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XCS-09 · Banking
RAKBANK - SME Onboarding Journey
Reimagining SME Banking for the Digital Era
RAKBANK has long led the UAE market with its flagship SME banking proposition. But as competitors rapidly modernised their offerings, the bank’s leadership position faced increasing pressure. Customer expectations were shifting toward seamless, digital-first experiences and RAKBANK needed to respond decisively to retain and grow its SME customer base.
RAKBANK lacked a clear understanding of SME customer behaviours and expectations, particularly regarding the future of digital banking. Existing channels failed to deliver a streamlined experience, especially during onboarding and account opening, leading to friction, delays, and missed opportunities for deeper engagement.
Define & design a new sales journey that allows sales team to capture multiple credit / lending product sales opportunities with new and existing customers.
Design the platform across a multistage roadmap to incorporate personal finance, auto finance, credit cards and mortgages on desktop, tablet and mobile devices.
Services:
01 – Understand the SME landscape and internal blockers
We conducted deep customer research to uncover unmet needs, mapped current-state journeys, and identified pain points in onboarding. Internally, we aligned with teams across compliance, operations, and IT to surface policy and system constraints.
02 – Redesign onboarding to be instant, digital, and scalable
The new journeys were designed for Straight Through Processing (STP) from digital application to account creation thereby eliminating manual steps and reducing friction for low and mid risk applicants.
03 – Address negative scenarios with smart fallbacks
We introduced intelligent Alternate Input Processes (AIP) for high-risk or incomplete applications, minimising drop-offs and enabling relationship managers to intervene effectively when automation wasn’t possible.
04 – Co-create future-state journeys with all stakeholders
Through a series of design sprints and workshops, we brought together internal teams and integration vendors to redesign the SME onboarding experience ensuring alignment, feasibility, and shared ownership.
05 – Deliver a roadmap that accelerates value
We defined the MVP, prioritised features and enhancements, and created a roadmap for a scalable rollout – including service blueprints for STP, AIP, upsell journeys, and Single Sign-On (SSO) integrations.
