[Sigia-l] Re: challenging users vs. revealing that content/products are unavailable

[handa at umich.edu]

Hi, Samantha --

I was the lead UEA on a financial project for ABN AMRO bank (Amsterdam) when I
worked at Answerthink. This site offers highly detailed financial information
for all of their mutual fund products, as well as for many competitors. The
users are anyone in the world, as well as certain individuals who can log in to
get enhanced info, such as partners and retail brokers.

Because (as you know intimately) the world of financial products is highly
regulated, and regulations vary widely by nation (and even within nations as
your US-based In/Out Footprint/TX model shows), this posed a tough challenge
for our project. Additionally, ABN wanted the site's UI to be available at
launch in Dutch, English and German and the user can dynamically modify the
display of monetary amounts in a handful of supported currency units.

The fruits of our labor are finally online at:

   https://www.asset.abnamro.com/portal/index.jsp?pageID=amicehome

Click on the "Fund Centre" link to get to the "fun" part. ABN AMRO was insistant
that in order to comply with regulatory requirements, the site had to
immediately ask users what country he or she is in so that the system can
determine which information it needs to show the user about a given fund. The
system saves a cookie on the user's machine with the country setting (as well
as the language setting).

ABN AMRO's site only asks the user to tell them what their country is, which
they felt adequately met their need to "challenge" the user and determine what
financial information they should disclose per the law.

Samantha, I don't know how relevant this example is to you, but I thought I
would draw it to your attention in case you would find it helpful. Contact me
offlist for more info.

Cheers,
Anthony