What is BankOpen?

BankOpen is a popular digital banking platform that is entirely online. It doesn’t have any branches, nor is it present in any specific physical location. This process is called neobanking. Neobanking facilitates online payment, receipt, lending and borrowing of money along with several other functions.

BankOpen allows businessmen to manage invoicing, payroll and automate bookkeeping, send and receive payments and control cash flows all on one platform. BankOpen is the first neobanking platform in Asia and it has become very successful.

To build a fintech app like BankOpen is a complicated process and requires a team of professionals but with the increased popularity and convenience of neo banking, it can lead to great success.

What is Fintech?

Fintech or Financial Technology describes any technology that is used in financial services. It uses the digital platform to provide financial services like online payment, managing investments, raising money for a business startup, etc. Fintech also includes the development and use of cryptocurrency.

When first introduced, fintech was used in the backend of banks and trading institutions. But as the technology developed and started becoming a major part of daily life, fintech became more consumer-oriented.

Fintech has changed the landscape of financial services. It is everywhere from transferring money to trading stocks to even making payments for groceries and is posing a threat to traditional banks and financial institutions.

Read Also: 13 Best Finance Apps 2020

Need for Fintech Apps

Anything and everything is done on a mobile phone now, be it calling, texting, shopping or even sending money. Everything is available at your fingertips now, making tasks that were hectic and time-consuming, easier.

People find that Banking and payment apps are much more convenient as it avoids the long processes that are an integral part of traditional banking. Therefore, fintech apps have huge potential nowadays.

Steps to Create an App like BankOpen

1) Identify a niche market

The first and most important step in developing a fintech app is to identify the audience for the app. The creator of the app has to decide if the app is for individuals, institutions or businesses. Through market research, the needs of the target audience can be identified and the scope of the app can be properly planned.

2) Build an MVP model

Start with an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) model. Build a prototype of the app and release it for a small sector of the target market. The prototype should only contain a limited set of the app’s features and show the basic structure of the app.

The main aim of releasing a prototype is to get feedback on it. Users will give feedback on the errors of the app and also ways to improve it. Depending on the feedback, changes can be made to the app so that it becomes very user-friendly to fully release to the public.

3) Get cloud services

A start-up may not be able to invest in IT infrastructure in the beginning. Instead they can get cloud services to provide storage, infrastructure, operating system, etc. to begin their development process.

PaaS (Platform as a Service) or MBaaS (Mobile backend as a service) platforms provide cloud services. Software Development Kits (SDK) and Application Programming Interface (API) can be used for app development.

4) Hire a professional team for app development

An experienced and professional team has to be hired for the development of a good quality app. An ideal team consists of a visionary, requirement analyst, project manager, designers, mobile app developer, iOS developers, android developers, QA (Quality Assurance) specialists and sales and marketing specialists.

5) Be compliant with the local regulations

Banks and other financial institutions have many regulations binding them. Many laws are established to try and protect this sector from fraudulent activities. Therefore, it is difficult to break into the financial service industry. Fintech apps developed should be able to verify government provided IDs.

6) Set-up IDEs

For the development of apps, certain development tools are required which are provided by IDEs (Integrated Development Environment). The best IDEs for android app development are Android Studio, IntelliJ IDEA and NetBeans IDE. The best IDEs for iOS app development include Xcode, Appcode and Atom.

7) Develop the app

Once the development tools and teams are ready, the next step is to develop the application. The developers have to make sure that while the fintech app has all the features that they have already planned, it is also visually pleasing.

The user interface must be simple and easy to navigate. Aesthetics play an important role in the popularity of an app. An app with the right theme and colour palette will give an enjoyable experience to the user. Also, make the app icon unique so that it will be easier to market it later on.

8) Test the app

Once the app is developed, it has to be tested on several devices before it is released. Since it is a fintech app, users have to be sure about the security of their data on the app.  Therefore, before releasing the app, measures have to be taken to ensure the safety of information on the app.

The best places for release of apps are Google Play Store, AppStore and Microsoft Store. Once they are released, the users can give feedback on the app and accordingly, the weak and strong aspects of the app can be identified and necessary improvements are made.

Essential Features of Fintech

1) Simplicity

The most essential feature that makes any fintech app successful is its simplicity. Apps should be easy to use and reliable. The simplicity of these apps enables users to manage their finances and save their earnings.

Good fintech apps provide users with advanced services that allow them to keep track of their finances, thus feeling empowered. These apps aim to become simple analytical tools that collect and organise financial data, display transactions and allows users to create financial programmes.

