To respect the bank’s confidentiality, the work shared here does not capture the full scope of internal strategies or data. The content reflects my personal perspective on the project and does not represent the bank’s views or direction.
Many users have multiple accounts within the same bank, typically a HLB Malaysia account and a HL Bank Singapore account. Standard multi-currency accounts often incur extra fees due to conversion rates.
The challenge was to differentiate this new feature from the existing remittance multi-currency account while creating a seamless experience that links both accounts, allowing zero-fee transfers between a user’s own accounts within the bank.
- Allow users to link their Malaysia and Singapore accounts seamlessly.
- Enable users to view balances of both accounts in both apps.
- Allow users to transfer funds between their own accounts with zero fees.
- Ensure the feature is clearly differentiated from existing multi-currency accounts and provides a simple, intuitive experience across platforms.
HLB Malaysia: Open SG account, link/unlink accounts, view balances, transfer MY → SG.
HL Bank Singapore: Link/unlink accounts, view balances, transfer SG → MY.
Process
1. Research & Analysis
- I began by understanding how users experience cross-border banking today, especially where confusion or hesitation occurs.
- Reviewed local and international banking apps to study multi-currency transfer flows, timing expectations, and trust signals
- Worked closely with product and business control teams to ensure early alignment with Bank Negara requirements
- Identified key pain points such as unclear fees, limited transfer visibility, and low confidence when moving money across countries
- Impact: These insights shaped a trust-driven, transparent experience that reduced uncertainty and friction in multi-country banking.
Journey flow walkthrough during early ideation and alignment phase.
Process
2. Ideation & Flow Design
- With clear problems defined, I focused on simplifying complex journeys without compromising regulatory needs.
- Mapped end-to-end flows for account opening, linking, balance viewing, and transfers across 4 platforms
- Aligned core user goals while respecting compliance and technical constraints
- Case example: The Malaysia RIB (Retail Internet Banking) journey was long and fragmented. Through flow mapping and stakeholder alignment, the experience was redesigned to connect account opening, linking, and transactions into one cohesive flow that transitioned smoothly into the Singapore RIB experience.
- Validated proposed flows with key stakeholders to ensure consistency across both markets
- Impact: Reduced cognitive load and delivered a more compact, intuitive cross-platform journey.
Example of aligning Malaysia’s transfer UI with Singapore’s interface while preserving existing user behavior.
Process
3. UI Design & Prototyping
- I translated validated flows into clear, intuitive interfaces that help users feel confident managing accounts across borders.
- Designed intuitive dashboards and transfer screens for viewing and managing HLB Malaysia and HL Bank Singapore accounts.
- Iterated on layout, visual hierarchy, and interaction patterns to support clarity across linked and unlinked accounts.
- Case example: One transfer screen in Malaysia was visually inconsistent with the Singapore experience. I redesigned the interface to align with Singapore’s visual language while retaining Malaysia’s existing components and interactions, ensuring consistency across markets without disrupting familiar user behavior.
- Built high-fidelity prototypes to validate usability and support developer handoff.
- Impact: Improved visual consistency across platforms while maintaining user familiarity and reducing adoption risk.
Design handoff aligned with engineering constraints.
Process
4. Collaboration & Iteration
- Design decisions were shaped through close collaboration across teams and regions, with a strong focus on buildability and consistency.
- Worked hand-in-hand with product owners, business, and engineering teams in Malaysia and Singapore
- Balanced user experience goals with technical feasibility and regulatory requirements early in the design process
- Refined designs based on stakeholder and engineering feedback, using clear layout and spacing specifications to support smoother developer handoff
- Impact: Faster alignment, fewer late-stage changes, and smoother execution from design to build.
Internal usability testing conducted with cross-functional teams.
Process
5. Testing & Refinement
- Before final delivery, I focused on validating clarity and usability in real scenarios.
- Conducted internal usability testing to assess account linking, balance visibility, and transfer comprehension
- Observed areas of hesitation and confusion, then refined copy, layout, and interactions accordingly
- Polished micro-interactions and edge cases to ensure the experience felt clear, predictable, and reassuring
- Impact: Improved usability and confidence, especially for users new to cross-border banking.
Many people might think transferring money between accounts in different countries is simple. But in reality, it’s part of a complex system, where multiple accounts, currencies, and regulations all need to work together seamlessly.
Building this feature from scratch was challenging. We had to think carefully about the main jobs users needed, like linking accounts, viewing balances, and transferring funds with zero fees, while making sure everything complied with Bank Negara requirements. It also meant communicating clearly with stakeholders from the start and managing expectations, because creating a reliable, intuitive experience takes time.
I didn’t do this alone. I was lucky to work with a great team across Malaysia and Singapore, including product, business, compliance, and engineering. While the team handled much of the screen and flow execution, my role was to guide the overall UX, shape UI decisions, and ensure the experience was smooth, clear, and aligned with both user and business needs.
