UK BANK
Preparing a UK Bank for Apple FinanceKit
R&A aimed to sustain user engagement throughout the year, keeping their existing audience interested.
CLIENT
R&A
YEAR
2020-2021
PLATFORM
Android, iOS, Tablet
ROLE
Product Designer - discovery, ideation, UX & UI.
Together with a Product Designer, Project Manager and Platform Lead Engineer.
The Open Championship, held annually on coastal links in the UK, is the world’s oldest and most prestigious golf tournament.
Although the app had a large user base, session numbers drop sharply after the tournament week.
Overview
PROBLEM
A platform shift hiding in plain sight
For decades, banks have owned the relationship with their customers' financial data. That is changing. Apple FinanceKit is a new iOS framework that allows any app to request access to a user's financial data — balances, transactions, merchant history — stored in Apple Wallet, with a simple on-device consent flow. No bank involvement required.
The implications go beyond Apple. FinanceKit signals a broader shift: a world where financial data is no longer held by banks, but by the customer — and shared, on their terms, with whoever asks. Any app, from a travel platform to a supermarket, can now build a financial experience using your bank's data without your bank knowing.
A major UK retail bank commissioned Future Workshops to run a 20-day R&D engagement to understand what this meant — technically, legally, and strategically. The goal was not to build a product. It was to map the threat landscape before it arrived, and ask the right questions while there was still time to act.
THE PROCESS
01. Research
Fan Engagement in Modern Sports
We began by mapping exactly what FinanceKit is and how it works. Unlike Open Banking, where data flows through a regulated AISP to a developer's server, FinanceKit keeps everything on the device. The user grants consent through a familiar iOS permission flow — similar to granting photo access — and from that moment, any permitted app can query their wallet data directly.
The data model is comparable to Open Banking AIS in the areas that matter most: balance, transaction ID, merchant name, category, and amounts. In some cases the data is richer, with Apple enriching transaction descriptions beyond what banks provide through Open Banking today.
The Opportunity
PROBLEM
A platform shift hiding in plain sight
FinanceKit, unlike Open Banking, where data flows through a regulated AISP to a developer's server, FinanceKit keeps everything on the device. The user grants permission; the data never leaves their phone.
This has two effects. First, it dramatically lowers the barrier for any developer to build financial experiences — no FCA regulation, no AISP licence, no complex API contracts. Second, it positions Apple Wallet as a potential aggregation layer across all of a customer's accounts, regardless of which bank they use.
THE PROCESS
01. Research
Mapping the threat landscape
To make the strategic implications tangible, we facilitated a structured ideation workshop with the bank's product and engineering stakeholders. Each participant was given the same prompt: if [company] could access your customers' financial data, what would they offer — and what would that mean for the bank?
Use Cases
01. Workshop
Apple Wallet — The platform shift
Wallet is no longer just a place to store cards. With FinanceKit, it becomes a cross-bank financial dashboard — pulling in transactions and balances from every account a customer holds, regardless of which bank issued them. Tailored charts, smart widgets, and contextual nudges appear automatically, without the customer ever opening a banking app.
Wallet is no longer just a place to store cards. With FinanceKit, it becomes a cross-bank financial dashboard — pulling in transactions and balances from every account a customer holds, regardless of which bank issued them. Tailored charts, smart widgets, and contextual nudges appear automatically, without the customer ever opening a banking app.
Use Cases
01. Savings & Investment Apps
The platform shift
Wallet is no longer just a place to store cards. With FinanceKit, it becomes a cross-bank financial dashboard — pulling in transactions and balances from every account a customer holds, regardless of which bank issued them. Tailored charts, smart widgets, and contextual nudges appear automatically, without the customer ever opening a banking app.
The bank remains the account provider. But Wallet becomes the interface. The customer's daily relationship with their money shifts to a platform the bank does not control and cannot influence.
Use Cases
01. Savings & Investment Apps
Competitor products at the right moment
Comparison platforms already have reach and user trust. With FinanceKit, they gain timing. MoneySuperMarket can see exactly when a customer's mortgage deal is due to expire and serve a competitor's offer at that precise moment — personalised to their actual repayments.
The bank loses not just the product sale but the moment — the point in a customer's life when they were most open to a conversation about their finances.
Use Cases
03. Comparison Platforms
Financial products based on spending
This is where the disruption becomes hardest to anticipate. A travel platform has no obvious reason to offer financial products — until it has access to spending data. Booking.com, knowing you regularly fly British Airways, surfaces a BA Amex credit card before you've thought to look for one. Knowing you've spent £2,000 on flights and hotels this year, it asks whether you have travel insurance.
