Technology for financial services came about as a response to the challenge of making finance more straightforward and more accessible. Now, people are demanding that their transactions be fast, easy and secure — globalization has required to work at a broader, more rapid speed.
Multi-currency digital payments are a norm, peer-to-peer lending is now more popular than going through a cumbersome application at a bank, and insurance claims can be filled out from your home within a few minutes. Financial institutions, banks, and brokers are adjusting to the demands of the public, striving to attract and retain customers by digitizing data.
Regardless of the industry, we have to keep in mind that faster and easier is expected to translate into mobile. That’s why the most popular FinTech Apps are available in both mobile and desktop versions. If you’re planning on creating a fintech app from scratch and want to learn more about the most popular types and their common traits you will need to be ready to deliver both a desktop version and have your mobile optimized.
Types of FinTech Apps
The broad spectrum of financial applications ranges from insurtech (technology for insurance), regtech (regulatory technology), money transfers, lending apps, payments, and trading — just to name a few. This explosion of new applications for financial services has shifted and revolutionized the way the entire industry does business.
So, how your new app will break through in the industry?
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Digital Payments:
Today, people prefer to use mobile wallets instead of credit cards. Digital banking allows people to send money without using traditional banks and process payments more cost-effectively.
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Investment and Wealth Management:
Investment solutions not only allow people to hold their assets in a single place but also manage their financial portfolios at will and from anywhere in the world.
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Lending:
Applications for peer-to-peer consumer lending and B2B lending give consumers easy access to loans. Now users can access loans at only a fraction of the time it would take to obtain the same type of loan from banking institutions.
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Trading:
Online trading apps have given anyone who has access to the internet the ability to invest in the market, monitor risk in real time and share knowledge.
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Personal Banking:
Customers can now manage their money online. Banks and startups in this space are creating online wallets and profiles to maintain services to translate into a better and faster user experience.
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InsurTech:
Insurance companies are also using digital solutions to provide a better customer experience. Users can perform activities such as acquire new services and fill out claims directly from the app at any time.
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RegTech:
Regulation applications use machine learning and big data to constantly observe rules and carry out analysis that allows these companies to solve regulatory issues and challenges.
Common Traits of Financial Applications
So, what do these apps have in common? Although each type of fintech app will require its own set of user-friendly features, you can find these traits on all the applications that cater to the financial industry:
Personalization
Finance must take into account a delicate balance between offering services that apply to the masses and treating each customer with individuality – after all, money is a sensitive subject. That being said, fintech apps must understand their clients well enough to implement strategies and build applications that make each user feel unique.
This is something a user doesn’t necessarily experience within traditional banking institutions, but with the help of technology like artificial intelligence, financial applications can now better understand the users’ desires and wants with real data. Finding a way to personalize an application for financial services makes transactions more enjoyable.
Integration
Integration has two fronts when it comes to fintech apps: the capability of integrating with several other systems and cross-platform synchronization. Having the capacity to integrate with multiple applications is more of a necessity than a luxury for fintech apps.
Both individual and business customers require a variety of services such as mobile payments, crowdsourcing or financial resource management services – unless an app is prepared to cover all their needs, it must be compatible with other applications to be able to exchange information.
One of the biggest challenges with a system that supports multiple devices is the synchronization of state between devices or synchronization between numerous users. If you have a financial application that runs on multiple platforms, it’s suggested to have your setup shared between all these platforms and have a consistent experience.
Authentication
With money being such a delicate subject and all, security takes on a key role for fintech apps. Building trust and confidence among the app’s user base and potential customers is of utmost importance; people will be wary of using a brand new app that doesn’t have outstanding security measures.
Two-factor authentication is a good way of securing digital accounts. Two-factor authentication is the most widely-used security measure for these types of applications. Third party services such as Twilio Verify or Twilio Authy allow verification via SMS or a unique app that the user installs on their device. That way, they have full control over accessing the account.
Blockchain Fintech Technology
Blockchain fintech technology is on the rise and a must-have nowadays for these companies. Using this technology will create further confidence in the users as it is the building block for the app’s transparency. In essence, blockchain development does not allow a single transaction to be modified or deleted once it has been confirmed so any mistakes must be counteracted with another operation.
Stock-trading apps and others use blockchain to track the complete lifecycle of a financial transaction, create secure financial products at minimal cost, and make financial services both functional and technologically sophisticated.
Data Tracking and Analysis
Regardless of the type of fintech app, users want to be able to track and analyze their financial activities and transaction history. The users can track their financial movements and easily access their transaction history.
Having the information accessible in a single dashboard and with graphics or visual representations always helps the user have a better experience online and allows them to understand fluctuations on their financial habits with reliable insights easily.
Fintech applications have a bright future ahead and what’s to come is unpredictable, but one thing is a fact: big things are happening. We, for one, are ready for what’s to come. It only takes one significant idea to change the world to be part of the revolution of the financial industry by bringing your own idea to reality.
