Fintech App Development : A Complete Guide

Fintech improves and automates the provision of financial services and their utilization. This innovation is taking over the traditional financial industry by offering more vigilant, secure, and faster operations. In fact, according to a survey from Allied Market Research, the size of the worldwide fintech technologies market is expected to increase between 2021 and 2030 at a CAGR of 20.3%. By 2030, this market might reach a potential value of $698.48 billion. So, if your business wishes to take advantage of the opportunities, you may need to acquire a fintech application. This post will walk you through the information you need to progress with the development of a comprehensive fintech app.

Key trends in the fintech ecosystem

Business environment	– Access to Capital – Regulatory Stance
Technology and talent	– Tech-enabled industry collaborations – Emerging tech adoption – Access to skilled talent
Demand and growth enablers	– High adoption – A largely underserved market – Account aggregation and data sharing

Why develop a fintech application?

Fintech has impacted the financial industry by offering online operations and transactions. Furthermore, businesses have adopted technologies like AI and data science along with fintech apps for streamlining their operations. The Fintech industry is about to see a growth in billions in the coming year, and it offers numerous benefits to users.

Benefits of fintech applications

1. Cost-effective 

It is one of the main advantages of fintech apps. Reusable code, which is a feature of fintech apps, saves resources by reducing development costs. Due to the automation of many tasks, fintech applications are effective in fields like credit risk that don’t require as much human interaction and save money by lowering the cost of hiring and training staff.

2. Financial Deepening and Inclusion

By improving the customer experience with top-notch financial services, fintech applications foster inclusiveness and financial depth. Financial inclusion may strengthen individuals’ access to banking services, assist them in reducing costs, and provide an improved experience.

3. Convenient to use

Fintech apps are convenient and have increased efficiency and facilitated transactions using mobile connectivity. This translates to better user experience, more information access, and better business transparency. 

4. Faster access to loans

The fintech app with various online lenders provides prompt assistance. Fintech services are efficient and more immediate, and apps can be customized. 

5. Streamlined financial operations

Digital banking platforms make it easier for businesses to manage and automate critical financial operations.

6. Better Risk Management

With the help of automation, machine learning, and big data, fintech apps can analyze vast quantities of data and provide insights in seconds to make decisions. 

7. Improved customer experience

Streamlining the investment process of an organization with a fintech product will enhance its proficiency and growth. Technologies like Big Data and Artificial Intelligence in finance apps provide customers with personalized experiences and services through past purchases and financial standing.

Main reasons to use fintech products/services

Rates and fees	39%
Range of functionality and features	66%
Ease in setting up, configuring, and using the services	53%
Trust in the provider’s team and their reputation	31%
24/7 Availability of services	55%
Compatibility with daily operations and infrastructure	38%

How to develop a fintech application?

Step 1. Determine your niche and comply with the law

• Finding your specialty is important before starting the development process.
• You should decide what sort of fintech app you want to create and what sector of fintech you want to concentrate on.
• You must identify your target audience.
• Identify the features you want in your app.
• Make sure your application complies with all applicable laws in the regions where your app will be used.

Step 2. Set features and cost expectations

• Choose the features of your financial app. 
• Make sure to include the components that your customers might want. Avoid too many unnecessary features that can complicate your financial app.
• Assess your budget before starting the development process to avoid budgetary restrictions in the later stages of development.
• Having your requirements and projected budget ready on paper often helps when creating project scope documents.

Step 3. Hire a team

• You need team technical experts across a variety of industries to design a fintech software, including:
  • UI designers
  • Android/iOS and web developers
  • Project managers
  • Business analysts and quality assurance specialists
  • Frontend and backend developers, etc.
• Employing a skilled fintech app development team is always beneficial for companies as it saves resources in the long run.
• The size of your project will determine how many people will be on your development team. 
• You may also employ individual fintech developers, based on the skill sets you require.

Step 4. Designing UI/UX

• For finance applications, effective UI/UX design is crucial as it is the component that the user engages with the most. 
• It is better to develop several prototypes as it can help in determining which UI/UX design best matches your app. 
• Some UI/UX design best practices include:
  • Simple to use features.
  • Avoid over-stuffing the program with functionality.
  • Easy navigation
  • Easy to understand.
  • The colors shouldn’t be overly muted or vibrant.

Step 5. Create an MVP

• Testing your concept before starting the protracted development process is a crucial and resource saver step. 
• The term “Minimum Viable Product,” refers to a proof of concept with only enough functionalities to allow for testing.
• With an MVP, you get feedback for your application. As a result, you can improvise your app against risk factors.
• MVP makes sure that the fintech application is efficient and beneficial to users.

Step 6. Development of a finance app 

At this stage, you need to work on basic elements like:

• Authentication and user management using a tool like Firebase. It helps in the development of applications and provides management, crash reporting, and secure user authentication. 
• You must get secure hosting like Cloud Firestore, which is an encrypted cloud-hosted database solution. It is a Firebase product that works seamlessly with all other Firebase products to facilitate user experience and development. It streamlines the process of developing apps, is capable of high performance, and offers automated scalability.
• You can integrate a tool like Experian for checking credit scores. Tools like this provide a consumer-facing API that retrieves credit records and ratings. Apart from Experian, there are other tools available, like ACS (American Credit Systems) or the Universal Credit Services API, that produce credit reports. These APIs can provide access to the following data:
  • Pre-Employment Credit Reports
  • Decision-only Credit Reports
  • SSA89
  • 4506T IRS Tax Transcripts
  • Criminal Searches
  • Social Security Number Verifications
  • Motor Vehicle Records
  • Eviction Searches
• You may incorporate a solution that links your app to bank accounts, such as Yodlee or Plaid. However, Plaid is a significant API in the fintech sector. It is agile, consolidates the financial data of your users onto a single platform, reduces risk, and expedites development.
• You can include a payment gateway like Stripe in your app after back account linkage. Global payment processor Stripe unites a variety of payment service providers into a single offering.
• You may automate your customer support by using a Chatbot API. Using open-source tools like Python Scikit, you may develop it to tackle more difficult jobs like processing tenant pre-approvals because this is powered by machine learning.