The offer is contextual, timely, and delivered by a brand the customer already trusts for that specific task. The bank is not in the room.
Use Cases
04. Non-Finance Apps
Switching offers at the point of habit
Merchant-level spending data enables a new kind of acquisition tactic. A competing bank can identify customers spending consistently at a specific merchant and offer cashback designed precisely around that habit.
The switching offer is not generic. It is built from the customer's own data, making it feel personal and immediately relevant. The bank whose account the customer used to pay for those coffees never had the chance to make the same offer.
Use Cases
05. Retail & Merchant Apps
The long-term horizon
The most significant scenario is not the most immediate — but it is the most important to anticipate. In China, WeChat handles everything from messaging to payments to financial offers within a single app. Hundreds of millions of people manage their financial lives without ever opening a bank's app.
FinanceKit makes this trajectory more plausible in Western markets. WhatsApp already surfaces offers in its Updates tab. With access to spending data, those offers become personalised, timely, and financially relevant. The super app scenario is not a prediction — but it is no longer purely theoretical.
Use Cases
06. Super Apps
Making the threat visible
The final deliverable was a two-minute strategic vision film, designed to land with senior leadership and make the threat tangible rather than theoretical. Rather than presenting findings in slides, we built the narrative around real-world scenarios — showing what a customer's phone might look like in a world where FinanceKit is widely adopted, and where the bank sits in that picture.
PROBLEM
--
FinanceKit, unlike Open Banking, where data flows through a regulated AISP to a developer's server, FinanceKit keeps everything on the device. The user grants permission; the data never leaves their phone.
This has two effects. First, it dramatically lowers the barrier for any developer to build financial experiences — no FCA regulation, no AISP licence, no complex API contracts. Second, it positions Apple Wallet as a potential aggregation layer across all of a customer's accounts, regardless of which bank they use.
UK BANK
Preparing a UK Bank for Apple FinanceKit
R&A aimed to sustain user engagement throughout the year, keeping their existing audience interested.
CLIENT
R&A
YEAR
2020-2021
PLATFORM
Android, iOS, Tablet
ROLE
Product Designer - discovery, ideation, UX & UI.
Together with a Product Designer, Project Manager and Platform Lead Engineer.
The Open Championship, held annually on coastal links in the UK, is the world’s oldest and most prestigious golf tournament.
Although the app had a large user base, session numbers drop sharply after the tournament week.
Overview
PROBLEM
A platform shift hiding in plain sight
For decades, banks have owned the relationship with their customers' financial data. That is changing. Apple FinanceKit is a new iOS framework that allows any app to request access to a user's financial data — balances, transactions, merchant history — stored in Apple Wallet, with a simple on-device consent flow. No bank involvement required.
The implications go beyond Apple. FinanceKit signals a broader shift: a world where financial data is no longer held by banks, but by the customer — and shared, on their terms, with whoever asks. Any app, from a travel platform to a supermarket, can now build a financial experience using your bank's data without your bank knowing.
A major UK retail bank commissioned Future Workshops to run a 20-day R&D engagement to understand what this meant — technically, legally, and strategically. The goal was not to build a product. It was to map the threat landscape before it arrived, and ask the right questions while there was still time to act.
THE PROCESS
01. Research
Fan Engagement in Modern Sports
We began by mapping exactly what FinanceKit is and how it works. Unlike Open Banking, where data flows through a regulated AISP to a developer's server, FinanceKit keeps everything on the device. The user grants consent through a familiar iOS permission flow — similar to granting photo access — and from that moment, any permitted app can query their wallet data directly.
The data model is comparable to Open Banking AIS in the areas that matter most: balance, transaction ID, merchant name, category, and amounts. In some cases the data is richer, with Apple enriching transaction descriptions beyond what banks provide through Open Banking today.
The Opportunity
PROBLEM
A platform shift hiding in plain sight
FinanceKit, unlike Open Banking, where data flows through a regulated AISP to a developer's server, FinanceKit keeps everything on the device. The user grants permission; the data never leaves their phone.
This has two effects. First, it dramatically lowers the barrier for any developer to build financial experiences — no FCA regulation, no AISP licence, no complex API contracts. Second, it positions Apple Wallet as a potential aggregation layer across all of a customer's accounts, regardless of which bank they use.
THE PROCESS
01. Research
Mapping the threat landscape
To make the strategic implications tangible, we facilitated a structured ideation workshop with the bank's product and engineering stakeholders. Each participant was given the same prompt: if [company] could access your customers' financial data, what would they offer — and what would that mean for the bank?
