Fund, a private equity fund fully owned by Riyad Bank, one of the largest banking groups in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The strategic move aimed to redefine the business models of both companies, accelerate their growth, and strengthen their position in the market.

One of the key steps in this transformation was the full acquisition of Efigence S.A. by Riyad FinTech Fund. On March 17, 2025, the fund finalized the purchase of the remaining shares, acquiring full ownership of the company. The two minority shareholders, who had served as board members until September 2024, sold their remaining stakes, completing a crucial phase in Efigence’s new growth and expansion strategy under Marcin Petrykowski’s leadership.

“Riyad FinTech Fund’s acquisition of 100% of Efigence marks a new era of dynamic growth for us. With a strong foundation built on innovative solutions, we now have the opportunity to expand rapidly and fully integrate with the evolving needs of Riyad Bank’s ecosystem,“ says Marcin Petrykowski, CEO of Efigence.

Marcin Petrykowski, appointed on behalf of the company’s sole owner, brings over 20 years of experience in the financial, technology, and banking sectors. He specializes in business transformations, growth strategies, investments, and innovation implementation. His mandate includes developing and executing a new strategy and operational plan, focused on accelerating international expansion and fully integrating Efigence into the investor’s ecosystem, with a strong emphasis on the Middle Eastern market.

“The reputation we’ve built over the years, thanks to our cutting-edge projects and industry-leading innovations, is a solid foundation for scaling our operations. Just last year, Efigence reaffirmed its position as a market leader, winning the ‘Best of Show’ award at Finovate Fall in New York and the title of ‘Best Retail Banking Solutions Provider’ at the Global BankTech Awards in Singapore. And this is just the beginning—Efigence’s portfolio is filled with many other prestigious awards and partnerships.

Artegence is also making waves, having secured three Effie Awards in 2024 for its creative excellence and market impact,”** says Marcin Petrykowski, CEO and Managing Director of Efigence and board member of Artegence.

“My priority is to ensure the swift and effective execution of our transformative strategy, setting a clear direction for the growth of both organizations. With our team’s expertise, proven track record, well-defined priorities, and the strong backing of our strategic business partners and unique investor, I am confident we will successfully achieve our ambitious growth and expansion goals,” he adds.

---

Marcin Petrykowski – Bio

As part of his numerous strategic engagements, Marcin Petrykowski serves on multiple international and local supervisory boards in banking, fintech, and digital media. Additionally, he chairs the Program Council of the FinTech & InsurTech Digital Congress, the leading fintech and innovation event in Poland.

From 2021 to 2024, he led a comprehensive restructuring and transformation at Atende S.A., a publicly listed technology and IT services group in Poland. As CEO, he implemented a new strategy and operational plan, driving record financial results and significantly strengthening the company’s market position.

Previously, as Managing Director at S&P Global, he was responsible for the company’s commercial operations in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) and played a key role in introducing S&P Global Ratings to the Polish and Central and Eastern European (CEE) markets.

His career began in corporate banking at Citibank, followed by investment banking at J.P. Morgan in London, where he managed financial institution partnerships across Europe and the CEE region, also serving as Deputy Head of the Polish office.

He is an alumnus of Stanford Graduate School of Business and the Center for Leadership and has completed his studies at Kozminski University, Lund University, and the University of Warsaw.

---

Media Contact:

Joanna Wróblewska
Head of Marketing, Efigence
jwroblewska@efigence.com

User experience is one of the cornerstones of today’s world and one of the mainstays of creating an offer that satisfies the customer’s needs. However, the world is changing, as are the expectations of current and potential clients. No wonder more and more solutions are being developed to create better UX for users, and digital banking is no exception. One of these solutions is DXP – a system designed to redefine UX. Let’s look at how modern banks can utilize DXPs to up their UX game.

According to a recent study, three primary elements matter to modern customers when it comes to the banking sector:

• Security and fraud protection
• High-quality customer service
• Mobile and online access

 

Source: https://www.fool.com/the-ascent/research/digital-banking-trends

 

All these answers accounted for over 90% of the answers in the three years of this study (2024, 2023, 2020). Thanks to a digital experience platform (that’s what DXP stands for), you can take care of at least two of those areas, and when it comes to educational activities – all three of them.

What are DXPs?

