Guide to Financial Software Development for Business
Fintech is one of the world’s fastest-growing and most promising industries. Digital banking, investment and trading platforms, cryptocurrencies, etc., have become our everyday reality.
So if you have a financial business or plan on launching one, finding an optimal software development team to help you achieve your goals and give you a competitive advantage is instrumental.
In this article, we look at what it takes to develop financial software, what potential pitfalls you have to be aware of, and how to avoid them.
What software does the fintech industry need?
According to various researchers, the value of the global financial market is estimated to reach more than $230 billion by 2026.
Given the high competition, it is evident that innovation will be playing a pivotal role in the field that includes such subsectors as banking, investment, insurtech, cryptocurrency, etc.
So what are the properties of innovative, client-oriented and effective software?
First and foremost, it should be functional and meet customer needs for convenient financial instruments for storing, lending and exchanging money, making payments, and investing.
On top of it, it should outperform competitors by providing additional features, such as statistics on currency fluctuations, charts on financial trends, and alerts on the terms of customers’ obligations.
- Since the financial industry is built around sensitive and confidential information, data security is one of the major requirements.
- The intensive growth of the industry also brings the need for adaptability to the fast-changing environment, both internally (the increasing amount of customer data) and externally (the market and competition).
- Compliance with regulations is another critical factor to take into account. Not only does it help you avoid costly fines, but it also fosters user trust.
- Last but not least, financial software should be easily maintainable and reliable: hackers’ attacks on financial software are inevitable, but they must be recognised and blocked quickly without causing damage to your application.
That said, what financial software solutions meet these requirements? The short answer is those based on functional programming languages like Haskell, Elm, Elixir, Rust, etc.
Today, two major programming paradigms are object-oriented programming and functional programming. The former works well when you need a standard solution like building a static website. The latter deals with complex problems with distributed systems and blind spots whose emergence you cannot even predict. And this is precisely what the financial sector deals with.
I have been following several IT firms specialising in designing financial software, and one of them, Serokell, especially attracted my attention to its fintech portfolio.
This company has successfully used Haskell as its core programming language for developing cryptocurrency platforms and financial instruments.
Stages of financial product development
Experienced software developers design the product and guide you through the entire process, from ideation to post-launch maintenance, providing support for your project on a long-term basis.
Collecting requirements
Collaborative brainstorming, in the beginning, is a crucial step to be addressed. You may have a general idea of what you need for your business but see only one side of the problem.
With expert technical knowledge, you may fully understand what is necessary from the programming perspective. The developer can suggest various features you have yet to consider, which would make your application more effective, user-friendly, secure, etc.
Software design
Once all the requirements are gathered, the next phase is developing a state-of-the-art UI/UX design. Here you want to be sure the final product is easy to use and understand and offers a great user experience.
MVP design
After you approve the app design, programmers start coding the product that integrates all the necessary features while ensuring security.
Launch
The next stage is the application deployment on the platform it was developed for, followed by an adoption test needed to adjust the product to the market better. After the trial, software developers add more features to the MVP.
Maintenance
After-launch maintenance is crucial for the functioning of financial software. It ensures that the application is always up-to-date, error-free, and protected from unauthorised access and security breaches.
As an example of execution, I can mention the project where the developers offered an integrated software solution that brought together exceptional security, user functionality, and regulatory compliance.
Final thoughts
If you plan to develop financial software for your business, the key is to hire expert Haskell programmers with experience in fintech.
Start by researching the market and putting together your requirements. With this initial information, you can turn to developers for consulting. They will help you structure the information, look at the task from different angles, and get a more complex picture of the problem based on their experience with similar projects.
After discussing your case with several teams, you can make a well-informed and weighed decision and select the right fit.
