DBS - Global Lending Online Workbench

Overview

GLOW is DBS Bank’s enterprise application used by Relationship Managers, Credit Risk Managers, and Credit Control teams to initiate, approve, and activate credit requests for large multinational clients. Historically, this process relied on huge orange paper folders filled with sensitive documents, multiple sign-offs, and repeated data entry across disconnected steps.

I Led the design of E-Memo, the bank’s first fully digital end-to-end credit origination workflow — replacing the paper-heavy approval process with a seamless, secure digital experience.

Problem

The existing process was manual, fragmented, and error-prone. Users described it as slow, repetitive, and heavily dependent on printing, signing, and physically circulating documents. Key issues included:

• Repeated data entry across multiple stages

• Massive paper trails and confidential documents stored manually

• Long delays due to the number of approvals required

• No unified view of client information

• No efficient way to initiate or track a credit request digitally

The business challenge:
“How might we help our teams initiate, approve, and activate credit requests seamlessly on a digital platform?”

My Role

Lead UX design for the E-Memo workflow from the ground up. My responsibilities included:

• Leading discovery workshops with business, tech, and end users

• Mapping complex credit origination workflows

• Conducting exploratory research to understand real user pain points

• Building proto-personas and framing the true problem

• Running design studio sessions to co-create ideas

• Prototyping and iterating flows end-to-end

• Leading usability testing and synthesising findings

• Collaborating closely with UI designers and the engineering team

UX Approach

1. Discovery & Research

Through stakeholder workshops and in-depth exploratory interviews, we learned:

• Data re-entry was the biggest pain point

• RMs handled huge confidential paper files with no digital backup

• Supporting documents needed to be printed and attached for every request

• Multi-level approvals caused massive delays

• There was no “single source of truth” for a credit request

These insights helped define our MVP and prioritise features that would deliver the highest value first.

2. Defining the Goal

We aligned on building a tool that would:

• Reduce repetitive data entry

• Digitise the credit memo end-to-end

• Provide transparency across approval stages

• Centralise client and request information

• Ensure secure, compliant handling of confidential data

• Support faster approvals through a guided workflow

3. Ideation & Co-Creation

Using affinity mapping and design studio workshops, we collaborated with Relationship Managers and Risk Managers to shape the ideal flow. This helped us:

• Validate assumptions

• Expose workflow gaps

• Generate solutions directly informed by user needs

• Build shared ownership across teams

Solution — E-Memo (Digital Credit Memo)

We designed E-Memo, a one-stop digital workspace where Relationship Managers can:

• View, edit, and validate client information

• Initiate a credit request

• Upload supporting documents securely

• Track approvals in real time

• Submit complete memos to Credit Risk Managers

Approvers can:

• Review the memo digitally

• Approve or reject requests with clear reasoning

• Activate requests directly from the system

This replaced a multi-day, paper-based workflow with a secure, streamlined digital experience.

Key UX Deliverables

• End-to-end workflow mapping

• E-Memo process flows

• RM and CRM task scenarios

• Wireframes & interactive prototypes

• User journey design

• Usability testing with rainbow spreadsheets

• Iteration based on major themes and failures

Impact

• 70% reduction in redundant data entry

• 35 faster credit approval turnaround times

• 100% digital handling of confidential documents

• 1,500+ users transitioned to the new E-Memo workflow

• Single source of truth improved auditability & compliance

• Higher RM productivity, with fewer handoffs and manual steps