Automating consumer protection across 600+ financial institutions

A single entry point for the entire financial sector

Before Intumwa, citizens had no standardised digital channel to file a complaint against a bank, insurer, SACCO, or mobile money operator. Routing a case to the right institution required manual triage, and BNR had limited visibility into volumes, trends, or resolution outcomes.

Intumwa replaces this with a structured intake flow on webchat and WhatsApp. The AI agent guides each consumer through a short conversation to capture:

• The financial institution involved — verified against BNR's registry of licensed FSPs
• A description of the issue
• Contact details for follow-up

Once submitted, the complaint is routed automatically to the correct institution's queue. The consumer receives a reference number and can check their case status at any time through the same chat interface — without needing to call BNR or visit in person.

Every complaint is logged, timestamped, and visible in BNR's supervisory dashboard.

Policy-enforced resolution timelines

Each complaint follows a 15-business-day resolution window, built directly into the platform and enforced automatically across all 600+ institutions. If a deadline is missed, the consumer can escalate directly through Intumwa and BNR can intervene via its internal case management tools. Every response is logged and every breach surfaced automatically — creating a permanent, auditable record of how each institution handles consumer redress.

Kinyarwanda support built for Rwanda's context

Intumwa operates in Kinyarwanda, English, and French. Kinyarwanda support runs on Proto's self-trained local language model — built specifically for Rwanda's linguistic, financial, and regulatory context, not a translated or off-the-shelf system. This delivers higher intent-detection accuracy for the colloquial and mixed-language inputs that characterise how citizens actually describe financial issues, improving:

• Complaint intake quality
• Correct routing and categorisation
• Adoption in rural and underserved communities

Automated categorisation and supervisory intelligence

Intumwa automatically classifies incoming cases by issue type — fraud, loan disputes, failed transfers, and others — at intake, without manual review. This allows BNR to:

• Identify emerging patterns across institutions
• Compare issue trends market-wide
• Prioritise supervisory attention based on evidence

The platform also handles general inquiries — consumer rights, financial regulations, NBR services — dynamically switching between information and complaint flows based on user intent. This capability is being extended into BNR's mobile application, where Intumwa will guide users through digital forms and provide regulatory updates.

Escalation from FSP AI agents to the regulator

BNR is enabling AI agent switching between financial service providers and Intumwa. When a user at an FSP's own digital channel indicates dissatisfaction or needs to file a formal complaint, the conversation transfers directly into Intumwa — with context preserved — and enters the official regulatory workflow immediately.