Innovation and Impact: Ciara McGuigan on bringing financial wellbeing solutions to life

Ciara McGuigan describes herself as a relative newcomer to financial services. Beginning with Bank of Ireland eight years ago, Ciara previously worked in a range of marketing and proposition leadership roles within the telecoms industry. As Senior Propositions Manager with Bank of Ireland, she is passionate about the role technology can have in enhancing customer experiences. “My role, at the moment, centers around two key areas: digital financial well-being and the area of sustainability,” Ciara says.

Driving Financial Empowerment

Since joining Bank of Ireland in 2016, Ciara has been at the forefront of developing digital initiatives and propositions that align with the bank’s purpose of ‘Helping Customers and Society to Thrive’. She explains "the importance of financial well-being can never be overstated and applies to everybody regardless of how much wealth you might have.” Her work centers around the organisation’s customer financial well-being pillar and has led to the development of the digital school bank proposition, financial literacy programmes for schools, and more recently, the design and delivery of an innovative financial tool for customers - Money Insights 365.

Bank of Ireland is committed to enhancing financial wellbeing - equipping individuals and businesses with the knowledge, tools, and confidence to manage their finances effectively. Ciara explains “we know from research that women have lower confidence when it comes to managing money and that young people tend to pick up their money management skills from their parents.” This includes covering day-to-day expenses, planning for the future, and coping with unexpected financial challenges. “If we can help address those issues as a bank, then the impact on society is potentially huge,” she says.

The F-Word Campaign

As a part of its Financial Wellbeing programme, Bank of Ireland launched the F-Word Campaign in 2021, a playful campaign highlighting how finance is among Ireland’s top taboos. “It really stood out to the customers as it was witty, but it got across the importance of speaking about finances, which culturally we're not particularly good at doing here,” Ciara notes. The campaign was a huge success, helping Bank of Ireland rank as the top brand within the IPSOS BrandShout survey for the first time. “It was a real turning point and highlighted that Bank of Ireland was serious in this space and committed to improve customers financial well-being.”

Launch of Mi365

The success of the F-Word campaign showed how financial knowledge and resources can empower and enable customers to improve their financial wellbeing. It was a catalyst for Ciara’s next big project - Money Insights 365 (Mi365). “Our research clearly highlighted that not only did the customers need help to improve their financial well-being, but that most people actually wanted their bank to help them with this - in terms of advice or insights into their finances and behaviours,” Ciara explains.

First launched in September 2022, Ciara spearheaded the development, launch and ongoing enhancement of Mi365 - which has delivered personalised, actionable financial insights to over 1.5m customers. In total, over 130 million insights have been served to customers within the app since launch.

Mi365 provides customers with educational content on finances as well as insights on spending and subscriptions. “It's very clearly called out in a graphical format,” Ciara highlights. “We provide insights and nudges to keep customers on track and provide them with the information that helps them stay on top of their finances and understand where they're spending their money.”

Overcoming obstacles

Mi365 was a big project and the team faced many obstacles throughout the journey, as you would expect with a transformational initiative of this size. Testing was critical – especially in the early stages. “We were really determined to get as much feedback as possible to expose any issues that might crop up.”

When the app did finally reach customers’ hands, it had an immediate positive impact. “I think there's great pride in bringing something tangible into the hands of customers. It was a very successful launch and feedback was really positive.” It was the result of collaboration across so many different teams and disciplines. Ciara explains “there were very few parts of the business that weren't impacted or involved. It was a real example of what can be achieved when everyone is focused on the end goal of providing value to our customers.”

IOB Future of Finance Awards

Ciara McGuigan won the Digital Transformation award at the IOB Future of Finance Awards 2024. Learn more about the IOB Future of Finance Awards 2024 winners here.