The client that we worked with is a leading digital bank based in Berlin, Germany, renowned for its rapid growth and innovative approach to banking. Founded in 2013, it quickly disrupted the traditional banking sector with its user-friendly mobile banking solutions.
The company experienced exponential growth, amassing over 7 million customers across 25 markets by 2023. Key to its success was securing substantial investments, including a $300 million Series D funding round in 2019 and an additional $470 million in Series E in 2021, boosting its valuation to $9 billion.
Despite its rapid expansion, it faced challenges on its path to profitability, such as regulatory hurdles and the need to scale its operations efficiently. However, the company's relentless focus on innovation, customer experience, and strategic market entry positions it well for achieving long-term profitability.
The Anti-Financial Crime team (AFC) experienced rapid growth following the regulatory issues that resulted in a growth cap in September 2021.
The bank urgently needed experienced product managers to spearhead initiatives within the Authorities team.
Our main goal was to automate the SAR submission process for increased speed and improved quality in 3 countries: Germany, France, and Spain.
A second goal was to conduct extensive discovery across the Anti-Financial Crime and Customer Risk Lifecycle operations teams to define the best solutions for their translation needs.
We also supported discovery to highlight and prioritize opportunities for incoming Authority Requests in collaboration with the UX research team.
The champion’s expectations for this mission included improving operational efficiency, ensuring compliance with regulations, and reducing manual errors, all while fostering cross-functional collaboration.
We joined a product development team of 4 developers and one Engineering Manager as the former Senior PM had to move internally to a newly created team.
We jumped in quickly, were onboarded on the discovery conducted up to that point, and started leading the team in their solution definition and facilitating the scrum ceremonies within 2 weeks.
Within a month, we took over completely the communication with stakeholders and Subject Matter Experts (SME), setting up regular meetings to clarify open issues and keep them in the loop of our progress, and documenting any decision.
We quickly identified some areas that needed further discovery for the delivery of an SAR tool for Germany and collaborated with the SMEs to ensure our solutions would fit the needs of the operations teams and comply with the regulations.
We deep-dived into the regulations’ technical details to ensure a smooth translation of legal requirements into technical ones.
Within 6 months of joining, we were able to launch the first version of the tool.
Meanwhile, we initiated the discovery process to develop similar tools for Spain and update the existing tool for France. We identified commonalities and defined a strategic vision in collaboration with the engineering team to ensure the reusability of components across tools for different countries.
In parallel, we conducted discovery of the top of the funnel about incoming authority requests, to understand which opportunities we could tackle.
We also conducted an extensive discovery of the translation needs and use cases across different teams in AFC and CRL operations, analyzed 10+ different external and internal translation tools, performed a benefit-cost analysis, and proposed a solution that would save hundreds of thousands of euros annually in operations costs.
📚 AFC: Anti-Financial Crime, refers to the efforts and measures taken by financial institutions and other organizations to prevent, detect, and respond to activities related to financial crime.
CRL: Customer Risk Lifecycle, refers to the ongoing process of assessing, managing, and monitoring the risk posed by customers throughout their relationship with a financial institution or organization.
SAR: Suspicious Activity Report, a document that financial institutions must file with regulatory authorities to report any transaction or activity that is suspected to be linked to money laundering, fraud, or other financial crimes.
SME: Subject Matter Experts, in regulated industry, are individuals who possess specialized knowledge and expertise in specific areas. They play a critical role in ensuring compliance with industry regulations, optimizing operational efficiency, and providing insights that drive strategic decision-making.
Problem:
What has been done:
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Problem:
What has been done:
Problem:
What has been done:
Problem:
What has been done:
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💡 Automated SAR Submission System: Developed a product to automate Suspicious Activity Reports (SAR) submission, resulting in annual savings of hundreds of thousands of euros.
💡 Operational Efficiency Boost: Identified and implemented a translation tool solution, improving operational efficiency and saving hundreds of thousands of euros annually.
💡 Rapid MVP Delivery: Delivered a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) within just two weeks by reusing internal components, ensuring compliance with evolving SAR regulations swiftly and efficiently.
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