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Online business tools are increasingly incorporating a multitude of services in order to facilitate day to day activities and simplify the user experience – and the financial sector is not the exception.
Over 10 years ago, the words “finance” and “technology” were merged to create a new word: Fintech, which came about as a response to the challenge of making finance easier and more accessible.
Thanks to the hyper-connected world we currently live in, people are not impressed by digital wallets, digital currencies or banking applications; users are demanding faster, easier and more secure transactions. Financial technologies are now able to cover needs that the traditional financial sector could not. If you’re planning on creating a fintech app from scratch and want to learn more about the most popular types of technology in the financial industry and the 5 traits they all have in common, keep on reading.
The 5 Must-Have Traits Financial Applications Have in Common
The products offered by companies in the FinTech environment are designed to offer more personalized and immediate solutions, but what do these apps have in common? These are the 5 must-have 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 delicate 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 machine learning development services and 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 mobile app development services synchronization. Having the capability 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 trading software development 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 synchronization of state between devices, or synchronization between multiple 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 uniform experience. When you build a fintech app, focusing on synchronization across multiple platforms ensures a consistent and reliable user 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 special 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, cryptocurrency exchange 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 transaction. 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 activities 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 easily understand fluctuations on their financial habits with reliable insights.
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?
- 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.
- 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.
- Lending: Applications for peer-to-peer consumer lending and B2B lending give consumers an easy access to loans. Now users can access loans at only a fraction of the time it would take to access the same type of loan from banking institutions.
- 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.
- Personal Banking: Customers can now manage their money online. Banks and startups in this space are creating online wallets and profiles to manage services to translate into a better and faster user experience.
- InsurTech: Insurance companies are also using digital solutions to provide a better customer experience. Users are able to perform activities such as acquire new services and fill out claims directly from the app at any time.
- RegTech: Regulation applications use machine learning and big data to constantly observe rules and carry out analysis that allow these companies to solve regulatory issues and challenges.
Bringing it All Together
After reviewing the types of fintech apps and must-have features of fintech apps, we’re sure you want to know how this all comes together. Below you’ll find a few examples of fintech applications that embody the traits we have described:
Blockchain E-commerce Marketplace
The OmniBazaar is a new type of e-commerce marketplace that removes the middleman by using a patented “peer-to-peer-to-peer” architecture, integrated with blockchain technology. OmniBazaar fees are up to 100% lower than those of existing e-commerce sites like eBay and Amazon since users deal directly with each other. The OmniBazaar system includes its own built-in cryptocurrency (OmniCoin), so people can use OmniCoins, Bitcoins or Ethereum to buy and sell goods or services in the OmniBazaar marketplace.
Ethereum Blockchain Web Application Scoin
Scoin is a web application, built on the Ethereum Blockchain as a payment token. The utility application lets users send, receive and exchange Scoins, then use them by purchasing various goods and benefits. The app was designed to be a form of internal incentives for companies, or peer-to-peer payments within organizations.
Client Server Application
StocksToTrade is a client/server application made from scratch by using a couple of programming languages like PHP, RubyOnRails, C++ and mySQL. This tool follows and analyzes stock markets based on cumulative and live data. Even though the backend is complex, the UI design is user friendly and aesthetically pleasing with the addition of 2D charting. By integrating the app with institutional data providers and leading financial brokerages, it now is a functionally superior tool with social network integration coming in the future.
Fintech applications have a bright future ahead and what’s to come is unpredictable but one thing is a fact: big things are coming. We, for one, are ready for what’s to come. It only takes one big idea to change the world so be part of the revolutionization of the financial industry by bringing your own idea to reality! Chat with us to share your fintech idea.
