Building a financial technology app is one of the most profitable business ideas in the fast-paced emerging world of financial technology. Whether you want to create a P2P payments platform, a micro-investing app, or a robo-advisory solution, knowing what entails developing such an app is crucial.
With millions of users depending on mobile applications for financial needs, it is essential to have all the right features, security protocols, and a seamless user experience to truly create a successful application.
In this guide, we’re going to walk you through the process of building a fintech app and identify the key features you must include in your fintech app.
Knowing the Fintech Landscape
Before diving into the techie stuff, it is also important to know what fintech is. Fintech or financial technology refers to the way that financial services companies use technology when integrating it with the services that they offer so as to enhance and automatically improve the services rendered.
The issue can range from P2P payments to micro-investing or robo-advisory, all forming a concept of making financial services more accessible, efficient, and user-friendly.
Fintech Model Choice: P2P Payments, Micro-Investing, or Robo-Advisory
Each of these fintech models will serve a purpose; understanding who your target audience is will help you choose the right direction. Whatever you choose, always hire a professional fintech app development company to get modern apps.
Peer-to-Peer Payments
These are payment apps that enable users to pay and get paid almost instantly with little or no fees attached. They use either the internet or mobile network to complete peer-to-peer transfers between the sender and receiver, therefore doing away with the traditional role of intermediaries like the banks. Some of the most popular examples of the P2P Payments include PayPal, Venmo, and Zelle.
Micro-investing Applications
Such applications will permit a small-scale investment of any amount of money, be it a few cents or dollars. They will stress having access to this investment for low-income earners or those who cannot afford large amounts of money meant for investing. Some of the applications of this nature include Acorns, Stash, and Robinhood.
Robo-Advisory Apps
Robo-advisors are the digital platforms that bring algorithm-driven financial planning services. These robo-advisors use data and sophisticated algorithms in managing the investments on behalf of the users. The fees for availing the services of a traditional financial advisor are compared to much lower fees for robo-advisors. The most notable robo-advisory apps in the markets are as follows: Betterment and Wealthfront.
Every type of application has different needs for features, security tools, and regulatory compliance; therefore, it is important to identify your app type as a precursor to finding the correct direction for development.
Essential Features for Your Fintech App
However, core to your fintech application development, regardless of the type of app you are developing, are some fundamental features that will ensure your app is functional, user-friendly, and secure.
User Authentication and Security
The encryption techniques and some multi-factor authentications, along with biometric verification, such as fingerprint or facial recognition, should be applied to handle the security of the app to protect user data. More on that side, it also has to comply with various laws related to financial regulations, such as GDPR, PCI DSS, and KYC compliance by Know Your Customer.
User-Friendly Interface (UI/UX)
A great fintech app can easily be differentiated from a mediocre one just because it looks nice and is enjoyable to use. That means an interface with an intuitive and clean design that facilitates easy navigation with minimal friction. It is very important that your user feels comfortable using your app for every kind of financial transaction.
Payment Gateway Integration (for P2P apps)
For P2P payment applications, integration with a highly secured payment gateway should be ensured. The users from your end should be able to link their credit/debit cards or digital wallets along with their bank account. You might use Stripe, PayPal, or Square.
Tracking and Portfolio Management
For apps to offer services on micro-investing or robo-advisory, investment tracking by users should be visible and up-to-date. Leveraging AI development services can enable indispensable features for informed financial decisions, such as diversifying the portfolio, automated allocation of assets, performance reports, and risk assessment.
Push Notifications and Alerts
Push notifications could instantly inform users of important transactions, payment confirmations, and investment updates. Additionally, push notifications also work really great for reminders, new feature launches, and customer support communication.
Customer Support
Live chat, email, or even chatbot integration should be robust to give resolution on financial services on the go if needed.
Choosing the Right Technology Stack
The right technology stack will ensure that your app is performing as well as possible, scalable, and maintenance-friendly. Technologies used will always depend on specifics that are supposed to be incorporated into the app. This, however, does not exclude the following commonly used technologies in the development of fintech apps:
- Backend Technologies: Node.js, Python (Django or Flask), Ruby on Rails, Java (Spring), etc.
- Frontend Technologies: The frontend is designed with the selected cross-platform model, which could either be React Native or Flutter. While developing natively, Swift is used for iOS and Kotlin for Android applications.
- Cloud and Database Solutions: Among cloud solutions, the top preference is given to AWS from Amazon, Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud. Databases will include PostgreSQL, MySQL, or MongoDB, given the kind of requirements fintech applications will face.
Compliance and Regulations
Fintech apps have strict regulatory controls imposed on them, especially when it comes to sensitive financial information. Some of the most relevant are as follows:
- GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation): In case your app operates within Europe or caters to its citizens, you will comply with GDPR to protect their privacy.
- PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard): These standards are about the security measures needed when handling information that goes to credit card transactions whenever the app is built to perform such transactions.
- KYC (Know Your Customer): This requires the identification of clients to the financial service providers, not to fraud and money laundry.
The key to ensuring compliance with an application is to work with an app development company that knows about all the regulations and compliance issues due to fintech changes in various regions.
Final Thoughts
Building a fintech app that is related to peer-to-peer payments, micro-investing, or robo-advisory is very challenging, but if done right, it can be very rewarding. The correct feature, technology, and compliance measurer with the right team up with a reliable mobile app development company in India will come up with a robust and scalable financial platform to accommodate the needs of today’s tech-savvy users.
Consider that the world of fintech requires three things: security, usability, and trust. Therefore, if you aim to achieve success in the long term, ensure that your app covers all three elements.
