Considering FinTech App Development? Here’s Everything You Need To Know

Whether it is about buying a coffee at a café or managing your finances, Fintech is everywhere. 

We rely on our smartphones to manage our banking needs, trade currencies, make investments in the stock market, buy commodities, and insure our homes and vehicles. It’s simple – if money is involved, there is probably an app for it.

The number of applications created for financial industries is growing with each passing day, but that’s not only in particular for the fintech Industry. Financial solutions are used in every sector in the form of payment gateways, integration with payment systems, or sales service systems. 

If you are considering developing a fintech app for a long time now, many questions may hit your mind. In this post, you will know everything about the fintech revolution. We will discuss the types of fintech apps available, essential features for fintech apps, the cost of building a fintech app, and how Scalex can help you with fintech app development!

The History & Future Of Fintech

The combination of financial services and technology is not a 21st-century innovation. The Fintech industry started way back in the 1950s, with banks being the dominant financial services provider. At that time the Fintech industry was merely seen as an extension of traditional banking services, instead of a mainstream trend. Then the 1990s saw the first movements towards digital banking, with customers starting to manage their money in different ways. 

As time passed, Fintech grew to serve an array of applications primarily focused on consumers rather than just financial institutions. The fintech domain is constantly evolving; innovations are being introduced continuously to meet the end-users frequently changing needs and expectations. 

A report generated by Sensor Tower shows that there were 1.24 billion downloads of finance apps in Q2 2020, 840 million of which were made through Google Play compared to 395 million through the iOS App Store.

According to Statista, the market’s largest segment will be Digital Payments with a total transaction value of $4,934,741 million in 2020 and $1,017,982.4 million of which accounts for mobile payments.  

It is now evident that Fintech apps have exploded in popularity. This isn’t the kind of double-digit growth regularly seen in disruptive tech industries – this is staggering growth.

In the last ten years, the financial industry has experienced more changes than in the previous 100 years! Fintech is revolutionizing the industry, bettering our lives daily from individual savings management to corporate financing or accessible loan solutions to online payment.

Types Of Fintech Apps

Financial technology is very prolific. If you are looking to create a fintech app, you cannot create an app at random, you first need to scrutinize the market and select the type of finance application. Fintech apps fall into several major types.

1. P2P (Peer to Peer) payment

A P2P approach implies an interaction between individuals, whether it is ordering services or buying goods. In the financial sector, it means the possibility to transfer money between bank card holders even if they are registered with different banks and different payment systems.

2. Digital Payments

Fintech has changed the payments industry by integrating digitized processing applications and diverse processing networks. Digital payments are a significant area of Fintech, as every transaction made by consumers involves the digital process. Digital banking allows individuals to send money without using traditional banks and process payments more cost-effectively. 

3. Mobile wallets 

Mobile wallets are e-wallets that store your bank account details in mobile applications, give you access to it, and help make digital purchases. These platforms are secure, easy to use, and improve the overall experience of consumers.

4. Lending/Loan

Fintech companies are changing the lending process. People around the world are now able to apply for a loan using their smartphones, and now they don’t need to turn to banks or credit unions to borrow money anymore. 

5. Insurance (InsurTech)

There has been rapid growth and development in the insurance industry. This has been only made possible by implementing technology in areas where operations might seem strenuous using traditional methods. Smartphone apps, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning, the Internet of Things (IoT), and other tools are integrated by insurers to provide more accessible solutions.

6. Trading

Selling and buying stock investments are made more accessible and better through stock-trading apps rather than traditional means. Online trading apps have given consumers the ability to invest in the market and monitor risk in real-time. These apps are essentially equipped with research and trading tools to help beginners and professionals.

Must-have Features For Fintech Mobile Apps

With the increasing popularity of Fintech apps, the Fintech market is getting competitive with each passing day. To win the competition, you need to build an application by incorporating some extraordinary or exclusive features that deliver more value to the customers than your competitors.