Most importantly, you must consider legal obligations for your app, which include the following:

• Recognize the legal agreements related to utilizing these APIs to access consumers’ financial data.
• Make a policy for the handling and privacy of data.
• Get insurance so that you are protected in the event of a breach.
• Create a plan for business continuity and catastrophe recovery.

Step 7. App maintenance

• Your application’s development cycle does not end with the development and deployment phases. 
• Every fintech app should be frequently updated and upgraded once it has been created to make sure it is operating properly. 
• Legal compliance can also occasionally be upgraded along with the new features.

Tech stack for fintech app development

Native app development	– iOS based: Objective, CSwift, Apple XCode, iOS SDK – Android-based: Java, Kotlin, Android studio, Android SDK
Cross-platform app development	React Native, C#
Hybrid app development	HTML 5, PhoneGap
Other effective technologies	Node.js, C++

Features of the fintech app

1. Ease of navigation

App’s user interface has to be simple and easy to use. A voice search, a written query feature, shortcut features, etc., can be included in the app for a seamless experience.

2. Personalized experience

You can target the younger demographic through this feature. In-app virtual assistants and personalized insights depending on the user behavior can be used to attract the attention of your audience.

3. Customer service

Excellent customer assistance is available through self-help, live chat, or other channels in the banking applications. Clients can easily get in touch with businesses for their inquiries. You can offer assistance to the user through a chatbot or by other means to contact customer service agents.

4. Notifications

These are essential for promoting products/services and retaining the user’s interest in the brand. Although too many notifications may annoy your user. Therefore, there must be a feature for users to select the type and frequency of notifications. 

5. Secure sign-in

Security is the most crucial quality given the rise in data breaches and cybercrime. Technology, such as biometrics, multi-factor authentication with secure sign-in options, etc., makes it simpler to sign in and secure data. 

6. Digital payments

Every mobile banking app should have easy access to various digital payment options, mobile wallets, UPI, etc, in order to facilitate frictionless transactions. It makes it simple for users to manage their accounts, schedule recurring payments, and pay bills. Additionally, a FinTech app that offers digital payment options enables users to conduct transactions and view account information whenever it’s convenient.

7. Peer-to-peer payments

Sometimes referred to as P2P payments, give customers more convenience by ensuring that money is transferred quickly and securely. P2P payments made using mobile banking applications are cheaper, safer, and more reliable as compared to third parties.

Types of fintech app

1. Digital Banking

Banks are creating fintech applications for their customers as a result of improved technology and the preference for digital banking. Digital banking has evolved into a highly practical method for customers to manage their bank accounts and for bank staff to handle client data conveniently. Users may manage their bank accounts online with the use of fintech applications for digital banking, avoiding occasional bank visits.

2. Digital Payments

Digital payments relate to transactions that are fast, cashless, and secure. This model is facilitated by fintech apps with online payment systems, digital currencies, and e-wallets. Digital payment is often regarded as one of the most well-known market segments of the fintech sector. By 2021, Statista predicts that the value of worldwide digital payments will be USD 6,685,102 Million.

3. Digital Investment

Digital investment applications serve as a platform to enable investments. It provides users with pertinent and informative data they can use to make knowledgeable decisions about their investment goals. Investors may explore and invest in various financial assets and stock markets using digital investment fintech applications.

4. Digital Lending

This type of fintech application is used by financial organizations like banks and private lenders to streamline and effectively manage loan processes. Lending software and loan apps fall under digital lending fintech applications since they simplify transactions and communication between borrowers and lenders.

5. Consumer Finance

Fintech consumer finance applications support their users in managing their personal finances. Users may manage their finances effectively, create budgets, and engage in intelligent spending with the help of these applications, which offer essential tools and capabilities.

Get a fintech app developed by Idea Usher

The use of fintech apps is expanding in the banking sector. According to data from 2021, there are more than 26,000 fintech companies globally. According to Plaid’s 2022 consumer survey, over 9,000 of them are in the US, and it is more accurate to say that 48% of Americans use fintech every day to handle their money. With increased usage, it is essential to make sure that the development of fintech apps is done effectively to reduce risks and offer top-notch performance. Contact our fintech app development experts to discuss your needs and have a fintech app developed for your company.

Get in touch now!

Contact Idea Usher at [email protected]

Or reach out at: (+1)732 962 4560, (+91)859 140 7140

FAQ

Q. Which is better for developing finance apps: native or cross-platform?

A. Native programs demand less work for security upgrades and support all platform hardware completely. Therefore, we advise natives.

Q. How do fintech applications generate revenue?

A. The most typical and important way for Fintech applications to make money is by displaying adverts within the app. In addition to receiving payment for airing advertisements, third-party ad networks also compensate app owners when users click on their adverts.

Q. What are the four subcategories of fintech?

A. Due to their quick development rates, the potential for technological disruption, and associated dangers associated with regulations and other factors, the four fintech sectors are:

• Digital lending 
• Payments 
• Blockchain, and 
• Digital wealth management.