7 Step Process To Develop a FinTech App That Drives ROI

To many, the thought of building a FinTech app from scratch is a nightmare. It is because building an app from scratch requires significant investment and effort. However, with a matured FinTech software development ecosystem in place, it gets quick and easy to build FinTech apps. Don’t misunderstand ‘quick and easy’ with simple, designing and developing FinTech apps is complex due to robust security requirements.

There are several functions that every FinTech app needs in order to work perfectly.

For example, the following are the functions almost every FinTech would need:

1. User authentication and data encryption
2. Most secure hosting
3. Credit score data access
4. Banking account access and payment capabilities
5. Payment gateway
6. Chat support

If you try to build all of these functions to implement them into your app, it would take you forever to build your Fintech app.

Also, it will add to the cost of your FinTech app development.

Fortunately, these features and functionalities are already built by many companies in the FinTech ecosystem, you just have to integrate the APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) provided by them into your FinTech app.

I’ll talk about these APIs while discussing the development process of a typical FinTech app.

1. User Authentication and Management - Use Firebase

You will need to authenticate the user identity and will also have to manage your user base over time.

Google Firebase is the best option for user authentication, management, and crash reporting. Firebase will allow you to integrate with a pool of other Google services that will provide your users with a rich app experience.

2. Obtain Secure Hosting - Use Cloud Firestore

Your FinTech app would require an encrypted cloud-based database solution. Google’s Cloud Firestore can seamlessly integrate with other different solutions from Firebase.

This will provide your users with an astonishing user experience. Cloud Firestore is highly scalable to simplify the FinTech development process.

3. Credit Score Checking

There are several APIs that can help you fetch the customer credit score data. FinTechs like Experian are helping businesses by providing APIs that facilitate credit sores sharing. Some country specific agencies like American Credit System can help you generate FICO scores and full credit reports. 

Another agency, the Universal Credit Services (UCS) Services can provide you credit score data from 3 credit bureaus including Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. UCS consolidates the credit data received from these credit bureaus to provide you with a single unified report.

4. Bank Information Access - Use Plaid

This is one of the crucial APIs for your FinTech app. It connects your FinTech app to users’ bank accounts, which facilitates customer’s banking data sharing.

Plaid is very agile and holds users’ financial data to help other FinTechs like you speed up the development.

5. Integrate Payment Gateway - Use Stripe

Stripe helps you process payments globally. It allows you to make use of several payment service providers without having to integrate all of them individually.

Stripe integrates with Plaid; hence, it frees you from having to comply with PCI certification.

6. Chatbot Implementation

Off-the-shelf chatbot solutions like Chatbot use NLP (Natural Language Processing) and machine learning technology to automate the customer service required for your FinTech business.

You can integrate chatbots for several customer interaction touchpoints like authentication or grievance resolution.

7. Don’t Forget the Compliances

The FinTech compliances are what make Fintech applications challenging to build. With all these APIs data flowing through the air, the application can be prone to hacking/theft.

Hence, before you develop your FinTech app, you need to make sure that your app is compliant with the latest FinTech norms and security protocols.

FinTech Development App Cost Estimate

The best way to build your FinTech app is to outsource the development to a FinTech app development company. FinTech development requires experienced developers that can manage the strict regulatory compliances, while keeping the user experiences at par.

However, the cost to develop a FinTech app depends on several factors including the features that you want to integrate, complexity of the app, and the geographical location of your development partner. Most of the IT projects are developed on the basis of hourly rates. Whereas the hourly rate for development varies as per the location of the development team.

The cost of FinTech app development typically ranges between $20,000 to $100,000.

Following are the hourly rates for different regions across the world:

• 1. Eastern Europe: $32.29
• 2. Western Europe: $67.20
• 3. Asia: $25.83
• 4. Africa: $28
• 5. North America: $46.35
• 6. Latin America: $45.71

Wrapping Up

Needless to mention that the FinTech development company you pick should have prior experience in developing FinTech solutions.

Last but not least, building an MVP before launching a full-fledged app is the best approach to mobile application development.

The MVP will allow you to test your app idea without having to invest heavily. Based on the customer feedback, you can then roll-out an amazing full-feature FinTech app.