It depends on our backlog. Currently, we can generally complete the certification process in 4 weeks after receipt of your initial input.

Yes, we will not reveal your score or even that you are participating unless you give us permission to announce that you have become BUX Certified.

The certification can be obtained by any company in the financial services space with a consumer or small business facing UI. For example, banks, credit unions, lenders, card issuers and fintech companies offering similar services.

Yes, BUX Certified is an international program. In fact, many of the banks we’ve worked with during the past 10+ years have been outside the United States.

Solution providers play an important part in validating the UX standards used in the certification process. Please contact us directly for information on how to become a partner.

As part of the certification deliverables, we provide training material for staff along with templates for other outside communications such as webpages, press releases and social media posts.

It costs much less than a 30-second commercial or a professional explainer video. Costs vary by size of company, starting at $1,000 for the smallest bank/CU. See our full price list here.

Yes, yes, yes and YES! We highly encourage displaying the BUX Certified seal everywhere.

Not everyone will pass, especially the first time through the 400-point matrix. But we’ve found that usually by addressing a few key shortfalls, many FIs can eventually pass. At this point, we can’t predict the pass rate, but we expect that FIs the fix the key shortfalls will have a 50% or higher rate of passage.

FIs not passing have 6 months to fix key shortfalls and can then request one reassessment for no additional fee.

We have been working with financial institutions for more than a decade and we’ve built the scorecard so that an 80% score, while far from perfect, still reflects an excellent UX for the average user.

UX stand for user experience. It’s also sometimes referred to as customer experience or CX. Basically, it’s about how satisfied customers are when using your digital services.

We look at more than 400 touchpoints across the mobile banking app, secure online banking service, public website and new account signup/application.

Currently our evaluation criteria are confidential unless you are a client. However, in the future we are planning on making the criterial public for maximum transparency.

During the standard certification process you will receive a score for each of the 400 standards along with detailed comments explaining material deficiencies. Those companies looking for recommendations on how to fix the problems can opt to upgrade to our custom analysis for an extra fee. The custom report includes a prioritized action plan on how to improve your digital UX along with custom design makeovers (screenshots), and best-in-class examples from other financial institutions. Please contact us for details.

Fintech Labs is a Seattle-based consultancy that’s been involved in digital banking UX/UI for more than 20 years. First as an industry newsletter (Online Banking Report), then with an industry conference (Finovate) and now as a UX consultancy. The principals have a combined 40 years experience in financial services and design.

Yes, the principals at Fintech Labs are happy to discuss the findings with members of the press.