You can think of DXP as a next-level CMS. These are comprehensive online platforms where you can manage and optimize your company’s content and assets, primarily for marketing and UX purposes. With a DXP, you can provide your customers consistent user experience across different sales and communication channels. DXPs help you optimize your marketing campaigns and keep everything sales and marketing-related within one intuitive platform.

Depending on the platform you pick (there are several DXP platforms out there, e.g., Magnolia, Optimizely, Acquia, Adobe, SalesForce, and Sitecore), you can access a multitude of features and options, effectively allowing you to manage your company’s entire marketing and customer service departments.

Source: https://www.qualtrics.com/uk/experience-management/customer/digital-experience-platforms/

 

DXPs usually help you manage the following aspects of your business:

• Social media management
• Marketing and sales automation
• Web and mobile app management
• AI assistants
• Content marketing management
• Web analytics
• And sometimes, even workforce management

DXPs offer one more advantage—because they are usually cloud-based, you can seamlessly cooperate with other teams and companies (think contractors and agencies) worldwide.

Although DXPs are universal solutions for all sectors, the truth is that they’ve been designed chiefly for digitized industries. This is especially true in digital banking, where DXP improves customer service and makes operations more efficient. In another study, customers indicated banking as the number-one sector where the impact of digital transformation is the biggest:

 

Source: https://www.revechat.com/blog/customer-experience-in-banking/

 

The digital banking landscape is undergoing a significant transformation, with customer experience (CX) emerging as the key differentiator. While content has always played a crucial role in shaping customer experiences, the future holds exciting possibilities for how DXPs can redefine CX in digital banking.

Let’s talk a bit more about that.

DXPs: The Architects of Compelling User Experiences

Content is at the heart of today’s customer or user experience. DXPs enable banks (as well as other financial institutions) to use it as a strategic resource capable of being a true game-changer. By using DXPs, banks can create engaging narratives and more personalized experiences that their audience highly values. And for companies interested in sophisticated storytelling, DXPs provide the space to do it effectively. That’s because everything you need is available within one user-friendly dashboard.

Imagine there has been some significant change in your offer recently, and you want to get out to people with the news. With a DXP, you can put new content on your website, create a press release for the media, schedule a few social media posts, and create and send mobile push notifications to your current customers within the same tool! Undoubtedly, this would streamline the work of your entire marketing department.

A centralized platform that supports quick and multimodal creation of marketing assets (including textual and audio-visual ones) is a massive convenience for financial businesses. And as DXPs are now more and more often supported by artificial intelligence, they can help you with the very content creation process, which allows for implementing different learning styles that can be adapted to other market segments (after all, you will talk differently about finances to a student trying to get his student loan and to a business person who wants to get credit to scale their company).

This flexibility allows banking institutions to deliver the right content in the correct format, at the right time, and to the right audience – and that’s the essence of digital experience platforms.

In addition, both local and international brands can benefit from this advanced solution. Why? DXP erases language barriers and supports the one-click creation and delivery of multilingual content, promoting a more inclusive banking experience for a global community. Moreover, centralizing content creation into a single user interface ensures better brand consistency across multiple international sites and channels. This streamlined approach enhances efficiency and guarantees that the brand’s message and identity remain uniform, regardless of geographical location or language.

SO, LET’S SUMMARIZE THE BENEFITS OF DXP IN A FEW KEY POINTS:

• It’s a single, central platform for marketing asset management and customer data collection (many DXPs have extensive web analytics features).
• You get access to more accessible and integrated content creation, including advanced storytelling and AI-powered features (DXPs can automate the creation of repetitive content, freeing up human resources to focus on higher-level tasks and strategic content development.)
• You can benefit from quick multimodal and multilingual content creation.
• Your company enjoys increased productivity with less effort.

The rise of Generative AI (GenAI) in DXPs

Artificial intelligence has completely revolutionized our work, regardless of the business sector. Changes are happening right before our eyes, and new tools are always coming to market. AI is assisting work in many areas, as shown by last year’s survey of American business owners:

Ways in which artificial intelligence (AI) has been improving customer experience (CX) in the United States in 2023

Source: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1446139/ai-ways-to-improve-cx-us/

In the context of DXP, we are most interested in developing generative AI in storytelling and customer communication. What benefits will AI bring to the banking industry? Among other things, the answer is greater personalization and optimization of content at a massive scale, which will unlock new opportunities for customer engagement.

Bank of America is a good example. This second-largest bank in the US uses AI to uncover hidden market patterns and anticipate client needs by consolidating market data across asset classes and regions with the bank’s in-house models and machine learning techniques.

