Recently we had an opportunity to speak with Rui Goncalves, the Business Development at WiZink Bank about Unido

Please share with us the backstory of what motivated you to create this app.

During 2019 a new regulation for open banking (PSD2) came into force in Europe. Until then, the personal finance management (PFM) market was non-existent in Portugal. Banks have never tapped into this opportunity of helping customers manage their money being more focused on payment tools. With the experience and knowledge we have of the Spanish market, in which WiZink Bank operates, and which was already more developed than the Portuguese, we launched a pilot to test the market and the acceptance was better than our best expectations. The development of the MVP had the precious participation of our customers. We asked them what they needed. We asked them how they would like to get it. And the result was an MVP that the market received very well. The result was so positive that any new UNIDO feature has since been previously validated by its users.

What features do you hope to roll out to your app in the future?

We are working on features that automate savings alerts and further help manage money, taking the place of an advisor. For example, if a user has a certain subscription to a product or service and there is a different offer on the market that can replace and generate savings, we want UNIDO to alert the user. If a user has money in his or her unpaid checking account, UNIDO should help find a solution, according to the user's risk profile.

What has been the most rewarding aspect of the creation of this app?

What is most rewarding for us is receiving user comments thanking the app because it actually allowed them to control their spending and to identify savings. Most of them tried to do it in the traditional way with account by account analysis, bank to bank analysis, but it was very difficult and time consuming

What is the coolest or most innovative feature of your app?

The launch of UNIDO on the Portuguese market was by itself a time of disruption. The market did not know what was a PFM and we had this challenge to explain what it consisted of. When users realized that they can manage all their payment tools (bank accounts, credit cards, prepaid cards, etc.) in one place, and that with one click only they are able know where and how they spend their money, with automatic alerts that notify when the maximum expenses defined by the user are exceeded, they become fans immediately.

What surprised you most in your journey to create this app?

The willingness that users have shown to participate in the development phase.

Which other mobile apps or technology have inspired you?

In this process, one of the first steps was to evaluate the different PFM options available in different markets. There are available very complete tools. But we wanted to do it differently so we've started from scratch. And we still have a huge backlog to continue to improve.

Do you have any recommendations or advice for others wanting to create a mobile app?

Listen to users.

How did you decide which platforms to release your app on and do you plan on releasing your app to other platforms?

UNIDO is available on Android and iOS which covers almost the entire market. We have some requests to create a desktop version but it is not currently on our roadmap. But as we listened to our users, the answer we gave to desktop users was to allow the information to be exported to a file. This helps users to save time if they want to maintain their Excel controls. Pretty cool I think.

How is your app different than the rest of the market? Which unique need does it fill?

I believe that the differentiation lies in the fact that UNIDO is not the plug & play tool that most banks choose. The fact that it was built by users and adapted to their habits, distinguishes it from other competitors that have entered in the market in the meantime.

You can view Unido here