Core Features 

i. Simplified User Experience 

Simplicity is not just about creating a seamless user experience. It is also about streamlining the entire user journey. An ideal fintech app should deliver value in the simplest way possible, starting with the first swipe itself.

ii. Security 

Fintech apps are designed to deal with the most sensitive data of customers involving financial transactions. Privacy and security of users’ data begin right from the sign-up stage, where the users need assurance that the application is taking care of their precious data. The companies should meet compliance and regulation policies and provide complete cybersecurity to their customers.

iii. API Integration

With an increase in the use of smartphones and the growing demand for integration, it’s crucial to sync different apps with each other. Customers want to use fintech apps that address their different financial needs by providing diverse solutions. By integrating APIs of consumer and business-facing apps, companies can offer customers a seamless experience to conduct various tasks from a single platform.

iv. Automation 

Fintech apps can automate various repetitive and manual tasks. It helps customers make instant decisions about their money in terms of where to invest it, what to do with the overdrawn account, how to approve the loan at better interest rates, and more. With the benefit of AI, it also helps in notification management so that the users can receive only those notifications which require their immediate intervention.

v. Support

Fintech companies need to add 24/7 live chat or ticket support to interact with humans or chatbots. To manage time and cost, companies can combine them both. Build a reliable support service to provide a helping hand to a user in need.

Advanced Features 

i. Personalization

Every customer has unique needs. Integrating features that personalize customers’ experience can help your fintech app to succeed. The integration of fintech apps with apps like social media and chat also allows companies to form stronger connections with users. Companies can also help customers make the right decisions about their investment and provide exclusive recommendations with the implementation of Artificial Intelligence.

ii. Artificial Intelligence (AI)

The fintech industry has slowly started to introduce AI options into their application. AI helps businesses automate business operations, increase sales, and detect possible frauds. It also comes with more advanced technologies like Machine Learning to leverage predictive analytics and the inclusions of Chatbots to offer a better customer experience

iii. Data Analytics

People using fintech apps expect the data related to their financial activities to be precise. Data analytics allows you to send users a customized report of their financial activities to help them stay up to date with their spending and savings. 

iv. Blockchain

One particularly notable development is blockchain and how it applies to Fintech. Although blockchain is an early-stage technology, it has seen a significant implementation recently. It offers next-level transparency of users’ transactions at a minimal time. The technology administers, validates, and records every transaction and ensures the authenticity of transactional records. With blockchain technology, Fintech companies can also increase the number of P2P payments and reduce the transaction fee for international and local payments. 

v. Secured Biometric System

It is time to take the security of the fintech apps to a higher level and create trust among the users by providing them with highly secure online payment methods. It comes with fingerprint input, facial recognition, heartbeat management, and palm vein biometrics options. 

It won’t be overemphasizing if we claim that the Fintech applications are transforming people’s financial behaviors around the world. With blockchain, big data, AI, ML, and so many other cutting-edge technologies on the outlook, business leaders are advised to embrace Fintech trends in their business models.

How Much Does It Cost To Build Fintech Apps?

The cost of developing your fintech app will depend on how many features and functionalities you envision. The more the integration of different APIs it will require, the longer it will take to develop, and the higher will be the development estimate. 

We at Scalex suggest starting with building a prototype to verify your app concept before developing it. Many features may be replaced once you have feedback from real customers who have used the prototype. And that gives you an upper hand in keeping control over the overall development budget. 

Our Experience In Building Fintech apps

Fintech app development is something we are competent in and passionate about. We take up challenging tasks to help our partners with requirements development, idea elaboration, architecture design, and everything else the development process, market launch, and product maintenance involved. Scalex has extensive experience working with clients from Fintech. This gives us an innate understanding of the market, the audience, and the technical nuances.

Fintech applications need the best of everything – UI, UX, and paramount security. We ensure your application provides an elegant user journey while being aesthetically brilliant and completely secure. Our past work/projects include –
Digitization of Auto-lending Process,
Integrated Wealth Management Application,
E-Wallets and many more.

We at Scalex turn disruptive fintech ideas from concepts to real-life products and rocket fuel to help these products reach millions of users. If you have a fintech project and would like to discuss it, reach out to us.

It’s Time To Bring Your Fintech App Idea To Life

The market is upscaling, the problems to solve are plenty, and the resources and tools are readily available. If there ever was a time to build a fintech app, that time is now. 

Fintech applications are the hottest trend now as they contribute to companies moving their services to the digital ecosystem. Fintech app development is a multi-stage process that can be very demanding in terms of the efforts required. A committed approach to idea elaboration, design and development, testing, and post-release maintenance is sure to make the product successful and benefit your business.