Wells Fargo, another American bank, uses generative AI to empower its virtual assistant, Fargo. It also uses a large language model (LLM) to help clarify what information clients must provide to regulators.

Source: https://sites.wf.com/fargo/

Implementing artificial intelligence isn’t an option anymore – it’s necessary, according to one of the world’s largest consulting firms, McKinsey. Among its top eight areas for CEOs to focus on in 2024, number one is using generative AI to solve their business challenges. Again, the banking sector is no exception here.

Importantly, however, most publicly available tools focus mainly on written content, but DXPs aim for greater versatility, allowing audio and video content management.

Moreover, a centralized platform allows for more consistent content creation than dozens of third-party tools. As time passes, the DXP will become more adept at adjusting the tone and type of narrative to the target group, resulting in greater effectiveness in content creation.

The Future of Content Creation

Now, let’s dig deeper and see the future of content creation in the digital banking industry. And here’s one thing to note – while DXPs and AI are generally revolutionizing how content is created, the symbiosis between technology and human workers is still essential.

The key is to achieve a balance between the two by using modern technology to remove the overload of repetitive and routine tasks from employees’ shoulders, allowing creativity to flourish. The best, most effective approach to content creation and copywriting doesn’t lie in using just GenAI tools. It lies in combining AI with the creativity, experience, and hands-on knowledge of human authors and writers.

In this context, DXPs can help financial institutions with the following elements:

• Automate repetitive content creation, thus enabling your human writers to focus on higher-level tasks and strategic content development.
• Support human copywriters or content creators by generating drafts, suggesting ideas, and optimizing content for specific audiences and channels.
• Help with SEO optimization, as DXP’s built-in tools can suggest keywords, content structure, and other SEO elements that increase exposure in search engines.
• Support user feedback management, resulting in high-quality customer service.
• Improve workflow between different departments and various units of the same company.

By adopting a DXP and unlocking the power of content-based GenAI, banks can move beyond the transactional banking process and create a truly unique experience for their customers. That’s the goal of service quality in today’s world because customers don’t just want to be customers—they want to experience service in the best possible way.

Wrapping up: DXPs Are Orchestrating a Symphony of Content and Experience

This future-oriented approach will help banks build deeper relationships with their customers, strengthen trust, and increase loyalty in the constantly evolving landscape of digital banking. However, to fully reap the benefits of DXP in banking, the system must be customized to an institution’s requirements. Experience and understanding of individual needs play a huge role here.

Our company works with banks in many countries (we invite you to check our case studies). We know and understand the needs of this specific industry and can use this knowledge to your advantage. If you need help with high-tech projects for the banking/financial sector, don’t hesitate to contact us!

Today’s financial institutions face many challenges, ranging from regulatory shifts to changing consumer behaviors and technological development. To compete in this dynamic environment, they must embrace agility and innovation. One powerful tool enabling your company to do so is a DXP—digital experience platform. How exactly can they help financial institutions?

DXPs are comprehensive suites of digital tools and technologies that enable organizations to create, manage, and deliver personalized digital experiences across various channels and touchpoints. Initially popularized in the realm of customer experience management, DXPs are now gaining traction in the financial sector as institutions seek to modernize their operations and stand out in the competitive market.

“[DXP is] an integrated set of technologies designed to enable the composition, management, delivery and optimization of contextualized digital experiences across multiexperience customer journeys.”

Source: Gartner

The scope of their capabilities can be very extensive:

 

 

Thriving in a Dynamic Landscape: The Agile Advantage for Financial Institutions

In today’s rapidly evolving financial landscape, speed is paramount. However, complex legacy platforms often hinder financial institutions (FIs) from keeping pace with the ever-changing needs of their customers and the market. Thankfully, DXPs can help you with this challenge.

Digital experience platforms are based on classic content management systems (CMS), but they are enhanced with additional functions that result in higher agility and flexibility. They help financial institutions keep up with the dynamically changing market and customers’ needs.

Here’s how DXPs can help your financial institution grow and optimize its operations:

LOW-CODE DEVELOPMENT FOR RAPID INNOVATION

Digital experience platforms are revolutionizing the way financial institutions innovate and adapt to change, particularly through their low-code development capabilities. It refers to a visual approach to software development that allows users to build applications with minimal hand-coding and instead relies on drag-and-drop interfaces and pre-built templates.

