An integrated banking and brokerage experience for a global financial institution

• A global financial institution is looking to expand its investment capabilities in new markets by integrating their existing app with the capabilities of a third-party white-label brokerage app, using app-to-app deep-linking

• Zühlke worked closely with the client to seamlessly integrate the linking and SSO authentication between the two applications and digitised the customer investment account onboarding journey

• Zühlke’s quality engineering approach and commitment to delivery excellence ensured the successful integration of the two applications, supporting the delivery of the client’s business goals throughout the project lifecycle

As one of the world’s largest banking and financial services organisations, the client serves over 30 million customers worldwide with their large multinational footprint. Recognising the potential for growth and increasing demand for brokerage services, the client sought to accelerate its brokerage proposition for self-directed, mass affluent clients in 16 Wealth Private Banking (WPB) markets.   

To expedite time-to-market and compliance with regional regulations, the client seeks to integrate a third-party white-label brokerage app with its existing mobile banking app. A key expectation of the project was to provide a seamless experience for their customers in switching from the bank app to the new white-label app. In addition, the client was looking to streamline and digitise the investment account onboarding journey to enhance the overall customer experience. 

Zühlke worked closely with the client to integrate the two applications and digitised the customer investment account onboarding journey. 

Seamless Single Sign-On (SSO) authentication for enhancing customer experience

One of the project’s key goals was to seamlessly integrate and enhance customer experience between the client’s mobile banking app and the third-party app using a unified SSO authentication process. Collaborating closely with the client’s in-house development team, Zühlke utilised the client’s digital security platform to implement a secure and seamless security access token exchange. 

The team also obtained SSO pattern approvals from multiple architects to ensure compliance and alignment with industry best standards. This allows for a seamless and secure authentication process, while also ensuring a smooth user experience when transitioning between both apps. 

"Innovation and user-centricity were at the core of our approach. By developing configurable wireframes for both Android and iOS, we were able to ensure an intuitive and consistent experience for users worldwide," a Lead Mobile Architect from Zühlke Asia highlights. 

Designing a new wealth dashboard and Digital Account Onboarding (DIAO) journey

The client wanted to build features that could be reused to fit multiple markets. As such, the code had to be tested automatically and released to multiple markets seamlessly. The team worked in close collaboration with the client to ensure that the features designed was flexible to be tailored to different markets accordingly.

• Designing and developing the new digital journey in a pilot market before expanding the core code to accommodate different markets
• Adapting the DIAO and wealth dashboard for different markets by implementing a framework to ensure that the code was configurable and enabled specific workflows and processes depending on the market, ensuring scalability and reusability
• Developing configurable wireframes tailored to different markets for both Android and iOS, ensuring a consistent and intuitive experience for users across different mobile platforms 

To gain insights into user behaviours, the team implemented Tealium tagging to track user interactions within the app and facilitate analytics on customer usage patterns, allowing for data-driven improvements and optimisation. 

Breaking team silos through effective project management

Throughout the project, the team at Zühlke integrated with client teams distributed globally across Hong Kong, China, Europe and the United States to work as one team, overcoming the challenges of collaboration and different time zones via daily stand-ups and regroup sessions. The client benefited greatly from Zühlke’s global presence with enhanced convenience and accessibility to a wider range of services and support. 

The team also actively worked with diverse parties, including backend developers, product owners and third-party app teams to clarify requirements, address concerns and ensure a clear understanding among all stakeholders. 

"Collaborating with the client's in-house development team was a rewarding experience. We were able to use our combined expertise to streamline and digitise the onboarding journey via a next-generation brokerage application," a Lead Software Architect from Zühlke Asia explains. 

Delivering a modern and best-in-class banking experience

Within six months, Zühlke was able to onboard to the project swiftly, leading to the scaled delivery of key project milestones, including the front-end UI on iOS and Android, responding to changes effectively. Additionally, the team conducted technical reviews on the solution architecture design to ensure a robust integration. As part of the new digital account onboarding process, a centralised library repository of features was also developed, enabling clients to release common features to multiple markets efficiently.

Zühlke also played a key role in project management, mediating issues related to SSO between different teams and ensuring a smooth collaboration throughout the project.  

With the new integrated app successfully in place, the client was able to expand their brokerage offerings to new markets while ensuring a seamless journey for new and existing customers.