Banking as a service for a wealth management platform

Analyzing the needs of new target audiences

Our team analyzed the needs and habits of Millennials and Gen Zers. Potential users proved to be tech-savvy and have active lifestyles. Asset management wasn’t initially of interest to them. Most still considered themselves too young to get started with investments. At the same time, they were interested in increasing their wealth and were looking for smart ways to manage their finances.

To attract this audience, our goal was to develop functionality that would:

1. effectively assist users with their day-to-day financial activities
2. eventually introduce users to the world of asset management

Taking into account the lifestyle and aspirations of younger generations, we bet on bridging the gap between new users and existing investment software with digital banking capabilities such as:

Designing a monetization strategy

Through the implementation of digital banking functionality, the client enabled users to withdraw funds received from asset and cryptocurrency trades directly onto their debit card. Digital banking capabilities would help the client start receiving profit by:

1. getting interest from cash on cards (deposits)
2. collecting part of the interchange fee

The functionality would be available in two tiers:

• Free tier with digital banking and basic wealth management functionality
• Premium tier with advanced cost tracking and analytics capabilities

Implementing digital banking functionality

To find a banking provider to integrate with on the back end and get the system on track in accordance with the client’s business needs and industry security requirements, we:

• collected project requirements and researched available banking as a service (BaaS) solutions to pick the best option. We shortlisted products that satisfied the technical requirements: Galileo, Unit, and Column. Our client chose Unit because it met all requirements and was financially suitable.
• built a solution architecture that would allow for easy integration and a short time to market. Our engineers decided on a monolithic over a microservices architecture, as the product required a quick launch. We organized features into modules and established smooth communication among them. 
• set up the integration using a proxy server. The product infrastructure needed to be independent for making functional customizations, performing essential administrative actions such as changing transfer limits, and switching to another core banking provider if needed.

Creating a user-friendly design fast and without compromising on quality

Our FinTech engineering unit had an established design system in place as well as a solid library of conventional and frequently used design patterns collected over years of developing FinTech and banking products. By applying them, we: 

• saved the client’s budget and quickly prepared the first concepts
• introduced classic design patterns, combining them with catchy yet well-balanced animations to create a gratifying mobile experience
• kept the app’s design simple and intuitive yet classy to satisfy industry standards and end user expectations
• created a seamless user experience based on the client’s brand book and style guides