DXPs equipped with low-code development tools empower financial institutions to rapidly prototype, develop, and deploy new digital solutions without the need for extensive coding knowledge or expertise. This democratization of development enables business users, such as product managers, marketers, and customer experience professionals, to actively participate in the creation of digital experiences, thereby accelerating the innovation cycle.

By abstracting away the complexities of traditional coding, low-code development enables teams to focus on the functionality and user experience of their applications. This streamlined approach reduces development time and costs while increasing agility and flexibility. Moreover, low-code development fosters collaboration between business and IT teams, allowing for faster iteration and alignment with business goals and customer needs.

RECONFIGURABLE PLATFORM FOR EVOLVING NEEDS

DXPs offer FIs a reconfigurable platform that is well-suited for the evolving needs of financial institutions. This adaptability is essential in the dynamic landscape of finance, where market trends, customer expectations, and regulatory requirements are constantly changing.

At the core of a DXP’s reconfigurable platform is its modular architecture, which allows components to be easily added, removed, or modified to accommodate shifting priorities and emerging opportunities. This flexibility enables financial institutions to evolve their digital presence in response to changing business objectives, competitive pressures, and technological advancements.

With a reconfigurable platform, financial institutions can:

• Modularize digital capabilities into reusable components, such as content management systems, e-commerce engines, customer relationship management tools, and more.
• Customize user journeys based on individual preferences, behaviors, and transaction histories.
• Adapt to regulatory changes in compliance measures, such as data privacy regulations or security standards.
• Integrate with third-party systems and services to support operations, from core banking systems to payment gateways to risk management solutions.
• Scale to meet demand in user traffic, data volumes, and transaction volumes without sacrificing performance or reliability.

FRICTIONLESS DELIVERY FOR FASTER GO-TO-MARKET

DXPs streamline financial institutions’ go-to-market processes through frictionless delivery mechanisms, catalyzing the swift launch of new digital products and services. These platforms integrate development, deployment, and operational processes seamlessly, removing obstacles that traditionally hindered rapid innovation.

With intuitive development tools and frameworks, DXPs simplify the creation of digital experiences, allowing teams to focus on innovation rather than grappling with technical complexities. By automating deployment pipelines and embracing cloud-native architectures, DXPs ensure that code changes are tested, validated, and deployed seamlessly across different environments, from development to production. This automated approach enhances the reliability and consistency of deployments while accelerating time-to-market for new features and updates.

DXPs use scalable infrastructure and microservices architectures to support rapid growth and adjust to changing demand. Cloud-based hosting providers offer elastic resources that can be dynamically scaled in response to changes in user traffic and computational workloads. DXPs enable teams to develop, deploy, and update components separately (without disrupting the entire system) by breaking down monolithic applications into smaller, independent services. This modular approach promotes faster iteration and more agile development practices, allowing institutions to deliver value to customers in shorter cycles.

CONTENT AS A SERVICE (CAAS)

Content as a service is a key feature of digital experience platforms that revolutionizes content management for FIs. CaaS separates content creation and management from the presentation layer, enabling institutions to create once and publish across multiple channels seamlessly.

With CaaS, content becomes a modularized and reusable asset, empowering institutions to deliver consistent and personalized experiences across websites, mobile apps, social media platforms, and more. By separating content from presentation, DXPs equipped with CaaS capabilities streamline content creation, approval, and distribution processes, allowing institutions to adapt quickly to changing market dynamics and customer preferences.

Furthermore, CaaS enables financial institutions to personalize content at scale, driving engagement and conversion rates. DXPs use data analytics and machine learning algorithms to deliver relevant and targeted content to individual users based on their preferences, behaviors, and past interactions.

By analyzing user data in real-time, DXPs can dynamically adjust content recommendations, layouts, and messaging to optimize engagement and drive desired outcomes. This personalized approach enhances customer satisfaction, fosters brand loyalty, and ultimately drives business growth for financial institutions.

PERSONALIZED ONE-TO-ONE COMMUNICATION

DXPs gather insights into individual customer preferences, behaviors, and interactions across various touchpoints through advanced data analytics and machine learning algorithms. This is especially important in the financial sector, where financial institutions can use this data to deliver personalized content, offers, and recommendations tailored to each customer’s unique needs and interests.

DXPs enable financial institutions to deliver personalized experiences, making use of automation and dynamic content delivery capabilities. By segmenting customers based on demographic information, transaction history, browsing behavior, and other relevant data points, DXPs ensure that each interaction is contextually relevant and timely.

