Fintech, also known as financial technology, is the application of technology to transform financial services and banking. Many innovative businesses are now adopting fintech integrations in their web and mobile applications to increase customer engagement and revenue. At Alta, we make it easier for businesses to add fintech integrations to their mobile apps without code. Some of the most popular fintech integrations used by many startups and Fortune 500 companies in their applications include:
Today, over 85% of US households currently have a smartphone. Additionally, the rise of new technologies including artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud computing, has significantly fueled innovation in the Fintech sector. According to Deloitte, investments in Fintech increased from $53.9 billion in 2020 to $131.4 billion in 2021. In the next few years, Fintech integrations will continue to improve, and we at Alta want to help your business best utilize these integrations to grow your business.
There has been a rapid rise of Fintech companies as web and mobile technology adoption increases globally. We have seen innovation from new Fintech companies in a number of sectors including payments as evidenced by PayPal and Venmo, online banking led by companies including Capital One 360 and Ally, and mobile apps focused on Fintech by companies such as Robinhood and Coinbase. Businesses and consumers no longer want to visit the local bank branch for their financial needs and are instead increasingly expecting digital experiences to manage their bank accounts, credit/debit cards and financial life. Examples of popular Fintech products targeted to consumers include mobile banking, electronic payments, robo-advisors, digital mortgage applications, insurance, personal loan products and wealth management.
Fintech companies also help businesses offer online financial services such as buy now pay later products, credit or debit card creation and confirmation of credit score and bank account transactions. These embedded financial products can help businesses from many industries including e-commerce, travel and media utilize Fintech integrations to offer new innovative digital experiences to their app users.
The technology fueling the unbundling of banking services is often in the Application Programming Interfaces (API) layer. Many Fintech startups now offer simple APIs for software engineers building web or mobile applications to quickly integrate financial services into any application.
However, business users looking to build mobile experiences often do not know which fintech integrations to prioritize and struggle with understanding API documentation. Therefore, new tools need to be built to simplify the integration process to further increase mass business adoption.
At Alta, we have built simple recipes for users from all backgrounds including non-technical business users and more technical software engineers to quickly and easily integrate fintech features into a mobile app. With guided tutorials and videos, any business user will be able to quickly set up integrations with top fintech providers without code.
As a starting point, here are the top Fintech integrations to consider adding to your app:
One of the most highly valued Fintech companies valued at $95 billion, Stripe powers many of the world’s e-commerce websites. Stripe enables businesses of all sizes from startups to Fortune 500 companies to send payments, accept payments and manage fraud and risk. This is one of the most powerful payment platforms in the world and we highly encourage you to explore Stripe’s powerful API integrations.
As the most popular mobile payment platform, Apple Pay has over 500 million users worldwide as of 2020 and over 50% of iPhone users have used Apple Pay to purchase products and services both online and in-store. When building an iOS app, businesses can significantly increase conversion and revenue by integrating with Apple Pay.
On Android, Google Pay is king. When building an Android app, businesses can quickly integrate with Google Pay to allow end users to make purchases with credit card information previously stored on their mobile devices. For e-commerce and marketplace apps, integration with Google Pay can significantly reduce friction in the checkout process and increase overall revenue.
This is a more complicated set of APIs but widely used by fintech companies including Mint, Personal Capital and Credit Karma to quickly access users’ banking and brokerage account information. First, businesses must integrate with the Plaid Link SDK to allow end users to link their financial accounts to Plaid and give permission for the app to access their accounts via the Plaid API. After end users have linked their accounts, the Plaid API offers a number of options to pull transaction data or see their balances.
A banking as a service (BAAS) provider that claims it can help companies build banking products in minutes. They allow businesses to integrate with their API to build next-gen bank accounts, cards, payment and lending products while handling all the backend compliance and banking relationships. Other BAAS options to consider include Syncterra, Treasury Prime and Cross River.
When building lead gen forms for lending, many businesses need to confirm credit scores and income in order to approve a credit card, personal loan, auto loan or mortgage. Experian’s API makes it easy to validate this personal information and also offers the ability to validate phone numbers and email addresses. Another popular option to consider for this use case is Equifax.
If you are looking to build a crypto app, Coin API provides easy to integrate APIs that let you quickly pull crypto prices, charts, market cap and volume. Another more affordable option is CoinGecko.
Buy now pay later has become a very popular feature on e-commerce and travel apps, and Klarna is one of the fastest growing options whose business customers include H&M, Ikea and Expedia. Integrating with a buy now pay later provider can significantly increase your top line revenue and fuel your e-commerce or travel app. There are many alternative buy now pay later options including Affirm and Afterpay (owned by Block - formerly Square) so do your research to figure out which option is best for your business.
With the magic of APIs and no-code tools, more businesses are able to harness the power of emerging Fintech technologies much faster and more easily. Additionally, innovations in AI and blockchain technologies will power the next generation of fintech apps. With the right API integrations, businesses of all sizes can utilize these new technologies. Along with using no-code tools, such as Alta, businesses can quickly build a mobile Fintech app in less than a day without code.
Start building your fintech app today with Alta using a customizable mobile template that allows you to create an onboarding flow, sync with Plaid and display user account data in a simple chart.
