Mobile banking apps: As a matter of fact, the main task of any mobile application is to make our life easier. As the world becomes more technically sophisticated, the banks have to satisfy the customers’ demand for convenient services. 

Taking into account the fact that everyday people make a number of purchases and money transactions, banking apps are not a wish, but a strong necessity for all of us! 

The statistics show that nearly 70% of the US bank clients make use of banking apps. Sounds amazing, isn’t it? And what if I tell you that these figures increase with each other year? Consequently, it may be the most popular app among all others.

  Although there are a lot of banking apps which are rarely downloaded and used. The reasons may include lack of valuable services and poor security guarantees. Then the question arises: “ How to build a secure mobile banking app?” Luckily for you, we have prepared an inventory of tips to help you create a real breakthrough for engaging new clients!

Stages of building a secure mobile banking app

1. What are you going to do?

  It is the first and foremost question you should ask yourself! Decide on the targeted audience, main application’s features, its design and your personal purposes. Moreover, it will be a good idea to investigate your potential competitors! Analyze the mistakes they have made and create your own unique product!

2. UI/UX Design

   It is quite logical that people opt for convenient products! Make sure your app will be an easy one to use for inexperienced clients. Decide on the design of the buttons, forms and icons.

   The text size should be appropriate even for people suffering from poor sight, the colours should be also calm, not aggressive. The application navigation should be free from mistakes, logical and coherent. The easier it will be — the more clients will be engaged!

3. Choose native banking application

  If you want your app to be secure and people to trust you, opt for a native mobile banking app. What does it mean? It is a kind of app, which is designed separately for each mobile platform. For example, to build an application for Android a developer has to use Java or Kotlin languages, while for iOS — Swift language is an appropriate one.

  Consequently, a native app will work only on a certain platform: an application written for iPhone won’t work on Android and vice versa. What are the advantages of such apps? They are believed to be more reliable and secure. Moreover, the performance of such apps is of no comparison! Native applications rarely become targeted by hackers, since the code itself is more sophisticated. In such a way other users won’t get a chance of stealing your money or private information.

  What about terms? An average app development company will cope with building a native app for iPhone or Android within 6-12 months. The price depends on the features and design you want to make. It is counted in each case individually.

4. Multi-factor authentication

  Passwords are a good security measure, albeit too weak! It is not very tough to steal the password or just hack it. A professional will spend just a few minutes on it and then these 2 minutes will cost you really a lot.

   If you want to make your clients trust your app, take care of multi-factor authentication. What is it? It is when the banking application asks for additional information about its owner. These questions may be about some private things which nobody else knows (the maiden name of your mother, the name of your pet), some card details (CV code, date of validity). Other pivotal components of multi-factor authentication are fingerprints and face-identification.

   I know, mobile banking application development is not an easy thing to cope with, although if you don’t take these aspects seriously, the success won’t come.

5. Track the users’ activity

  It will be very smart of you to add some real-time activity tracking features to your banking application. The main objective of it is to collect data about the users and prevent possible hackers’ attacks in case of a fraud. Moreover, this information may be essential for marketing purposes. Thanks to behavior tracking features the bank will react to unusual activities like withdrawing suspicious sums of money, unknown geolocation or any other abnormal activities for a particular user. 

6. Data encryption

  Encryption is a hidden hero, who performs the function of a wall between a hacker and the security of a bank account. In other words all private information which you publish in your banking application becomes encoded by a special algorithm known as a cipher.

  However, the recent survey shows that nowadays Android & iOS development companies avoid adding encryption and geolocation to the applications and write them simply in HTML.

 All in all, data encryption will make your users feel more secure. Consequently, your mobile banking application will be extremely popular among people, who are afraid of losing money and find it difficult to trust any banks at all.

7. Ongoing tests

   The process of creating a banking app is morally tough. Just imagine, you are responsible for the money all your users possess. Such applications are the main hackers’ target, that is why even a small mistake may cost you a lot! 

  You should test every feature, every button you add to the product. The user experience must be faultless and spotless. Make sure the links are correct and the bugs are absent.

  Another great idea is to find a professional and ask him or her to hack your mobile banking application! If it is impossible or almost impossible your product is ready!   

8. Be prepared

   The technologies are advancing extremely fast and you should be ready to face some hacker attacks one day. Make sure the users can block their account and tie up their money. This feature will be a great advantage for you and your clients. 

Drawing conclusions

   After reading this article you may decide that building a mobile banking application is almost unreal. Although, if you apply to a professional team, this process won’t be so challenging! To create a good app you should devote a lot of time, effort, energy and even love to this process. Hope you will cope with it and enjoy the results of your hard work. So, time is money! Let’s get down to business!

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