Whether it’s sending targeted email campaigns, displaying personalized product recommendations on a website, or providing tailored offers within a mobile app, DXPs empower institutions to deliver the right message to the right customer at the right time, driving engagement and conversion rates.

COMPOSABLE ARCHITECTURE FOR LIMITLESS POSSIBILITIES

DXPs have a composable architecture that offers financial institutions limitless possibilities for innovation and customization. It breaks down complex systems into modular components, each serving a specific function and interacting seamlessly with one another. By separating components and services, DXPs enable institutions to mix and match capabilities to create tailored digital experiences that meet their unique business requirements and objectives.

Financial institutions can rapidly assemble and deploy new digital solutions with a composable architecture without being constrained by monolithic systems or rigid frameworks. This agility allows them to respond quickly to changing market dynamics, customer preferences, and regulatory requirements. Whether it’s launching a new mobile banking app, implementing a personalized recommendation engine, or integrating a third-party payment gateway, DXPs provide the flexibility and scalability needed to support innovation and drive business growth.

What’s more, DXPs facilitate ecosystem integration, enabling financial institutions to leverage a diverse array of internal and external services, applications, and data sources. This approach fosters collaboration and partnership across the ecosystem, allowing institutions to tap into the collective expertise and resources of industry partners, fintech startups, and other stakeholders. By harnessing the power of APIs, microservices, and event-driven architectures, DXPs enable institutions to create seamless end-to-end experiences that deliver value to customers and stakeholders alike.

Digital experience platforms are powerful tools for enhancing agility and innovation in financial institutions. By providing unified customer experiences, enabling rapid product development, or facilitating agile content management, DXPs help financial companies stay responsive to changing market dynamics. Embracing these platforms is not just about keeping up with the competition – it’s about leading the charge and shaping the future of your business.If you’d like to know more about finding and implementing the best DXP platform for your FI, don’t hesitate to contact us. At Efigence, we specialize in working with financial companies and are eager to assist you, too!

The axis of all activities of banking institutions has long been digital, an environment in which mobile now plays a key role. Digital transformation is a term that has been used for many years and has been implemented in all possible configurations, by every sector of the economy. However, what it stood for just a few years ago is completely different from what it stands for today.

We are currently dealing with digital transformation 2.0. This concept is more mature and focused on doing the best you can – rather than just doing something. The digital world, already having gained knowledge from experience and mistakes made, knows much better what challenges, problems or goals may arise in the world of digital banking, which could not be defined until recently. We are much better prepared to create successful strategies and the best possible tools in the digital ecosystem of banks.

Get ready for changes

Yes, we live in the world of VUCA again – this acronym, just like over 30 years ago, perfectly describes the reality that surrounds us now. Volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity are the hallmarks of today’s world. On the other hand, openness to the constantly changing environment and reacting to these changes is an essential element of any strategy, the inseparable element of which is readiness to modify – not only banking products but also applications and services. We should focus on the most flexible ecosystems and processes that we can change on the spot or assemble like Lego bricks. Constant updating is the norm today – not only with the competition in mind, but also in response to the needs of modern users and the environment. Without the ability to react quickly, it is difficult to keep up today, and it is even more difficult to create innovative solutions.

The upside may be that thanks to cooperation with specialized suppliers and external experts, we do not have to build various areas from scratch. Their competences and their work can be put together just like building blocks. However, if necessary, we are able to modify not just a single element, but also the arrangement of elements relative to each other.

Low-code, no-code

Low-code and no-code software is the future of banking, and banks are increasingly recognizing the benefits of using such solutions. They allow you to accelerate the development of applications, services or new products. They enable employees from outside the IT sector to access the full application lifecycle and development. Low-code and no-code platforms are equipped with a wide range of functions and can be used in many different business processes, including IT service management, project management, HR and other areas. They enable business users to create and deploy applications from predefined templates using drag and drop tools and visual editors. There are many benefits of using these types of solutions – they primarily open the door to a world of faster, cheaper and more iterative software development in the financial services sector. In terms of today’s digital transformation strategy, it is hard to even imagine not using them.

