Banking & Financial Services
Digital banking platforms, UX and AI for banks and financial services
Grapefruit designs and builds digital banking experiences, financial education platforms and customer tools for banks and financial services companies in Romania. We redesigned and migrated Garanti BBVA Romania's website after an RFP, built BCR's Scoala de Bani e-learning platform and its budget calculator, and we help banks take AI from pilot to production within GDPR, DORA and accessibility rules.
Clients in banking & financial services
- Garanti BBVA Romania
- BCR
Challenges
What banking & financial services teams are up against
Self-service customers actually use
Customers expect to open products, get answers and solve problems online, yet complex forms and unclear journeys push them back to branches and call centres, which raises cost and lowers satisfaction.
Regulation shapes every release
GDPR, DORA operational resilience requirements, the European Accessibility Act and internal security reviews apply to every digital change. Vendors must pass onboarding and document how they handle data and risk.
Trust and financial literacy
Many customers do not track their expenses or understand financial products. Banks that educate earn trust and future customers, but education content has to be engaging and genuinely useful.
AI pilots that never reach production
Banks run AI experiments, but data access, model risk, explainability and compliance approvals keep them from reaching customers or employees at scale.
What we build
What we build for banking & financial services
Digital banking UX and platforms
Research-led redesign of websites, onboarding and self-service journeys.
Product Design →Financial education platforms
E-learning and content platforms that build literacy and trust.
Web Application Development →Calculators and customer tools
Budget, loan and savings tools that turn intent into applications.
Web Application Development →Accessibility audits
WCAG 2.2 and European Accessibility Act conformance for banking services.
Accessibility Audit →Technical audits before migrations
Independent review of platforms before replatforming or vendor change.
Technical Audit →
AI use cases
Where AI helps in banking & financial services
Customer service assistant over products and policies
pilotProblem: Contact centres answer the same product, fee and procedure questions every day.
Approach: A retrieval-based assistant over approved product documentation, with sources shown, no access to account data in the first phase and human hand-off.
Internal knowledge assistant for branch and call-centre staff
pilotProblem: Staff search across procedures, circulars and product sheets to answer customers.
Approach: An enterprise knowledge assistant hosted in the bank's cloud tenant, with access rights mirrored from existing systems and answer logging for audit.
Document extraction for applications
emergingProblem: Loan and account applications require manual reading of supporting documents.
Approach: AI extracts and validates fields from documents, and staff review low-confidence cases before any decision.
Personalised financial education
emergingProblem: Generic education content does not match each customer's situation.
Approach: Content recommendations and explanations adapted to the customer's goals, generated from approved educational material.
Not sure where to start? An AI Opportunity Scan ranks use cases by value and risk, or take the free AI assessment.
Proof
Banking & Financial Services case studies
Garanti BBVA Romania · Banking & Financial Services
Garanti BBVA Romania: website migrated to a new CMS with no loss in search ranking
Read the case study →
BCR Școala de Bani · Banking & Financial Services
BCR Școala de Bani: free financial education e-learning platform built as a progressive web app
Read the case study →
BCR · Banking & Financial Services
BCR: an interactive 50/30/20 budget calculator embedded in bcr.ro
Read the case study →“The migration of the website was both a challenging and complex project and the support provided by the Grapefruit team was very good, and they were hands-on through the entire technical process. Also, the fact that there was an Agile project management approach in place from start to the end, made the entire way of working efficient and clear from one iteration to the other and I really appreciated the collaboration with them.”
Insights
Reading for banking & financial services leaders
- AI in Banking: Enhancing customer experience and operational efficiencyFor over 15 years, we at Grapefruit have been on an incredible journey in the banking industry, directly witnessing digital innovation's transformative…
- Digital Bank: Definition, benefits, and best practicesBanks need to act fast to stay relevant. A Digital Bank offers an opportunity to centralize all their actions into one digital environment.
Banking & Financial Services: frequently asked questions
Can you pass our bank's vendor onboarding and security review?
We work with banks' procurement, IT security and DPO teams routinely: NDAs, security questionnaires, access policies and documentation of how we handle data. Our trust and compliance page summarises our practices, and we provide the vendor pack your process requires.
How does DORA affect digital projects with an external partner?
DORA requires financial entities to manage ICT third-party risk: contracts, security, incident reporting and exit strategies for ICT services. For digital projects this means clear responsibilities, documented access, secure delivery practices and handover documentation. We support your ICT risk team with the information they need.
Does the European Accessibility Act apply to banking websites and apps?
Yes. Consumer banking services, including websites and mobile apps, fall under the European Accessibility Act, with obligations applying since 28 June 2025. We audit against WCAG 2.2 AA, fix issues at design system level and help you prepare the accessibility statement.
How do you keep customer data safe in AI projects?
We start with use cases that do not need personal data, deploy models in your cloud tenant or EU-hosted services, ensure client data is not used to train third-party models, log answers for audit and keep humans in the loop for decisions. Each use case is classified under the EU AI Act and GDPR before build.
What have you built for banks in Romania?
Garanti BBVA Romania's website redesign and migration to a new CMS with no loss in search ranking, BCR's Scoala de Bani financial education platform built as a progressive web app, and an interactive 50/30/20 budget calculator embedded in bcr.ro. Each case study describes the challenge, solution and delivery.
Talk to our banking & financial services team
Share your challenge and timeline. A senior specialist who knows your sector replies with a clear next step.
We reply within 1 business day, usually the same day. Not ready to talk? Take the free AI assessment.