Payments, borrowing money and management of finances are much easier through fintech apps rather than conventional banking procedures. This makes it very attractive to consumers.

2) Personalisation

Fintech apps are consumer-oriented. App developers must strive to understand their clients and make each client’s app experience unique.

With the help of artificial intelligence, a user can be provided with personalised services that are not usually available in banking and other financial institutions.

When the financial services provided is personalised, users will be more satisfied with the app, thus creating a greater reputation for it.

3) Security

Fintech apps must ensure users about the security of their personal data. Since the focus of fintech apps is money, users have to be assured about the security of their data.

Apps must also always be vigilant about any cyber security threats. Some good ways to ensure security are two-factor authentication and lockdown of the account after multiple failed login attempts.

4) Integration

One of the essential features that an app must be successful  is its ability to integrate with other apps like those for bill payment and financial resource management. An individual or a company requires several services.

Unless the app is built to provide all those services, it must be able to integrate with other apps. Developers will have a hard time to develop and maintain a coding that enables integration of the app with others.

Read Also: 15 Best Stock Trading Apps 2021

How do Fintech App make money?

People do business to make profits. In the same way, apps are also developed with the aim of generating profits. Giving free service all the time will be a huge loss for the app developer and so services have to be monetized. The most common methods through which fintech apps make money are:

1) Subscription

First time users of the app are given a free trial period that can last from a week to 30 days. If the users like the app, they will pay a subscription fee for further use of the app.

Users can also be given premium service where basic features of the app are given to the users for free but certain advanced features like trading advice can be offered as a premium service for which the users makes a small payment.

2) Advertising

Fintech apps advertise third party companies on their platforms for money. When users click on these advertisements, the app gets money from those third parties. Different users will get different ads based on their personal preferences.

3) Peer to Peer Lending

Fintech apps can be a platform for individuals to lend money to each other. They can earn interest on the money they lend and in turn, the fintech platform will charge a small fee as brokerage.

Trends and Statistics

• Recent research reports show that almost 88% of well-established financial institutions fear that they will lose their revenue to fintech companies in areas such as money payment and lending.
• About 46% of today’s consumers exclusively use digital platforms for their financial needs
• In 2018, fintech firms acquired more than $111.8 billion in investments
• More than 82% of traditional financial institutions are planning to increase their collaborations with fintech companies.
• By the year 2022, mobile payments are estimated to grow by 121%. This composes 88% of all banking transactions.

How Much Does It Cost to build Fintech App like BankOpen

Fintech apps can be developed within 40–50 days at the cost of $10,000 or more. But development of the app is not a one-time process. According to the frequency with which the government changes its regulations, the coding of the app has to be revised.

iOS apps are much easier to build and cost less than android apps. iOS users are also more likely to pay for their apps. But there are more Android users than Apple, especially in Asia. The cost per download for Android is lesser than iOS and Android apps need not be updated as frequently as iOS reducing its maintenance cost.

The cost to build a fintech app like BankOpen is $4800 in India when compared to $48,000 in the US. Most developers, therefore, outsource their development projects to India as they will get more talent and expertise at a lesser cost.

Similar Apps

Fintech is a very competitive field now and more and more players are entering the field. Some fintech apps similar to BankOpen are:

• YONO by SBI – YONO is a digital banking platform offered State Bank of India. It offers various financial payments like bill payment and is available both on Android and iOS.
• Robinhood – Robinhood is a US based stock trading app. It allows users to invest in public companies and shares listed in the US stock exchange. The app does not charge commission on investments of the users.
• Chime – Chime is a US based banking app. It doesn’t charge any transaction fees. It allows users to manage their savings and expenses.
• Mint – Mint is a successful budgeting app that allows users to keep track of their income and expenditure. The app also reminds users to pay their bills and offer them advice based on their spending patterns.
• Google Pay – Google Pay is a digital wallet that is linked with the users’ bank accounts. This app can be used to make payments, purchases and even book tickets

Read Also: 15 Best Money Transfer Apps 2021

Conclusion

Financial Technology is taking over the financial service industry. Now is a great time to build fintech app like BankOpen with the increased number of smartphone users.

More and more people are getting to know about the convenience of such apps and according to recent studies, users of such apps are expected to grow by 120%.

Entering at an early stage into the market will give you a competitive edge over new players. To build a fintech app like BankOpen is a profitable but complicated process.

Redbytes has a team of professional and experienced developers who can provide the best services in the industry. With previous experience in such projects, they will be able to help build successful fintech app like BankOpen.