Use Cases
01. Workshop
Apple Wallet — The platform shift
Wallet is no longer just a place to store cards. With FinanceKit, it becomes a cross-bank financial dashboard — pulling in transactions and balances from every account a customer holds, regardless of which bank issued them. Tailored charts, smart widgets, and contextual nudges appear automatically, without the customer ever opening a banking app.
Wallet is no longer just a place to store cards. With FinanceKit, it becomes a cross-bank financial dashboard — pulling in transactions and balances from every account a customer holds, regardless of which bank issued them. Tailored charts, smart widgets, and contextual nudges appear automatically, without the customer ever opening a banking app.
Use Cases
01. Savings & Investment Apps
The platform shift
Wallet is no longer just a place to store cards. With FinanceKit, it becomes a cross-bank financial dashboard — pulling in transactions and balances from every account a customer holds, regardless of which bank issued them. Tailored charts, smart widgets, and contextual nudges appear automatically, without the customer ever opening a banking app.
The bank remains the account provider. But Wallet becomes the interface. The customer's daily relationship with their money shifts to a platform the bank does not control and cannot influence.
Use Cases
01. Savings & Investment Apps
Competitor products at the right moment
Comparison platforms already have reach and user trust. With FinanceKit, they gain timing. MoneySuperMarket can see exactly when a customer's mortgage deal is due to expire and serve a competitor's offer at that precise moment — personalised to their actual repayments.
The bank loses not just the product sale but the moment — the point in a customer's life when they were most open to a conversation about their finances.
Use Cases
03. Comparison Platforms
Financial products based on spending
This is where the disruption becomes hardest to anticipate. A travel platform has no obvious reason to offer financial products — until it has access to spending data. Booking.com, knowing you regularly fly British Airways, surfaces a BA Amex credit card before you've thought to look for one. Knowing you've spent £2,000 on flights and hotels this year, it asks whether you have travel insurance.
The offer is contextual, timely, and delivered by a brand the customer already trusts for that specific task. The bank is not in the room.
Use Cases
04. Non-Finance Apps
Switching offers at the point of habit
Merchant-level spending data enables a new kind of acquisition tactic. A competing bank can identify customers spending consistently at a specific merchant and offer cashback designed precisely around that habit.
The switching offer is not generic. It is built from the customer's own data, making it feel personal and immediately relevant. The bank whose account the customer used to pay for those coffees never had the chance to make the same offer.
Use Cases
05. Retail & Merchant Apps
The long-term horizon
The most significant scenario is not the most immediate — but it is the most important to anticipate. In China, WeChat handles everything from messaging to payments to financial offers within a single app. Hundreds of millions of people manage their financial lives without ever opening a bank's app.
FinanceKit makes this trajectory more plausible in Western markets. WhatsApp already surfaces offers in its Updates tab. With access to spending data, those offers become personalised, timely, and financially relevant. The super app scenario is not a prediction — but it is no longer purely theoretical.
Use Cases
06. Super Apps
Making the threat visible
The final deliverable was a two-minute strategic vision film, designed to land with senior leadership and make the threat tangible rather than theoretical. Rather than presenting findings in slides, we built the narrative around real-world scenarios — showing what a customer's phone might look like in a world where FinanceKit is widely adopted, and where the bank sits in that picture.
PROBLEM
--
FinanceKit, unlike Open Banking, where data flows through a regulated AISP to a developer's server, FinanceKit keeps everything on the device. The user grants permission; the data never leaves their phone.
This has two effects. First, it dramatically lowers the barrier for any developer to build financial experiences — no FCA regulation, no AISP licence, no complex API contracts. Second, it positions Apple Wallet as a potential aggregation layer across all of a customer's accounts, regardless of which bank they use.
UK BANK
Preparing a UK Bank for Apple FinanceKit
R&A aimed to sustain user engagement throughout the year, keeping their existing audience interested.
CLIENT
Description
YEAR
Description
PLATFORM
Description
ROLE
Description
Description
Overview
PROBLEM
A platform shift hiding in plain sight
For decades, banks have owned the relationship with their customers' financial data. That is changing. Apple FinanceKit is a new iOS framework that allows any app to request access to a user's financial data — balances, transactions, merchant history — stored in Apple Wallet, with a simple on-device consent flow. No bank involvement required.
The implications go beyond Apple. FinanceKit signals a broader shift: a world where financial data is no longer held by banks, but by the customer — and shared, on their terms, with whoever asks. Any app, from a travel platform to a supermarket, can now build a financial experience using your bank's data without your bank knowing.
A major UK retail bank commissioned Future Workshops to run a 20-day R&D engagement to understand what this meant — technically, legally, and strategically. The goal was not to build a product. It was to map the threat landscape before it arrived, and ask the right questions while there was still time to act.
