MiBanco (via Encora)
Digital disbursements
A loan-desk app so MiBanco can place microloans digitally in less than a day — instead of a 2–3 day branch visit.
Project brief
Designed the MiBanco app so people who need a microloan can get it digitally in less than one day. The product sits with the sales desk — simulate, validate, and confirm a disbursement without sending the client back to a branch.
Problem to address
During COVID, face-to-face negotiation stalled. MiBanco disbursements fell, and the loan desk could not keep placing money without a physical visit.
Goals
- Give the bank a product that places loans digitally
- Reach USD 3,000,000 in disbursements per month through the app
Design process
Design Thinking — used to learn why microloans still needed a face-to-face visit, and how to move disbursement onto the phone.
Problem
Empathize
- Desktop research
- Direct interviews
- FocusSurveys
Define
- User personas
- User journeys
Solution
Ideate
- Figma flows
- Loan-desk mocks
Prototype & Test
- Hi-fi mocks
- FocusUser testing
Methods
Tools
Research insights
How loans left the bank
1,400 people on the loans desk struggled in COVID — conversion dropped 40% in 2020. A disbursement still took two to three days.
90%
Physical disbursements
vs
10%
Online disbursements
- Physical disbursements90%
- Online disbursements10%
Nine in ten disbursements were still physical. Only one in ten happened online.
User journeys
Generate a disbursement
Pedro — a sales manager with a 15-person desk — walking the physical loan path his team still used, and where the app can cut it.
Upload the customer database
Impatient
- Goal
- Get today's leads onto each salesperson.
- Action
- Opens the bank site, downloads the list, and sends leads one by one.
- Opportunity
- Build the list automatically and send it with one button.
Book appointments
Worried
- Goal
- Get each client on the calendar.
- Action
- Sorts the list, calls every client, and parks times in a reminder app.
- Opportunity
- Set a time and address fast, with a clear estimate of the visit.
Visit the client
Uneasy
- Goal
- Sit down and start the loan conversation.
- Action
- Drives to the location and waits at the door.
- Opportunity
- An automatic confirmation for the agreed meeting.
Validate the customer
Frustrated
- Goal
- Prove the client can take the loan.
- Action
- Asks for data, uploads each field by hand, and waits for the system to approve.
- Opportunity
- Validation in two or three steps, not a long upload.
Disbursement
Relieved, then stuck
- Goal
- Get the money to the client.
- Action
- Books a branch visit so the client can claim the disbursement — and some never show.
- Opportunity
- Place the disbursement online once the file is validated.
Design decisions
Put the whole desk on one home
Pedro checks disbursements, clients in arrears, and what is still pending every day. Totals plus Simular, FIC, clients, transfer, mora, and insurance sit on one tap so the team does not bounce between tools.
Show today's numbers before the next loan
A performance view — desembolsos, mora, pending — lets a manager see if the day is on plan before they open another client.
Simulate the loan from the client's file
Amount, term, and rate come from the financial background. Calculate sits on the same record as the client, not in a separate spreadsheet.
Confirm every field before the money moves
Validate financial health, then confirm modality, product, term, rate, and installment. The last step is a check, not another branch appointment.
Product screens
Mobile
Loan-desk home
Cover — desembolsos, clients in arrears, and pending, plus Simular, FIC, clients, transfer, mora, and insurance.
Main dashboard
The tools to place a disbursement sit on one home so the desk does not bounce between systems.
Daily performance
Today's desembolsos, mora, and pending so a manager can see if the day is on plan.
Simulate and confirm
Estimate the loan from the client's file, then confirm every field before the money moves.
STAR case
Move the loan off the branch floor
Situation
COVID blocked face-to-face negotiation. Conversion on the 1,400-person loans desk dropped 40% in 2020, and nine in ten disbursements were still physical — a two-to-three-day process.
Task
Design a digital path so MiBanco could place microloans in less than a day, with a target of USD 3 million a month through the app.
Action
Ran Design Thinking with a sales-manager persona and a generate-disbursement journey, then designed the desk home, daily metrics, loan simulation, and confirm-before-disburse flow.
Result
A mobile loan desk where a salesperson can simulate, validate, and confirm a disbursement without sending the client back to a branch.