Investec

Streamline foreign currency payments from existing FX trades

Service design  • User research • Workshop facilitation • UX design

This case study demonstrates how I used the user-centered approach to redesigning a complex financial process can lead to significant improvements in efficiency, accuracy, and user satisfaction.

Background

Investec IX was Investec’s B2B banking platform used by corporate finance teams to manage their foreign currency exchange and savings. We aimed to revolutionise corporate finance management with a digital-first approach. One of their key products, Open Forward trade, allowed companies to mitigate exchange rate risks by fixing rates for future transactions. However, the drawdown process—where clients exchange currency at the agreed rate—was manual, inefficient, and error-prone.

The challenge

How might we transform the manual, office-hours-limited drawdown process into an automated, reliable, and potentially self-service system?

Research and discovery

  1. Analysing existing processes:

  • Reviewed recorded client calls and emails

  • Shadowed internal deal completion processes

  • Interviewed team members using internal tools

  • Visualise the existing service as a map

    Key finding

    The users’ goal of the drawdown was to make payments. Many reported that the bank service was structured from the bank’s perspective of financial products, which was not aligned with their view.

2. Collaborative exploration:

  • Conducted workshops to review service maps

  • Identified technical dependencies and API limitations

  • Engaged stakeholders to refine the project scope

Design Process

  1. Service redesign:

  • Created an updated service map incorporating newfound insights

  • Focused on making the process payment-oriented

2. User Interface Design:

  • Sketched initial concepts

  • Developed interactive prototypes

  • Conducted internal tests with client-facing staff as proxy users

3. "Human API" Design:

  • Prototyped a transitional solution

  • Iterated based on user testing and feedback

  • Developed training materials for dealers

Impact and Results

  • Immediate adoption by Investec dealers

  • Became the most used self-service feature on the platform

  • Significantly reduced errors in the drawdown process

  • Created an unexpected, efficient fallback process

“This is better than the internal tools we have. I much prefer to use this if I can!”
— Investec Foreign Currency dealer

Next steps to further improve task efficiency

  • Enhance the beneficiary selection process

  • Implement in-journey beneficiary creation

  • Develop batch payment upload functionality

Reflection

  • Value of creating transitional solutions ("Human API") during development

  • Benefits of continuous iteration based on user feedback