PROBLEM
A platform shift hiding in plain sight
FinanceKit, unlike Open Banking, where data flows through a regulated AISP to a developer's server, FinanceKit keeps everything on the device. The user grants permission; the data never leaves their phone.
This has two effects. First, it dramatically lowers the barrier for any developer to build financial experiences — no FCA regulation, no AISP licence, no complex API contracts. Second, it positions Apple Wallet as a potential aggregation layer across all of a customer's accounts, regardless of which bank they use.
THE PROCESS
01. Research
Understanding the technology
We began by mapping exactly what FinanceKit is and how it works. Unlike Open Banking, where data flows through a regulated AISP to a developer's server, FinanceKit keeps everything on the device. The user grants consent through a familiar iOS permission flow — similar to granting photo access — and from that moment, any permitted app can query their wallet data directly.
The data model is comparable to Open Banking AIS in the areas that matter most: balance, transaction ID, merchant name, category, and amounts. In some cases the data is richer, with Apple enriching transaction descriptions beyond what banks provide through Open Banking today.
THE PROCESS
01. Workshop
Mapping the threat landscape
To make the strategic implications tangible, we facilitated a structured ideation workshop with the bank's product and engineering stakeholders. Each participant was given the same prompt: if [company] could access your customers' financial data, what would they offer — and what would that mean for the bank?
Use Cases
01. Apple Wallet
The platform shift
Wallet is no longer just a place to store cards. With FinanceKit, it becomes a cross-bank financial dashboard — pulling in transactions and balances from every account a customer holds, regardless of which bank issued them. Tailored charts, smart widgets, and contextual nudges appear automatically, without the customer ever opening a banking app.
The bank remains the account provider. But Wallet becomes the interface. The customer's daily relationship with their money shifts to a platform the bank does not control and cannot influence.
Use Cases
02. Savings & Investment Apps
Direct product competition
Apps like Chip can see a customer's current account balance and identify when there is surplus money sitting idle. They can automatically suggest — or execute — a move to a higher-yield savings account, showing exactly how much more interest the customer will earn.
This happens in the background, without friction, and without the bank being asked. The savings product the bank could have offered never enters the conversation.
Use Cases
03. Comparison Platforms
Competitor products at the right moment
Comparison platforms already have reach and user trust. With FinanceKit, they gain timing. MoneySuperMarket can see exactly when a customer's mortgage deal is due to expire and serve a competitor's offer at that precise moment — personalised to their actual repayments.
The bank loses not just the product sale but the moment — the point in a customer's life when they were most open to a conversation about their finances.
Use Cases
04. Non-Finance Apps
Financial products based on spending
This is where the disruption becomes hardest to anticipate. A travel platform has no obvious reason to offer financial products — until it has access to spending data. Booking.com, knowing you regularly fly British Airways, surfaces a BA Amex credit card before you've thought to look for one. Knowing you've spent £2,000 on flights and hotels this year, it asks whether you have travel insurance.
The offer is contextual, timely, and delivered by a brand the customer already trusts for that specific task. The bank is not in the room.
Use Cases
05. Retail & Merchant Apps
Switching offers at the point of habit
Merchant-level spending data enables a new kind of acquisition tactic. A competing bank can identify customers spending consistently at a specific merchant and offer cashback designed precisely around that habit.
The switching offer is not generic. It is built from the customer's own data, making it feel personal and immediately relevant. The bank whose account the customer used to pay for those coffees never had the chance to make the same offer.
Use Cases
06. Super Apps
The long-term horizon
The most significant scenario is not the most immediate — but it is the most important to anticipate. In China, WeChat handles everything from messaging to payments to financial offers within a single app. Hundreds of millions of people manage their financial lives without ever opening a bank's app.
FinanceKit makes this trajectory more plausible in Western markets. WhatsApp already surfaces offers in its Updates tab. With access to spending data, those offers become personalised, timely, and financially relevant. The super app scenario is not a prediction — but it is no longer purely theoretical.
Use Cases
Outcome
Making the threat visible
The final deliverable was a two-minute strategic vision film, designed to land with senior leadership and make the threat tangible rather than theoretical. Rather than presenting findings in slides, we built the narrative around real-world scenarios — showing what a customer's phone might look like in a world where FinanceKit is widely adopted, and where the bank sits in that picture.
--
The film closed not with recommendations, but with three direct questions for the bank's leadership:
Do we understand the impact of declining app usage as FinanceKit rolls out?
What is our mitigation plan, and how does it differ from today's approach?
What is our role — and how do we remain relevant in a world where FinanceKit is used prominently across the market?