Holistic UX

UX is not only about designing experiences and digital products – it is also solving consumer problems and understanding the nuances of the business for which we create solutions, as well as acquiring knowledge about many of its areas. It is equally important to understand the different ways users interact with a given product and the challenges that can arise with it, as well as the broader business perspective. Only a multi-level view of the organization will allow the implementation of appropriate UX processes that will fit well into the entire digital transformation strategy. UX people should know how to ask the right questions in the context of a given product and its business owner, and how to research the right areas of interest to get the best possible results. Their ability to cooperate with banks and large organizations as well as good knowledge of the banking sphere are competencies that must be present in an external UX team.

Banking as a service and embedded finance

The possibilities generated by open banking have also opened new areas of cooperation for banks, for example with fintechs. Both sides can now fight together for another piece of the market pie. Situations in which fintechs engineer the highest quality services or banking products in a relatively short time, and banks gain additional financing instead of losing customers, are definitely win-win solutions.

In addition, banks today are much more than just institutions where we keep our money. With the progress of digitization, they accompany us in many everyday activities and improve processes in our financial lives. More and more often we come into contact with banking embedded in various online locations, and this certainly facilitates our financial functioning and processing. A lot of interesting developments are in the pipeline and it is certainly a topic that we must keep in mind. Developing innovative financial services in cooperation with traditional banks is an area that we cannot ignore when planning digital strategies for the coming years.

Carefully considered supplier selection

It is worth considering exactly what services we need and where it is best to look for them. If we are a large organization, let’s look for companies that have experience in working with corporations. If we need technologies that are necessarily safe, then let’s find out who specializes in them and has completed a lot of projects in these technologies. If unconventional and unique user experiences are key for us, let’s choose a company that specializes in great UX. This is very important for an organization like a bank. When selecting suppliers, it is worth assuming that experts must have skills that are different or better than those we already have access to – only these people will help bring the organization to the next, higher level.

Read also: How to design inclusively and effectively: A short guide to inclusive design

VAS as a must have for every banking application

Value Added Services become an inseparable element of every new banking application and every transaction website. Expanding the offer with non-banking services related to parking payments, tickets, highway travel, or maybe in the future even making an appointment with a doctor is something that feels ever more natural and can simplify our lives. A banking application has become a place that we visit several times a day – that’s why it’s worth making sure that you can do many more things with it than just checking the balance, making a transfer or applying for a loan. A great example here is PeoPay 4.0 from Bank Pekao S.A. – it simplifies the lives of its customers and provides non-banking services related to everyday functioning.

The PeoPay 4.0 application from Bank Pekao S.A.

Change leaders

In the process of digital transformation, so-called change leaders play a crucial role. Recruitment, both internal and external, can be very helpful when we want to gain a completely different point of view to the current one. Such a situation can be a game-changer: members of a given team tend to be strongly accustomed to familiar and fixed frameworks making it difficult to break free, so the change leader is a like breath of fresh air, proposing unusual methods, opening the team and the organization to new solutions and ultimately helping them to adapt to the new organizational model, setting goals and implementing tools to achieve them.

Vision and focus on investment

Finally, it is worth mentioning an issue that may be fairly obvious, but definitely worth reminding ourselves of. In order to be able to create a good digital transformation strategy for the bank, taking into account its dynamics in the face of the changing environment, assuming a larger budget for digital activities is one of the most important elements. Digital changes are a long-term process and it is important to give yourself an adequate margin for sudden events from the outside, actions of competitors, or the emergence of new trends or customer needs. This is, in a sense, financial vision, that in order to achieve our business goals, we must have the fuel for this. We cannot rely on a budget that will end suddenly, at a moment when we will face an important or unexpected challenge and the need to have implementation funds. Nowadays, the assumption of a financial buffer for digital activities should be obvious because what should we focus on today, if not on digital?

The first digital banking solutions delivered by Efigence came into existence over ten years ago, along with more and more growth online and mobile accessibility. Since then, digital banking has gone through several substantial revolutions and changes. Today, digital banking platforms offer not just storing and transferring of money but also a whole range of value-added services and features.

To some extent, they’ve become centers of our everyday life and work. We at Efigence are much more advanced, too. What did we learn from these years of working for the greatest financial brands? And how can we use this knowledge to improve digital banking platforms that are now mushrooming?

Although the financial sector is, in general, quite developed and innovative, especially in Europe, still, for many customers, innovativeness is not the first term that comes to mind when thinking about financial institutions. However, our world is dynamically changing, and it’s being shaped by digital transformation. Today everything, including banking, has to be fully digitised, quick and convenient. It’s actually mandatory. That’s what modern banks strive to achieve – digitised, on-demand services. And the last ten years of the development of digital banking show that the market extraordinarily appreciates this approach.

