There are many things you need to consider before you start building a transactional banking fintech service. For example, do you know how to keep integrations up to date? Have you thought about how to safeguard your clients’ money as well as your own? Did you know there were FX cut-off times?
Daniel Cronin, of Integrated Finance has addressed these topics, and many more, in an informative white paper, which is available to download now, free of charge.
Download the latest white paper from Integrated Finance to learn how to build a transactional banking fintech service
This comprehensive white paper covers many different terms and processes that you need to know in order to successfully build your service. Here are just a few examples of some of the points raised in the white paper,
Understand the importance of safeguarding in your fintech service
Safeguarding refers to the practice of protecting your customers’ money and it is something you definitely need to know about. As the white paper explains, it broadly focuses on two areas – Capital Adequacy and Segregation. Capital Adequacy is about making sure that if the worst case scenario ever occurs, you have enough capital to wind the company down and protect your clients from losing their money in the process. Segregation means that you split out your clients’ money from yours, so if the unthinkable happens, everybody (clients and suppliers) knows who is owed what.
The whole point of safeguarding is to protect client money, and it is different from the FSCS (Financial Services Compensation Scheme) scheme that banks offer because there is no upper limit. An important point highlighted in the paper is that only a bank can provide you with a designated safeguarding client account.
Keep integrations up to date
One section of the white paper explains the importance of keeping on top of integrations in your system. Humans are great at building software, but we tend to have a problem with maintaining it over time. Specifically for financial services, banks and NBFIs regularly add new features or alter the connection methods, by adding a new Application Programming Interface (API), for example. Each tweak made to a connection method has the ability to disrupt or break your product, so it is vital to stay on top of each integration, and make sure it remains up to date.
It is very common to underestimate the cost of doing this. The cost and complexity rises non-linearly and will consume more of your development resources than you think.
Become familiar with FX Cut-off Times
As explained in the white paper, a cut-off time is the deadline that you need to have the currency you wish to sell in the appropriate account. Each currency has a different cut off-time for your bank or liquidity partner to deliver the currency into your bank account. Major currencies, such as the US Dollar, British Pound, Euro, Canadian Dollar and Australian Dollar will be available for delivery on the same day, with varying cut-off times, relative to geographical location. Generally, the further west on the International Date Line – the more time you have to complete the settlement.
Same day conversions for some currency exchanges can be very difficult to achieve, however, due to extreme distance between the countries, which prevents banking hours from overlapping. Your system needs to know this information, before you promise your customer a currency that cannot meet the same-day timescale.
Talk to the Integrated Finance experts
As knowledgeable financial service providers we can help you with your fintech service development, transactional banking products and APIs (application programming interfaces).
Download our latest white paper, free of charge, to find out what you need to know about building a transactional banking fintech service. Contact us now to speak with an experienced advisor.
