Fintech
HasalaA Digital Wallet & Money App
A consumer fintech concept combining account, card, instant payments and savings goals, built on a ledger with no tolerance for error.
01
The challenge
Launching a consumer money app means reconciling two opposites: the ease of a consumer product and the discipline of a banking system. A single wrong balance or duplicated transaction can destroy trust that is very hard to win back.
The difficulty starts at onboarding (identity and KYC checks, liveness, device binding), and every extra step raises drop-off. Then come instant payments, card issuing, limits and fraud prevention, all operating in real time.
Many regional finance apps also feel translated rather than designed for Arabic: garbled merchant names, amounts whose signs flip in RTL layouts, and spending categories that miss local context.
02
Proposed solution
At Hasala’s core is a double-entry ledger built with event sourcing: every movement is an immutable event in an append-only journal, balances are projections derived from it, and idempotency keys guarantee an operation never executes twice no matter how often it is retried. Any balance can be rebuilt at any point in time and audited down to the last movement.
Onboarding is designed around national digital identity, with flows modeled on Nafath, plus liveness checks, device binding and app attestation via App Attest and Play Integrity. Cards run through a processor integration supporting tokenization and wallet provisioning, and instant payments go through a dedicated adapter for real-time payment rails.
A risk engine scores every transaction in real time with transparent rules and a machine-learning model, with hooks for sanctions screening and AML checks. SAMA’s regulatory expectations are treated as design considerations from day one, not a later workstream.
03
Design rationale
Trust is designed in the details. Amounts always carry an explicit sign and a color paired with text, so telling a debit from a credit never depends on color alone. Figures are bidi-isolated so a minus sign never wanders in RTL, and card numbers stay masked unless explicitly revealed after biometric confirmation.
Everything people do daily sits within thumb reach: transfer, pay, scan. Haptics confirm each successful operation, screenshots are blocked on sensitive screens, and the app supports dynamic type and screen readers.
Merchant names are cleaned up and categorized with local context, shown in Arabic whenever an Arabic name exists. Dark mode is a first-class theme rather than an inverted palette, with contrast tuned for every state.
04
Example architecture
An illustrative layering of the system, from the screens people use down to the infrastructure. A starting point we would validate during discovery, not a final design.
Layer 01
Experience
- Native iOS app (SwiftUI)
- Native Android app (Jetpack Compose)
- Biometric auth & Secure Enclave / Keystore keys
- Back-office operations console
Layer 02
Edge & security
- API gateway with mTLS
- Certificate pinning & device binding
- App Attest / Play Integrity attestation
- HashiCorp Vault & HSM-backed keys
Layer 03
Core ledger & accounts
- Event-sourced double-entry ledger
- Idempotent payment commands
- Balance projections & snapshots
- Limits & entitlements
Layer 04
Risk & compliance
- Real-time fraud rules engine
- ML transaction scoring
- Sanctions & AML screening hooks
- Immutable audit trail
Layer 05
Integration
- Card processor & tokenization
- Instant payment rail adapter
- Digital identity & KYC providers
- Push & SMS notifications
Layer 06
Data & infrastructure
- PostgreSQL event store
- Apache Kafka
- Kubernetes in an in-Kingdom region
- OpenTelemetry & SLO alerting
05
Relevant technologies
Tools we would consider for this concept. They indicate engineering ecosystems, not partnerships or certifications.
- Swift
- SwiftUI
- Kotlin
- Jetpack Compose
- Go
- gRPC
- PostgreSQL
- Apache Kafka
- Redis
- HashiCorp Vault
- Kubernetes
- OpenTelemetry
06
Key features
Fast digital onboarding
Identity, liveness and device binding in a short, clear flow.
Instant transfers
Send and receive money in real time, with clear confirmation and a shareable receipt.
Full card control
Freeze the card, set spending limits, control online payments and add it to digital wallets, all from inside the app.
Savings goals
Virtual jars with targets and dates, plus round-ups on everyday purchases.
Locally aware spending insights
Smart categorization with clean merchant names and local context.
Real-time fraud protection
Every transaction scored instantly, with user alerts and a confirm-or-block choice.
07
Potential benefits
These are design goals the solution is built toward, not measured results.
Higher trust through accurate balances that can be audited at any moment
Designed to reduce onboarding drop-off with a shorter, clearer flow
Stronger fraud protection for users
A technical foundation that eases launching new financial products
A native Arabic experience that stands out in a crowded market
Related services & industry
Industry
Secure digital banking, payments and analytics platforms engineered for trust and scale.
Services involved
Native and cross-platform iOS and Android apps with polished Arabic UX, steady performance and a clear path to launch.
Security built into architecture, code, and delivery pipelines from day one, not bolted on after launch.
ERP, CRM, HR and finance systems shaped around how you work: integrated, adaptable and built to grow with you.
REST and GraphQL APIs, payments, webhooks, and event-driven integrations that make separate systems work as one.
LLMs, agents, RAG and computer vision grounded in your data, with clear controls on quality, security and cost.
Research-led product design, from user journeys to production-ready design systems for complex enterprise interfaces.
This is a concept project created by AMA GROUP to demonstrate our approach. It is not a client engagement: the interface uses sample data, and no client, logo or result is implied.
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