The financial services industry is already facing huge disruption due to the influx of neobanks and non-banks. These new fintech disruptors are threatening the traditional financial businesses and operating models, with the requirement to build new apps and technology very real and ever-expanding.
The fintech industry as a whole prospered during the pandemic, with a joint study by the World Bank and the University of Cambridge saying it grew by 13% in 2020 alone.
Combine all these factors and suddenly you have an industry looking at how they can utilise this technology trend to make a difference with their aggressive ambition.
Why Fintech Wants To Use No-Code
There are many different reasons why fintech should be looking to make greater use of the no-code industry.
Funding
Fintech is a competitive market and raising funds is challenging as you are against competitors looking for that same dollar. That means the funds you have need to be spent wisely and held until you impress the people that will give you the serious long term investment - this is where no-code is perfect for the fintech industry.
Whilst a traditional development route could take a business at least $250,000 to get a first iteration of the tool, no-code can do this for 10% of that cost. This is due to the speed at which development can be achieved.
This then means that further iterations to get the product right for the big investors (and it will take several) will be progressively cheaper. All this helps ensure that your runway is larger and that the product you can afford to produce and go to market with is going to be better than those going the traditional route.
Speed
Talking about competitors, you won’t be the only one trying to deliver your tool. You’ll want to beat the others to market and the investors. If you can produce your development in a fraction of the time of others, then you have a massive advantage.
In addition, the platform's simplicity and streamlined approach mean changes can be made quickly. In an industry where regulation changes are made often and with harsh penalties for not following the rules, it is important that you can make lots of small and frequent changes.
MVP
Using no-code might not all be about the long term product, it could simply be about producing a swift and powerful MVP that you produce faster and drives focus in the business. You might have identified that the complex nature of your long term vision will require other tools but that will take months and years, but you need an MVP quicker than that.
Many turn to no-code to produce an MVP that can start to get customer and stakeholder feedback so they make fewer mistakes with the more expensive development program and thus they can show investors and get the funding needed for this longer-term development!
One Size Does Not Fit All
One key reason why fintech companies are moving away from the existing traditional software development is a lack of customization within them. They have realised that whilst the employee-facing side of things works fine for most businesses, these same software companies are limited in their ability to build experiences right for the end customer.
Equally important is the fact that each financial institution has its own quirks and needs, often driven by legacy systems. Something as simple as processing a payment or bank transfer will be handled differently by each business, therefore they are looking at solutions that are easier to develop and thus more flexible to work to their specific needs.
Why The Uptake Has Been Slower Than Other Areas
Despite all these reasons, fintech has been one of the slower sectors to go the no-code route and whilst they are starting to address that, there were a few reasons for this that the industry has to be aware of and how no-code is adjusting accordingly.
All the reasons relate not just to fintech but any industry that is heavily regulated. Concerns always existed around the security of the tools, which have been addressed by all the major platforms over the last couple of years. Then there was the issue of where the data was held and accessed but the advent of most platforms' API libraries and the ability to connect the tool to the bank's databases has removed that barrier.
The final issue is not exclusive to this industry and is a problem no-code continues to improve upon but has not driven off yet, which is scalability. Whilst we are a long way from a no-code platform building and managing the next PayPal or Amazon, 99% of fintech start-ups would go several years before they overstay their welcome on these tools.
Types Of Apps
The types of development will depend on the company and their status. Many start-ups will be looking at building new and innovative apps whilst more traditional financial institutions might be looking to transition towards automation and improved customer experience. Here are a few example apps and common functionality.
Payment Solutions
One option that could be built to fit within an existing company's infrastructure or built as a product to sell in the B2B environment is the payment app. Use of credit card details, authentication, fingerprint sensors, contactless payments or even crypto - they can all be built into a solution for someone looking for payment processing.
Trading Platforms
Maybe the stock exchange but increasingly the crypto market. Whichever area you are looking to service, you could utilise a no-code approach to building a trading platform.
Invoicing Solution
One popular app type being sold across the Google and Apple stores involves the creation, distribution and monitoring of billing. A solution to raise an invoice, automate its send and fire out chasers at the appropriate time is a great way of saving repetitive work for your internal teams and thus is a popular solution for people to create and sell online.
Internal Solutions
Many financial institutions are now using no-code to quickly make internal apps that can be used to pull together different sources of data and report progress on a custom dashboard that is used to monitor the performance of different parts of the business.
How To Build A Fintech App
It might seem quite a daunting prospect but when you think about how to build a banking app you’ll find it’s very similar to other app development and if you choose to select a no-code platform to build it on, then it’s not as difficult or expensive as you might imagine.
You obviously need to start with your idea. This might be something completely new that you’ve come up with, taking an existing concept and improving it or just choosing a well-known idea and applying it to a new market or niche.
It’s important to test the idea out on the market by doing some research. Talk to prospects if possible, look at the existing app marketplace and what you are up against, so you know what you need to do to stand out. Remember that your goal is to make a profit, you want a very clearly defined and understood monetization plan for the application.
Once you are happy with your idea, then turn your attention to the platform you will use to build upon and what resources you will need. Select a platform that has strong use cases for your idea and the fintech sector overall. Look at the support that comes with it and the APIs that exist because any fintech app development is going to need to connect with lots of external sources.
However user-friendly no-code platforms have become, if you are serious about building a fintech app, you’ll need a team to support you. Look for people that have built with your chosen platform previously, that can dedicate time to the project and look at examples of previous work that have similarities to what you have already done.
Before you begin you’ll need a requirements document that lists the user stories you are looking to fulfil, the pages you want in the app, key functionality and a rough layout of the key pages to help the developers understand your vision.
Creating a simple, low-fi wireframe of the app would be a good addition to the requirements doc. It will enable you to give a visual outline of what you are hoping to see and by using the no-code platform you can see quickly what is possible so that time and money is not wasted on development effort that cannot be completed. self service password reset
With your plans in place and a team ready to go, it’s time to start the banking app development but don’t try and engineer everything in phase one. The key here is producing a minimum viable product. This is a version of your app with the basic functionality in place that is needed to make it usable with the prospect but without all the extras that you’ll eventually add.
This will enable you to reach the market faster, get user feedback and evolve the product in the right direction. It can also be used to show investors your vision and start to look at additional funding to build the larger end product.
Where fintech app development is different from most other projects is the level of regulations you need to be aware of and build into the process. These are not ‘nice to have’ features, they will need to be in your MVP. They also change a lot, so ensure you are monitoring throughout the project and be ready to accommodate new ones! crypto 401k
Whether you are looking at a banking app development project or a wider fintech app development, there are many similar things that you’ll need to ensure are built into your app.
- Two-factor authentication will be a basic security feature all apps need
- Ensure it is blockchain ready
- Data analytics capabilities
- Alerts and notifications
- Integration capabilities - you’ll want to connect with banks and other financial institutions
- Account management startup 401k
Our First Unicorn Is Coming
If proof were needed that no-code is capable of scaling and being the backbone of fintech businesses in the long term, then look at the success stories that already exist.
Companies like Qoins, BCB Group and Dividend are flag-wavers for the fintech / no-code collaboration working as they head towards being potentially the first unicorn and whilst Gartner estimates that by 2025, 65% of all app development will be using no-code technology, it’s clear that the next big fintech is going to use no-code in some form.
