How to Build a Fintech App: a Guide to Fintech App Design

12 minutes read

“Money, money, money must be funny in the rich man’s world”. Though super-melodic Swedes released these lyrics in the distant 1976, a little has changed about people’s attitude to money since then. Money is still one of the most desired things in people’s lives and a tool to provide ourselves with comfortable living conditions. We try hard to make it and do our best to handle money responsibly. Regarding the second point, we have made a large step forward — we opted for fintech software development.

Briefly on Fintech

Most of the financial institutions have already started looking at financial and banking processes from a different angle. Though we can trace the first finance-technology interlinkage to the late 19th century, the real turning point took place after the 2008 global financial crisis. New banking channels vanished the outdated conception of old banking branches and presented us with 24/7 reachable digital banking. The explosive need to innovate quickly spread among financial institutions giving birth to technologies that might have seemed a part of a sci-fi movie a few decades ago — pay-down services, automatic savings, and finally, online banking applications.

According to Statista, 64,6% of US citizens used online banking in 2021. The American bank Chase released the results of its Digital Banking Attitude Studies 2021 that has shown:

4 in 5 customers prefer to manage their money using a smartphone rather than going to a physical bank;
70% of Chase customers feel completely safe and comfortable about using digital banking;
Only 10% of respondents mentioned that they don’t typically use digital banking because of being not accustomed to technology.

Therefore, even the companies that previously rarely invested in the industry faced a new reality: to keep up with competitors, they must start building a Fintech app.

How to develop a Fintech app: a few steps to successful Fintech app development

How to make a Fintech app that will have the edge over competitors and meet the needs of the most demanding clients? It might be challenging to gather your thoughts and build a step-by-step plan. Therefore, we prepared the main actions one should take to create a Fintech app that is worth its weight in gold.

Choose a niche

Before beginning the development process you have to choose a niche: whether it’s an application for personal finance, insurance, trading, etc. So, here you are to decide: what is your target market and what are their needs. Try to focus on more complex solutions, generate some new ideas or come up with some improvements to the existing technologies. There are plenty of countries that lack good Fintech solutions so you are more than likely to receive some investment.

Ensure legal requirements

Every country has unique legal requirements, and sometimes even states and regions within one country may differ in legal policies. Fintech apps must comply with many privacy laws such as GDPR, the ePrivacy regulation, CCPA, and others determined by the countries your app is designed for. The times when Fintech had no regulations and was an easy target for fraud passed long ago. Nowadays there are multiple Fintech compliance practices such as PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard), AML compliance (anti-money laundering), KYC compliance (know your customer), digital signature certificate, and more differing from country to country.

Define a project vision

What is that app for? What problems does it solve for users? And what features should it include? You need to have a clear vision of the final result, well-warranted by the business analyst and product manager. Only after solid market research, your team will come up with a final idea of a business case that will be competitive and user-oriented.

Choose technology stack

There are many languages to develop apps. And the language choice frequently dictates the cost and time needed for development. You can choose among native app development (building separate apps for Android and IOS), cross-platform development (writing a single codebase for both), and development of PWA (native feeling without native features). Here is a brief overview of each.

Native apps have the smoothest performance and the greatest user experience. The app is developed following all technical and UX guidelines of a particular OS. They are secure and easily utilize built-in devices such as GPS, camera, and so on. Building native apps is quite expensive and time-consuming.
Cross-platform apps are built on one codebase that can be run on any OS. To develop a cross-platform app one can hire a small team of developers that can build it within a relatively short period of time.
Progressive web applications are also built on the basis of a single code base. Once the app is ready it’s uploaded to the server with no need to buy a license for the app store. They have entirely native experience and are light and fast to download. The biggest disadvantage is that PWAs can’t access several features from a user’s device as Bluetooth, NFC, etc.

Try on the customer’s shoes

Fintech applications are meant to be user-friendly. Actually, that’s the reason they are designed for. Customers know nothing about the coding, what they praise is simplicity, transparency, and a nice picture. Good UI/UX is the second most important thing talking about Fintech applications after security. Make sure everything your user might need is available on the dashboard without tons of unnecessary features.

Develop an MVP

A minimum viable product aims at testing the application before launching it. It’s a basic version of the app that includes its fundamental components and features. That’s enough for the users to try it, and also a chance to attract new investors. Getting feedback from real users will show you if there are any weaknesses and also you’ll easily find out what features should be added next.

How to create a Fintech app: important features to include

To build a robust Fintech application you don’t necessarily need to stuff it with a bunch of newfound ideas. Just look at what your competitors have and present something faster, smarter, cheaper, and user-friendlier. Here are some crucial features to include in your app.

Security. Security is the main priority in Fintech apps, as they manage the most sensitive customer’s data. Integrate two-factor authentication with voice, face, and fingerprint recognition for sign-in. Make sure the app displays only three last digits of a card number and restrict failed login attempts.
Notifications. Notifications and pleasant user experience go hand in hand when we’re talking about apps. People like staying informed about special offers, new features of the app, and they like having a personalized user experience. In turn, notifications bring a lot of advantages for your business: they increase conversion rates, help to retain the users, and track actionable metrics.
QR code and scanning. Instead of time-consuming entering the numbers, give the users the ability just to scan them. This is a much more convenient and error-free way to handle money operations. In 2015, Wintrust and FIS set up ATMs where their customer can just scan the QR with the help of their app to withdraw money. They estimated that such a withdrawal takes 8 seconds in comparison with 47 seconds regular withdrawal.
AI-powered chatbots. Chatbots boost the interaction with your customers. They can take over a significant part of the human load in chats, giving users immediate answers to their questions. That way, users don’t overload the company’s contact centers with calls and emails about minor difficulties they faced with. They can receive their answer straight away 24/7.
API Integration. Establishing a connection with other applications to exchange data can significantly increase revenue and give advanced functionality to your product. With the help of API integration users can access their checking account information, check where the nearest ATM is, or make an online buy with PayPal, for instance.

A final note

Undoubtedly, it’s a great opportunity to build a functional Fintech app. Some markets still lack robust Fintech solutions, and investors are likely to invest in financial assets. Though there are many challenges in the sphere and in the development process, they can be easily overcome with a professional team at your side.

As a fintech software company, inVerita has great specialists in business analysis, product management, app development and testing, and design, of course. We can help you to develop a Fintech solution that will be fully aligned with customer needs and won’t cost abnormal sums of money. Drop us a line to get in touch.

The article was updated on February 21, 2022.

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