Finly
A shared-expenses feature that lets a group split and settle costs inside their bank
- Sector
- Fintech · digital banking
- Type
- New feature for a banking app + branding of a fictional bank
- Duration
- 3 weeks
- Team
- 2 people
- Role
- UX research, product strategy, branding
Context
Splitting expenses with friends takes several apps today. Users want to share costs and settle debts automatically, without leaving their bank.
- Tricount / Splitwiseto note expenses
- Bizum / transferto pay
- WhatsAppto chase friends
- Your banksplit, pay and close
Challenge
Two constraints shaped the project:
- Create the branding of a fictional bank from scratch.
- Design the feature “Create and share expenses with friends and groups automatically” in 2 weeks.
How might we help a group split and settle shared expenses in one place, inside their bank, without anyone having to chase their friends for money?
The process at a glance
- 01
Research
- Interviews
- Insights
- Survey
- Validated hypotheses
- 02
Define
- User persona
- Journey map
- Benchmark
- Value proposition
- 03
Strategy
- MVP
- Task flow
- Roadmap
- Business model
- 04
Branding
- Naming and values
- Logo
- Campaign
Research
Understand how young professionals split and pay group expenses today, and what gets in the way.
Qualitative interviews
We listened to young professionals who split expenses with friends all the time, to find their motivations, frustrations and habits.
What we heard
Four insights came up again and again.
Juggling several apps is a constant pain
Tricount or Splitwise plus Bizum: friction, lost time and mistakes.
Asking friends for money is awkward
Chasing someone for 20 euros sours the friendship.
They trust their bank more
They want one place with transparency and security.
Noting and calculating takes too long
It breaks the trip or the dinner. They want automation.
In their words
If I could settle everything with one button inside my bank, I’d use it without a second thought.
I hate having to keep asking a friend to pay me back 20 euros. It makes me look stingy.
I love travelling with friends, but I hate always being the one who writes down every expense.
What I need is speed: pay in one click and forget about it.
It would be great to have everything in one place, without jumping from one app to another.
Survey
Did these patterns hold beyond the interviews? We asked 148 people.
would trust their bank more than an external app to manage group expenses.
22% don’t mind · 10% prefer an external appWhat the survey confirmed
Automatic payment is the star feature and the heart of the MVP. Social friction weighs more than technical friction.
Define
Turn the findings into someone to design for, the moments that hurt and a clear place in the market.
User persona
Laura Pérez
Sociable, organised and always on her phone. She travels often and is usually the one who ends up keeping the accounts.
- Age
- 29
- Job
- Legal assistant at a tech startup
- City
- Madrid, shares a flat
- Lifestyle
- Trips, dinners and weekend getaways
Goals
- Financial independence and feeling secure.
- Balance work and leisure.
- Save for a new flat, a car or a master’s.
Frustrations
- A busy life that stresses her.
- Too much energy spent on admin.
- Fear of conflict with people.
Journey map
Laura and her friends go on a trip. Splitting the costs is where the good mood drops.
Laura and her friends go away for a few days.
They create a Splitwise group to track what they spend together.
Doing things together generates expenses.
Members pay expenses at random as they come up.
Each person notes what they paid and who took part.
The trip is over and everyone goes home.
They check who owes what and settle up, usually by Bizum.
EmotionExcited about the adventures ahead.
It interrupts the trip a little, though it’s not much effort.
They enjoy the trip.
Someone has to pay.
Frustrated by the time spent noting and checking every expense.
Happy it went well, sad that it’s over.
Annoyed at needing several apps to settle debts.
OpportunitiesCreating the group should be as easy and accessible as possible.
Balance payments across everyone, with a method that includes all members automatically.
Link expenses to the payment method so they’re recorded and split automatically.
Settle debts automatically with each person’s linked payment method, all in one app.
Benchmark
competitors pay debts automatically for everyone. Finly is the only one.
| App | Updated UX/UI | Create groups | Add shared expenses | Balance | Pay debts | Pay debts automatically |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Splitwise | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Tricount | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Bizum | No own app | No | No | No | Yes | No |
| BBVA | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Customers only | No |
| Settle Up | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Splid | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| imagin&Split | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Customers only | Customers with Bizum |
| Finly | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Only Finly |
- Yes
- No
- Only Finly
Value proposition
Split and pay your shared expenses automatically, with the peace of mind of doing it all in one place.
- Split
- Pay automatically
- In one trusted place
Strategy
Decide what the first version must do to prove the idea, and what can wait.
MVP: closing the loop
Just enough to test the value proposition, in one complete cycle.
- 1
Create a group
Trip, dinner or flat. Invite from contacts or by IBAN.
- 2
Add expenses
Anyone adds one and it’s split automatically.
- 3
Real-time balance
Always clear who owes whom.
- 4
Automatic payment Star feature
Debts settle between bank accounts. No Bizum, no reminders.
- 5
Group closed
Everyone is notified: problem solved.
Task flow
The critical path: paying the debts of a group’s shared expenses.
Create an expense group
Name, dates, type, icon or image.
Add members
Friends from the contact list.
Add expenses
Recorded automatically with the linked card, or by hand.
Pay debts
Paid automatically after the user confirms.
Roadmap
What comes first, what makes people love it, and what helps it stand out later.
Close the basic loop
Validate simplicity, bank automation and trust.
- Create expense groups
- Add expenses manually
- Real-time automatic balance
- Add expenses automatically
- Multi-bank and external payment methods (Bizum, PayPal, Apple Pay)
- Automatic payment inside the bank
Remove friction and win people over
Increase retention and engagement.
- Automatic reminders for pending debts
- Simple visual stats
- Custom splits, like 70/30
- Invite with a link or QR
- “Family” or “flatmates” permanent groups
- Recurring automatic payments
Scale and stand out
Make it a reference beyond Tricount and Splitwise.
- Shared subscriptions (Netflix, Spotify, gym)
- Export reports (PDF, Excel)
- AI to suggest categories, detect duplicates or recommend group savings
- Group templates
- Advanced statistics
★ Differentiators
Business model
Open to customers and non-customers: a way to attract a young audience.
Anyone can use it
Customers and non-customers
They try the bank
Its advantages, without joining
The bank gets the lead
A young, interested audience
Marketing campaigns
Targeted at those leads
New customers
Young people join Finly
Branding
A fictional bank designed from scratch for a young audience looking for better returns on their savings.
Naming and values
- Friendly
- Simplicity
- Innovation
- Connection
Logo
Navy for trust, lime for a fresh, young energy.
Campaign
Three posters: the product, the message and the people.
Where Finly is now
- ResearchDone
- DefinitionDone
- StrategyDone
- BrandingDone
- Wireframes and screensNext
- User testingNext
- Measure real adoptionNext