At Efigence, we’ve been shaping the digital banking scene for already quite a long time. We work for the biggest banking groups as an advisor and a provider of innovative technologies and design. We’ve gathered a list of ten valuable lessons you can draw from modern digital banking platforms. We hope it will inspire you to look at your work in new ways.

Lesson 1: It’s all about the mindset

If you want to become fully digitised, you have to change the way of thinking about your product. Granted, it takes some out-of-the-box thinking, especially in a world governed by statistics, indicators, diagrams and laws.

A good example is mBank – the very first Polish fully-online bank. A dozen or so years ago, we helped them become a leader in innovative banking solutions. The management of mBank decided that they needed to move their employees to a new building to facilitate creative thinking. Through this, we had the opportunity to see how important it was to combine creativity with the bank’s business goals. Everything you do has to be purposeful and well-thought-out. This way, both sides inspired each other to think out of the box and align ideas with the business.

The results were more than satisfactory. Back in 2014, over 30% of all mobile banking app users in Poland were mBank customers. Significantly, at that time, mBank didn’t have a 30% market share, and that shows the scale of its success. Together, we certainly gave Polish mobile banking a boost.

Read also: Banking in pandemic times

Lesson 2: UX is king!

Undoubtedly, user experience is what matters in everything you do digital-wise. UX should be a central part of your marketing, sales and business strategy. After all, it’s all about the user, right?

Today, banks have a limited possibility of competing with their core services; you can’t lower credit interest endlessly. You have to find a competitive advantage elsewhere – in the way you treat your customers. This revolves around customer service, communication and the use of additional channels and tools. Among them, mobile apps are likely the most important ones.

Here, we’d like to draw your attention to our recent project. Together with Credit Agricole Bank Polska, we’ve made a brand-new mobile app that takes mobile banking to a whole new level. This new app makes daily mobile banking a pleasant experience and presents the bank’s products and services in an innovative way. This is what our client has said about the project:

“The new Credit Agricole Bank Polska application focuses as much as possible on the customers’ needs, building a lasting relationship with them and supporting them in their daily tasks. On the way to achieving this effect, one of the key elements was the appropriate design of the tool.”

Read more about this project: A new, higher level of banking: an innovative application from Credit Agricole Bank Polska

Lesson 3: Start with the concept

For over 10 years, we’ve been starting each new project with a concept. That’s one of the keys to our success. Sometimes, conceptualisation takes one week, and sometimes it takes two months, but this stage is crucial.

The concept is the project’s foundation, a base for communication and work for the entire team. A well-prepared concept means you can finish working on the final interface and functionality of the platform faster.  However, in order to be successful, your idea must be a reflection of a solid and well-researched vision that’s backed up by a full understanding of the technology behind it.

With a refined concept, we can get the approval of everyone involved in the project without the risk that, at some point along the way, we’ll have to scrap our work and start all over again. That’s what makes this approach better than endless iterations, where things can go sideways at any given moment.

Additionally, there is a nice side benefit. Thanks to a concept, you can show all the stakeholders what the final product is going to be like. This way, it becomes tangible, even if you haven’t written even the first line of code yet.

Lesson 4: Opt for low-code and no-code

Every technology gradually becomes easier to master. Websites are the perfect example. Not that long ago, you couldn’t create a website without knowledge of HTML. Today, with WordPress and drag-and-drop builders, you can create an aesthetic and functional webpage without knowing the difference between <head> and <body>.

It’s the same story with digital platforms. Even Google has its own no-code platform: Google AppSheet. See how it works in this short video:

Thanks to low-code and no-code solutions, you can streamline the process of creating, updating and improving apps, websites and other digital products. As a result, you can enhance your app every week (or even more often) without the need to code everything every single time. It’s a massive simplification of work and a source of measurable money savings.

Here, Alior Bank is a good example. In their 2020-2022 business strategy, we can read that they want to “provide business employees with the possibility to create new IT solutions on their own thanks to low-code and no-code tools.”

Read also: How we improved Alior Bank’s online sales by delivering perfect content targeting through a Magnolia-based portal

Lesson 5: Implement secure payment options

Security is the essence of banking. Sometimes, we use the term “phygital” to describe banking services. They are present both in the digital and physical world. Every interaction with a money-related service has to be secure. And that security should be ensured not only by the payment operator but also by the bank.

