Creating a New PFM Tool

In today’s fast-paced world, managing personal finances can be overwhelming. TBC UZ is addressing this challenge with the introduction of a Personal Finance Management (PFM) tool designed to simplify financial management for everyone in Uzbekistan.

Understanding Users

Navigating the diverse cultural landscape of Uzbekistan presents unique challenges. To ensure the PFM tool resonates with customers, extensive research and focus groups were conducted. Gathering insights directly from users is crucial, as their feedback shapes the mission to create intuitive financial solutions. Observations during these meetings highlighted user behaviors — what they interacted with, what posed difficulties, and areas of confusion.

Collecting historical transaction data was a significant hurdle, with hundreds of millions of transactions to process. Gathering this data was one challenge, but processing it effectively to meet specific needs posed another. The goal was to leverage this vast information for various PFM functionalities, delivering statistics that enable quick calculations.

Introducing the PFM Tool

The PFM tool blends simplicity with smart functionality, offering users transparency in their spending behaviors. Key features include:

1. Plan Expenses

Budgeting becomes straightforward with two flexible options:

- Overall Target: Set a total spending goal for the month, allocating it to various categories.

- Category Target: Assign budgets directly to specific categories, aiding in tracking spending.

Users can easily monitor progress to stay on track with their planned budgets.

2. Where Money Was Spent

Comprehensive analytics provide valuable insights into spending habits:

- View top expenditures by category, card, merchant, and city.

- Explore spending history for informed financial decision-making.

- Add Cash Transactions: Users can manually input cash transactions, ensuring a complete financial overview.

3. Payment Calendar

An intuitive payment calendar helps users stay organized:

- Automatically track loans and direct debits, along with manually added payments.

- Receive notifications for upcoming payments, minimizing the risk of missed deadlines.

4. Compare Spending

Visual tools allow users to compare spending across different time periods, optimizing budgets. Additional features like daily budgeting and customizable categories enhance the tool’s utility for anyone looking to improve financial health.

Technical Challenges

Retrieving data from transactions made outside the application, particularly POS transactions, presented significant challenges. Collaborating with multiple processing centers — HUMO, UZcard, and UFC — required analyzing each system and developing tailored logic for effective data processing. A major obstacle was the absence of mechanisms for these centers to notify about client transactions, necessitating the creation of workarounds to achieve near-real-time transaction retrieval.

Tackling Transaction Categorization

Initially, transaction categorization seemed straightforward, but it emerged as one of the most significant challenges. Without Merchant Category Codes (MCCs) in Uzbekistan, developing manual workarounds based on merchant data and client input became necessary. Given the PFM’s integration with nearly all bank functions, close collaboration with other teams was essential to understand their processes.

The innovative spirit of the Space international team continues to drive progress. Continuous efforts are underway to develop new ideas and products that address the evolving needs of customers. The PFM tool is just the beginning of this journey, supporting users in simplifying and enhancing personal finance management in Uzbekistan.