The Financial technology industry has developed into an attractive sector for entrepreneurs and investors who want to build efficient yet profitable businesses. The financial software business also provides a solid platform for development companies to launch their own applications. This article describes three critical elements of successful fintech software development.
What is Financial Technology Software Development?
The term “fintech” is usually used to describe a new app, service, or product that uses technology to help companies manage the financial aspects of their business, like payroll and billing. As the name suggests, fintech is financial technology.
Fintech can cover any tech that relates to managing your money. Common examples include mobile apps that help you budget or invest your money and websites that compare financial products.
You might also have heard about cryptocurrencies, like bitcoin, which use blockchain technology to manage secure payments and transactions online.
The Core of Fintech Software Development
One of the great things about fintech software development is that it offers many applications and use cases. However, there are certain commonalities that most fintech software development services need to consider. From a high level, the core of fintech software development can be broken down into three main areas: payments, lending, and investing.
The first priority for any Financial technology product is to ensure that users can make payments. While this may seem like an obvious thing, it’s actually an incredibly complex system that needs to deal with many different payment types (including credit cards, debit cards, alternative payment methods, and more). Additionally, payment solutions need to adhere to regulations to offer a secure and trustworthy service.
Another core area of fintech is lending. Lending includes personal loans as well as business loans. While most lending products go through a traditional bank first, many newer companies offer peer-to-peer lending. This involves connecting people who want to borrow money with people who want to lend money. They also handle all of the details of repayment and interest rates for the loan. Finally, investing is a big part of fintech software development solutions.
The Importance of Cybersecurity for Fintech Software Development
The financial sector is a prime target for hackers and cybercriminals. The most damaging cyber threat to date, the WannaCry ransomware of 2017, caused $4 billion in losses and affected over 200,000 victims in 150 countries.
The financial services industry is heavily regulated, and rightly so. But this can also create a culture of risk aversion among IT professionals who work in it. This is dangerous: securely and responsibly delivering technology services is part of their role in compliance with regulations.
The regulatory landscape that defines how organizations can innovate while staying secure includes the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), which applies to all organizations that store, process, or transmit credit card data. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) applies to all organizations processing the personal data of EU citizens and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)’s Senior Managers & Certification Regime (SMCR), which applies to all UK-based regulated firms.
When it comes to financial services technology, reputation is everything – if customers don’t trust you, they won’t use your service or product. This makes breaches particularly devastating to an organization’s future prospects.
Fintech Software Development Best Practices
Every software development project presents its own challenges, but financial technology projects present the unique challenge of managing the expectations of a wide range of users. At First Rate, we’re experienced in working with our partners to develop software that meets the needs of all involved. Here are a few best practices we’ve found effective when developing fintech software.
1. Develop an MVP
The key to a successful fintech software development process is to start with an MVP (minimum viable product) that will meet the basic needs of end-users and stakeholders. This ensures that the application is both functional and user-friendly. Your MVP should be a prototype where you can test functionality, usability, and performance before investing more minor bug fixes into it.
2. Take security seriously
With fintech, this is especially important. Customers trust your app with their personal information and banking details, so you need to ensure that safety is up to standard and that everything is secure. This means looking into your design approach and your choice of technology—fintech development requires extensive security testing. You also need to care when choosing cloud providers who will handle your data safely. Be sure you understand what they’re doing with it
Summary
Fintech software development is more than just a product. The core of fintech lies in the processes that make it even better, faster, and more reliable. Our developers are trained to work with large amounts of data and handle it easily.
The depth of our experience allows us to deliver solutions that are tailored to your business requirements while at the same time taking into consideration your budget and deadlines. You can rely on our team of highly talented developers to create innovative solutions for your business needs. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you achieve your business goals!
