There are two types of people with 3a accounts—those who invest their money and those who keep it in a pension bank account. In the last few years, we have seen various digital 3a investment fund solutions enter the market, with comparable options competing on fee structure and maximum stock allocation. These products are ideal for people who feel comfortable with short-term fluctuations and seek to maximize their potential returns in the long run.
None of these solutions focus on the second group, the ones that keep their 3a savings in a pension bank account. Saving with a traditional bank account doesn’t give your money a real chance to grow; the interest rates are too low. Moreover, your savings are slowly diminishing in value due to inflation. The problem is that until now, there has been simply no alternative for those who do not feel comfortable investing their private retirement savings in securities.
“bench” - the newly launched 3a product from Leonteq and Glarner Kantonalbank - sets out to change this paradigm.
How bench works
bench offers a better upside potential than the pension bank account while protecting the paid-in money with a guarantee. Once you download the app and create your account, bench offers three types of guarantee products: bench 100, bench 90, and bench 80. The product name indicates the guarantee level on all your deposits over the years and corresponds with your upside potential.
For example, if you deposit CHF 1’000 into the bench 100 product, then you’re guaranteed to get back at least CHF 1’000 at retirement.
The more likely scenario is that you’ll get back significantly more than the guarantee amount and more than if you invested the same amount into a pension bank account. Plus, there is no fine print. The guaranteed amount you see in the app is what you get at retirement. There are no hidden fees or costs that diminish your guarantee amount.
How we got involved
An innovative approach needs thorough validation in the beginning. Luckily, Leonteq and Glarner Kantonalbank partnered with us early to validate and shape the product concept through extensive qualitative interviews, prototypes, and testing.
Once we gathered enough evidence that the target audience of 3a savers with a bank account who are unhappy about the lack of alternatives exists, we continued our work to ensure everyone understood the product offering.
What we did
Besides validating the concept, headbits helped design the entire customer journey, from brand and logo to app store presence to website and app experience. Our team also developed the mobile backend and built all the frontend touchpoints, including the website and the iOS and Android apps. We aimed for simple language and a distinctive visual appeal to create a recognizable product.
“Creating an intuitive product was of utmost importance considering the space, where some people might only open their 3a app once per year to make their contribution.”
Throughout the customer journey design and development process, we continued to develop the product closely to the target audience. You can spot glimmers of our love for details and user focus throughout the app. For instance, a little quiz is hidden at the end of the welcome screens, allowing customers to check if they understood the product offering correctly. Another example is when selecting your nationality during onboarding, you’ll have Switzerland as a default and all neighboring countries within reach as a quick selection option–removing the need to open the sheer endless nationality list for most customers.
Can you beat 4min 23s?
That’s how long it takes new customers, on average, to create their bench 3a account. You can test it yourself and get the app here.
