FF Tattoo Studio: BeHive Consulting – Behavioural Insights for Better Financial Journeys

Rachel Altmann of BeHive Consulting joined the FF News Tattoo Studio at Sibos 2025 and conversation moves to how Altmann found behavioural science. She studied economics, where the “rational agent” model dominated, but it didn’t match real life.

A Masters at LSE confirmed her interest, and when she couldn’t find a firm that blended management consulting with behavioural science, so she co-founded BeHive Consulting to do exactly that, applying evidence-based psychology to commercial problems.

Altmann argues that stated reasons in surveys or interviews are often post-rationalised, so to design better products and journeys, especially in finance, you need to uncover the real drivers: trust, effort, emotion, framing, and social proof.

On AI, models are limited by what’s in the data and Altmann positions BeHive Consulting as complementary: run primary data collections, decision simulations and other methodologies to surface unconscious factors. In short, AI scales known patterns and BeHive Consulting helps discover the ones you’re missing and then validates them.

A recent example is a German bank’s “generational consulting” service, end-of-life health and wealth management that used to happen in-branch and the task was to make it work digitally for older customers. Altmann focuses on building trust at a distance, reducing cognitive load, sequencing decisions clearly, and guiding people through sensitive steps (like creating a family tree) so they can complete the process at home. BeHive Consulting stresses that careful behavioural design turns a daunting task into a doable one.

On the BeHive Consulting’s name, she’s candid: it grew from “BE” for behavioural economics; her sister suggested “BeHive Consulting,” which felt right, and it stuck.