The ultimate guide for digital bank app development (step by step)

Mobile apps are making user lives easier in many ways. Almost every service can be used online, such as booking, food delivery, paying monthly bills, etc. 

Banking services also come within the list of online services. That’s why many investors and entrepreneurs are looking for digital bank app development to earn money. You can learn in detail about its development process from this blog. 

What is a Digital Banking app?

Digital banking app lets users access online banking services from mobile devices, such as checking account balance, fund transfer, generating account statements, paying bills, etc. 

A banking app allows its users to access all online banking services 24*7. It also protects users from online fraud by applying password protection, OTP verification, and other security features.

Also, other features of the banking app are as follows:  

• Checking transaction history and details effortlessly (passbook)
• Online deposits 
• Best security practices
• Paying bills remotely
• Easy money transfer
• Paying off loans online
• Check credit scores
• Apply for debit and credit cards
• Helpdesk and customer support
• Interest calculators
• Forex service
• View other account services 
• View merchant shopping offers

Also, there are many reasons for gaining the importance of mobile apps in the banking sector, such as:

1. Minimzing operating cost
2. Improving customer experience
3. Good return on investment (ROI)
4. Personalized services 
5. Push notifications for instant alerts

The mobile banking app’s benefits become the reason for its fast adoption worldwide; let’s look at its overall market size growth.

The market size of FinTech apps (digital banks)

The global fintech market attained a value of approximately USD 194.1 billion in 2022 and is expected to grow in the forecast period of 2023-2028 at a CAGR of 16.8% to reach USD 492.81 billion by 2028.

It is a better opportunity for entrepreneurs to create apps for online banking to make profits in the app business. 

After knowing the market size of mobile banking apps, you can find some critical app development steps in the next section. It can improve the overall business model of your mobile banking app.   

Steps Needed for Banking App Development

Developing mobile apps needs an all-rounder preparation and can be done in various steps. Check the following steps:

1. Doing market analysis and project planning

Market Analysis is the foundation of banking app development. It helps to cover all-rounder market research. Also, you can create a better market strategy by doing market research. 

It will help you point out the competitor’s app drawback that you can improve and implement in your business.

2. Finding a reliable software vendor

Choosing the right software development team is half the battle for making a super-performing banking app. You can make the right decisions by choosing a well-experienced software development company. A careful study of the company’s portfolio will help you choose the right development team for your mobile banking app development.

3. User-friendly UI/UX design

A clean user experience can be the reason for gathering customer attention. Try to follow the app design guidelines for having a user-friendly interface. You can choose a minimal design option to avoid over-designing your app UI, as sometimes it can confuse app users using your app.

4. Provide Secure Bank APIs

A well-secure application programming interface (API) can improve user data protection. API gives access to the existing bank systems and account management. Secure APIs offer fast and smooth app performance when data exchange takes place between banking apps and their servers.  

5. Offer advanced data protection

Advanced data protection helps protect user data from hackers. You can follow security guidelines and apply them during digital banking app development. These are some of the security features you can integrate into your app:

• Two-factor authorization
• Data encryption
• Automatic log-out after some time of user inactivity
• Having secure servers 

6. Choosing the monetization model

You can choose any monetization model to make money from your banking app. The better you choose a monetization strategy, the sooner your development cost will pay off. The monetization model comes in the form of subscriptions, advertising, fee schedules, etc. 

You may ask how this mobile banking app makes money. In the next section, let’s find out some popular monetization strategies for banking apps.

Best online banking app monetization strategies in a nutshell

You can try different monetization models for banking apps in your business. Try to implement these monetization models without disturbing the overall better user experience in your app. 

1. Providing subscription

Subscription for an app requires users to pay in advance to access app services. It can be the most consistent revenue source for a mobile banking app because users need to pay regularly to access the app.

2. Charge transaction fees

You can take transaction fees from app users whenever they access banking services from your banking app. This model generates daily revenue.  

3. Integrate in-app advertising

Putting advertising in your app can also be another option for monetizing your mobile banking app. You can integrate ads in the form of regular banners, media (image, audio, video), etc. 

Putting ads can disturb the overall smooth user interface in your app. But it can give more profit in return for your investment in banking app development. 

Now, to start developing an online banking mobile app, we need to select a tech stack.

Choosing a tech stack for your banking app?

Before going into detail, let’s first understand what a tech stack is. It is a set of tools (coding languages, servers, libraries, etc.) used to build a software product.

These are the factors that help to decide on tech stacks for software development.

1. The complexity of the project

The project’s complexity depends on the types of app features; the more advanced features may need highly efficient tools for their development. 

It is accepted to include more features in your banking app to help users in different ways. But overloading the app with unnecessary features can increase complexity.

You can reduce project complexity by being more selective with the features that you will implement in your banking app.

2. Speed of development

The selection of tech stacks also depends on the speed of the app development process, which can be improved by managing the time needed to develop the app.

