Family banking services are still poorly recognized by the audience. Most people manage their family finance with the tools at hand and are used to it. For example, they do accounting in Excel or try to make a unified information space in a messenger.
Positioning, naming, and designing financial services as family ones attract on an emotional level, but it’s a lot more than just an ad positioning of standard financial products.
Family banking is both a whole ecosystem oriented on various user segments, and support in meeting the fundamental needs - rational and emotional ones.
Recently, SBI Bank, part of Japan's SBI Holdings, has focused on a promising niche. Researchers at Markswebb helped launch the best MVP for a digital family banking service. Our task was to understand the needs of clients and propose solutions that would best meet those needs.
Main challenges
Based on the collaborative project of Markswebb and SBI bank, we figure out what families need to manage their money, and what solutions are the best for this. Here’s what we’ve done:
- With the in-depth interviews, we studied the goals, needs, and problems of families related to finance.
- We described the main essences of family banking and budgeting.
- We proposed solutions that fit the audience portrait the best.
- We formed evaluation criteria for family banking and compared the key market competitors.
Based on the collaborative project of Markswebb and SBI bank, we figure out what families need to manage their money, and what solutions are the best for this. Here’s what we’ve done:
- With the in-depth interviews, we studied the goals, needs, and problems of families related to finance.
- We described the main essences of family banking and budgeting.
- We proposed solutions that fit the audience portrait the best.
- We formed evaluation criteria for family banking and compared the key market competitors.
What kind of experience families expect
Fast and easy account opening for several participants in a mobile banking app
- No restrictions on age, citizenship, or the number of participants.
- One application for banking cards suits a family of 3 and more people.
- One can add a participant at any time in a convenient way — manually fill in the application in a mobile app, call the bank or order a callback.
- Managing roles is available immediately, wherein everyone can be appointed as a “kid” — this family account status will allow seeing one’s finance only. This can be useful for elderly relatives: the money will be securely protected from fraud.
Separating transactions from personal and shared accounts
- Details on top-ups and expenses to relate money flows to the planned budget.
- Individual transaction history for both personal and shared accounts.
- Every transaction in transaction history contains the name and 4 last digits of the used card.
- There are names of participants that topped up the account.
If an app is designed specifically for families, the shared finance should stand in the first place, not the personal one, so that a customer could understand at once how much family budget is left and how it’s being spent.
Fully capable limits management
- Limits can be set up by either the owner of the account or other participants: for a month, week, or day.
- There’s a fast choice of 5 popular options as well as the “No limits” option.
- Limits for each participant are displayed on the main screen near the avatar.
Maximum capabilities for analysis
- One can analyze expenses for various periods, by categories and in detail, there’s a separate analysis available for each participant.
- There’s a visualization: charts by periods and categories, participants’ avatars that did the expenses.
- An equal participant can see all the transactions while “kids” can only see their own in a separate app.
Personalization
- Giving participant names, setting photos, and naming accounts are available.
- Emoji can be used too.
A separate app for kids with adapted products, gaming mechanics, and a simplified interface
- It’s focused on developing the kids’ financial literacy.
- It contains motivating tasks and rewards for their completion.
- An adult participant of a shared family account can see the status of the kid’s tasks, and the kid sees how much money one earned.
- It’s possible to learn the demo kids’ app before applying for a debit card.
- A kid can make and assign a task to oneself, evaluate the reward and send a request to any bank client, not only to parents.
Advanced benefits management
- Unified storage for all loyalty cards the family has.
- Additional financial benefits from the bank and its partners when choosing to combine all of the family’s expenses and savings.
Results: family banking growth zone
- Family loans. Making joint loan applications, co-borrower’s papers upload, simplifying the path of the joint debt repayment.
- Banking services for elderly people. Simple interfaces for aging people, an emergency button (fast transfers).
- Increasing the level of financial literacy and money management consulting — for example, stories with tips on how to manage family finance.
The experience of SBI Bank shows that a mobile app that creates a complete sense of the joint budget and unified information space is in high demand among customers. For the past 6 months, the number of new mobile app users increased by 25%, and monthly active users — by 27%. Families tend to apply for a bigger number of products (+17%) and wire money more actively (+31%).
Bottom line
This case study demonstrates a strategic approach to integrating digital services with family banking needs. By partnering with Markswebb, SBI Bank successfully launched a comprehensive family banking app, significantly improving user engagement and positioning itself as a leader in family banking services.
