Why the financial sector has bespoke website design

Technology has enabled all financial institutions to provide convenient services. This extends far past retrieving general information about the bank; customers can now access bank accounts, make trades through brokerage accounts, monitor investments, and transfer money from one account to another at any time of day or night.

All financial institutions serve similar purposes, so one might expect that the websites that service these institutions would all be the same. However, given the extensive number and types of financial transactions that happen at the consumer and business level, bespoke web design is necessary in this current economic environment.

Bespoke web design is integral in today’s economic atmosphere for several reasons. The term "bespoke”, in financial speak, is used when discussing custom-tailored websites that are based on institutional and customer needs. For example,bespoke website design can be used to create a website that is mobile-friendly because most consumers today rely heavily on their mobile phone to complete transactions. Moreover, depending on the type of institution, users want access to information at any hour of the day or night, and one template might not always work for two different types of institutions.

For example, the website for a brokerage firm, whose sole purpose is to manage investments, is going to be much different than that of a bank, whose purposes are varied. Ultimately, bespoke web design translates into more transactions and more business because the institution sustains itself outside of normal business hours.

More than any other reason, bespoke web design is integral to the evolving financial sector for security reasons. Financial institutions are not going have the same security needs, so creating a website that focuses on the security needs of particular institutions is essential, whether those needs are related to securing the websites of major government financial institutions or consumer bank accounts on a smaller scale. Bespoke web design is needed in the financial sector on so many levels.

Creating a bespoke website

Creating a tailor-made website is quite simple. Generally, these types of web design companies determine customer need, research current trends in bespoke web design, and find the appropriate technologies to suit customer need. After all of this information-gathering, designerssit down with clients to determine how to use available technologies to help create a custom-made site that meets the needs of both the consumer and the business. These companies help maintain the website, which means thatafter the site has initially been published, any kinks in programming are taken care of.

The key element in bespoke web design is making a site user-friendly and convenient whilst ensuring that customer information is secured. Financial institutions that cater to the publicare transforming themselves into businesses where customers engage in their own financial welfare. With bespoke website design, customers can independently accomplish all those tasks with a username and password. This convenience is great, but in using websites to perform these tasks, customers become vulnerable to exposing their entire lives to would-be criminals. On a larger scale, major financial institutions run the risk of exposing hundreds of thousands of consumers’ information to criminals if these sites are not secured.

More importantly, in custom tailoring a website to suit the needs of the business and client, businesses can avoid legal action as the result of not complying or clarifying with customers the terms under which the site and its applications can be used.

The messy PPI scandal is one example of a situation in which bespoke web design could have been an effective tool. Because of the charges in the MBNA PPI claim, charges related to policies being oversold, and charges related to its costliness, in addition to other claims, customers were either misled, prevented from getting their claims because of procedure, or were limited in their claims. In this instance, a customized website that focused on explaining to consumers the details of this type of insurance, along with some sort of terms and conditions agreement might have prevented this disaster.

Because of the vast amount of money that moves in and out of the financial sector, financial institutions, regardless of their purpose, are wise to update current websites through bespoke web design. These custom-made sites give consumers the freedom to navigate financial sites whilst keeping them abreast of policy changes and updates. For the financial sector, it reduces the chance that consumers will be exposed to chicanery through updated security and reduces the chances of legal action against financial institutions because of sites with unclear or vague language.