Some apps develop faster than others due to their lower complexity and features.

3. Client’s Budget 

The budget for banking app development also decides the selection of tech stacks. The developer may need to choose from paid and free tools to adjust the development process according to the budget.

Paid tools may come with more advanced features. But you can add it some weeks after finishing the app development process.

It’s better if you know some popular technologies used in digital banking app development, which can help you cooperate with app developers.

Most popular technologies for Fintech apps!

It’s best to learn about the most common technologies used to develop digital banking apps. It will help you calculate the development time and complexity in each stage of development.

Before exploring all popular technologies, let’s first understand the different development processes where you will need different tech stacks:

1. Front End development

This stage involves the basic designing process, which helps users understand and interact with the apps and websites. It includes basic coding and designing to create UI elements such as buttons, text views, etc.

2. Backend development

It is the development stage where the whole focus goes on the backend process. It involves working on many operations, such as making UI elements functional, API calling to load server data, etc. 

3. Managing Database

Managing an app database needs different tools and programming languages. It involves working on both the app and its user’s data. Good database management also improves app performance, enhancing the user experience. 

4. UX/UI Design

This development stage sounds similar to front-end development. But, UX/UI focuses on improving user experience by designing principles to provide the application with a better feel and look.

5. Blockchain development

This stage only comes in the development phase if you want to publish your app on the blockchain platform. The developer uses blockchain-based tools such as Solidity and Drizzle to make your app compatible with blockchain platforms like Ethereum, Ripple, etc.

6. Publishing on mobile platforms

Both backend and frontend app development is not enough to make it compatible with publishing on mobile platforms. Developers need mobile operating system-based development software such as android studio, Xcode, etc. 

Let’s have a look at popular tools and technologies used in different development stages:

Frontend	HTML/CSS, JavaScript, TypeScript, Ember, Bootstrap, Angular, React, Jquery UI
Backend	Node.js, C#, Ruby, C++, Java, Go, PHP, Python
Blockchain	Hyperledger Fabric, Ethereum, Hedera Hashgraph, Corda, Neo, Stellar, EOS.IO, Bitcoin
Mobile	Swift, Objective-C, Java, Kotlin, Ionic, Xamarin, Flutter, React Native
Database	Mongo DB, MYSQL, SQL, PostgreSQL, Maria DB, Berkley DB, SQLite, SQL
UX/UI	Adobe After Effects, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, InVision, Figma, Marvell, Sketch

These were some of the popular technologies used in developing digital banking apps. Still, you can improve the app’s overall user experience and functionality by adding some advanced technologies. 

Advanced technologies for digital banking apps!

Advanced technologies in your app can improve its functionalities. You can check out some advanced technologies to integrate into your digital banking app:

• Artificial intelligence (AI): AI features come in many ways, such as chatbots, user analytics reports, etc. Also, Business Insider Intelligence reports predict that the average cost savings by using Artificial intelligence in banks will be $447 billion by 2023.
• Distributed ledger technology (DLT): Blockchain and DLT can add extra layers of functionality and security to your app. It will provide more cost-efficient options over banking transactions.
• Robotic Process Automation (RPA): It will bring automation to your app, which can help both app users and bankers. The bank staff can assign repetitive, less critical, more manageable tasks to these RPA bots. 
• Cloud computing: Providing apps with cloud technology can help app users to access your banking services 24/7. Also, cloud computing will secure user data by storing them online, which can be retrieved anytime.
• P2P transactions: A P2P payment app allows users to perform transactions through an app payment gateway. The users can pay each other through their linked bank accounts and cards. App users can pay anyone having the same or a similar payment gateway configured.
• Cardless ATM withdrawals: App users can use this feature to withdraw cash from ATM machines without requiring any debit or credit cards.

Conclusion

There are many benefits to using digital banking apps. A large user base of smartphones is downloading mobile banking apps to make their banking experience easier and more functional. You can develop a digital banking app to generate additional income sources. Contact Idea Usher to build your mobile banking app.

FAQ

Check out answers to relevant questions that can help you to solve doubts regarding app development. 

1. How can I calculate the overall cost of digital banking app development?

Several factors determine the cost of app development; check out some of them:

• Project scope
• Tech stack
• Feature complexity
• Platform integration
• App functionality
• API integrations

2. The time needed to build a digital banking app?

It varies from project to project depending on features, functions, platforms, technology stack, etc. It needs 2-3 months to build an MVP of a digital banking app. 

3. How big is the market size of digital banking apps?

According to fortunly, 89% of American bank account holders use mobile apps to manage their bank accounts. It’s a better opportunity to develop your banking app and make money. Contact Idea Usher right now!

4. What are the challenges of mobile bank app development?

App development comes with challenges, which can be tackled by following good app development practices. You can face challenges such as:

• Managing app development cost
• Protecting user data from hacking 
• Maintaining bank servers and APIs
• Providing app updates every time for more functionality and security
• Providing additional budget for app promotion and marketing