Lesson 6: Algorithms and rules are useful, but they don’t have an answer for everything

In general, financial systems are based on rules and regulations. Thanks to intelligent algorithms, you can code many different variants and scenarios and automate actions for various situations (e.g., when a customer applies for a loan). Without a doubt, AI can help banks solve many problems and automate tedious tasks.

These algorithms are being used even today to:

• Prevent fraud and money laundering
• Streamline credit scoring
• Offer new personalised products and services
• Make more informed business decisions and investments
• Support customers in managing their home budgets and much more

However, rules and AI can never replace collecting and analysing real-life knowledge about the customer and their life. Banks can use these solutions as support in their work, but working directly with the customer is still immensely important.

Lesson 7: Forget about open banking

As our experience shows, open banking is a myth. Customers have no interest in cumulating all their savings in one place as it poses a threat. Besides several scenarios (e.g., when applying for a loan or a mortgage), exchanging data between various bank accounts is pointless when you can’t really manage them (only view them).

Furthermore, open banking creates a lot of challenges from the technical and legal points of view. Each bank has its own technology, and combining different accounts is a bit like trying to get Windows and MacOS to work together on one computer.

This doesn’t mean, though, that banks shouldn’t create their own ecosystems for customers. Here, Apple is a perfect example – their products and services brilliantly work together. Banks can offer a whole range of value-added services that are built-in into their systems, e.g., access to public institutions, bus tickets, paid parking systems and many more. This way, the bank becomes an umbrella for the financial front end.

Read also: Efigence in the Middle East

Lesson 8: We live in a world of microservices

Some time ago, applications and digital platforms were built as so-called monoliths. You could use the whole product or not use it at all. It was the same story with updates and modifications – it was necessary to rewrite almost the entire codebase to implement some larger changes.

Recently, a different approach has gained traction. Microservices enable web developers to build apps and platforms that have various functions and sections that work independently. So, if you have a mobile banking app and you want to implement the new payment option, you can do so without modifying the whole thing.

Such an approach comes with several benefits. For starters, updating and modifying digital banking platforms is much easier. It takes less time, is easier and, therefore, cheaper. Secondly, thanks to microservices, digital platforms are more user-friendly and versatile. And lastly, the business has now the possibility of configuring the product without the involvement of the IT department.

Fintech companies have started this revolution in the banking sector. Thanks to them, the industry now has access to thousands of ready-made components and solutions that can supplement and enhance your digital product.

We encourage you to take a look at our Aion Bank app and web banking project. Together with the client, we have created a whole library of diverse user interface components, some of which have been developed for the first time on the market.

Lesson 9: Offer value-added services

In the introduction to this post, we told you that banks are no longer places where you just store money. Today, they help customers accomplish their goals and carry out everyday tasks.

Here, Bank Pekao, with its PeoPay 4.0 mobile app is a good example. This Polish bank simplifies its customers’ lives by expanding the offer with non-banking services related to daily payments for parking, tickets, motorway travel and more.

Lesson 10: Think about ecology and sustainability

More and more consumers value green initiatives. It’s the same story in the banking sector. That’s why banking companies offer their customers virtual credit/debit cards (that are not just green but secure as well) or standard physical cards made of recycled or ecological materials (e.g., plastic waste or metal). Banks try to limit their impact on the environment and encourage customers to track and lower their carbon footprint.

For example, MasterCard has developed a carbon calculator. It enables customers to view the estimated carbon footprint of all their card purchases. And some time ago, Revolut started offering virtual single-use cards whose details refresh once the purchase is complete. It’s not just a green solution; it’s 100% secure as well.

We can expect that in the near future, every decent bank, financial institution and fintech will pursue green initiatives, both when it comes to their operations and habits and actions of their customers.

Summary: Design solutions for the digital world

What conclusions can we draw from these 10 lessons that we discussed in both parts of this article? The crucial one is this: If you want to thrive in the modern financial sector, you need to adopt a digital mindset. Design flexible solutions that are quick and effective, especially when it comes to on-demand services. Your digital banking platform should be an umbrella for the entire ecosystem, offering not just impeccable customer service and security but also a whole range of value-added services. Today, banking platforms are updated once every two weeks, and their services and mobile apps are continually developed. That’s the only recipe for success.

Moreover, banks mustn’t forget about online security, ecology (paperless service and virtual cards), CSR and local activities. This way, they can be a valuable part of their customers’ lives.