Case Study

How do you get a borrowing culture to save?

Solutions

Experience Strategy & Design

Product Design & Engineering

ClientSaudi Awwal Bank (SAB)

IndustryFinancial Services

Year2021

Introduction

PFM wasn't a feature problem. It was a behaviour problem dressed up as a feature brief. Saudis don't save. They borrow. Most SAB customers sit at the top of their DBR - which means mortgages stall for lack of a deposit and wealth products lose sales before the conversation starts.

SAB brought us in to define the PFM strategy across business units and digital channels - and to design the PFM experience across mobile and desktop, in partnership with Meniga.

Vision 2030. Digital challenger defence. Open Banking readiness. Cash balance ambition.

Four drivers, one product.

The Problem
A category that didn't exist in the market. A customer base wired against it. A solution provider whose out-of-the-box platform wasn't built for our ambition.

A legacy HSBC / SAB visual language that had to stay recognisable while the product underneath felt new.

Four tensions. One launch window.

The Mission
Make saving feel like knowing. Not lecturing. PFM only works if the data earns trust before the product asks for behaviour change.

So we built SAB's PFM as a coaching layer - not a compliance one. Meet the borrower where they are. Earn the next unit of saving by showing, not telling.

The approach.

Earn the behaviour change by earning the trust first. Not a feature. A First.

Transactions cleaned, standardised, categorised, enriched with merchant detail. Trends, alerts and recommendations tuned to Saudi financial context. Customers don't change behaviour because a bank tells them to. They change because the data told them something they didn't already know.