What compliance requirements do you design for in banking software?

Requirements vary by product type and jurisdiction. Card systems need PCI DSS. Transaction monitoring and suspicious activity reporting fall under BSA/AML, and customer onboarding needs KYC. Customer data is governed by GDPR and CCPA, cloud-hosted infrastructure by SOC 2 Type II readiness, and API-based integrations by open banking and PSD2 standards. We engage your compliance team in discovery. Compliance shapes the architecture, not the other way around.

Can you integrate with our existing core banking system?

Yes. Most banking software projects involve integration with an existing core banking system (Temenos, FIS, Fiserv, Jack Henry, or a proprietary legacy system). Integration approaches depend on what the core exposes: modern cores have REST APIs; older systems expose SOAP, FTP-based file exchange, or direct database connections. We assess the integration surface during discovery. The most common pattern is an API layer that abstracts the core, allowing digital products to evolve independently while the core remains stable.

How do you handle banking-grade security requirements?

We treat security requirements as architectural constraints, not post-build additions. That means encryption at rest and in transit for all financial data, role-based access control with least privilege, and MFA plus step-up authentication for sensitive transactions. It also means full audit logging of who accessed what and when, penetration testing before launch, OWASP-aligned development with dependency scanning and secrets management, and infrastructure hardening for production.

What is your experience in financial services?

We build payment processing systems, PCI-DSS-scoped fintech products, and banking-adjacent applications for financial services clients. One example is a mobile point-of-sale platform for a UAE fintech operator that processed over 10,000 transactions in its first three months and passed a 2025 PCI DSS audit. Every financial services project treats compliance and data security as baseline constraints, not optional extras.

When should a bank or fintech build custom software versus using a Banking-as-a-Service provider?

BaaS providers handle the regulated infrastructure layer well for standard products: accounts, ledger, payment rails. Custom software makes sense in three cases. The product experience, credit model, or workflow is specific enough that BaaS configuration creates friction. You need to own the full stack for competitive or compliance reasons. Or per-transaction economics don't work at your volume. We scope both options during discovery and tell you which approach fits your situation.

How long does a banking software build take, and what does it cost?

Most teams launch a validated v1 of a digital banking feature set in 10 to 16 weeks, then iterate from there. The full product is an ongoing build. We agree a fixed cost before development starts, with milestone-based payments. Cost depends on scope and compliance complexity, and core banking modernization is scoped separately from a digital product build.

Banking Software Development Company

Custom software for digital banks, lending platforms, credit unions, and fintech companies building banking-adjacent products.

We build the technology layer that banking products run on, from customer-facing digital banking apps to the backend systems that process transactions, manage compliance, and automate operations.

Digital banking applications, account management, payments, statements, and customer self-service
Lending origination, underwriting automation, and loan servicing platforms
Payment infrastructure with payment gateway integrations and transaction processing
KYC, AML, and compliance tooling built into the product architecture

3+ years RetentionWeek 1 First milestoneFixed price Pricing

The problem

Sound familiar?

Running banking operations on legacy core systems that can't support the digital products your customers expect?
Building a lending or payments product and need software that meets compliance requirements without sacrificing speed to market?

Short answer

RaftLabs builds custom banking software for digital banks, lenders, credit unions, and fintechs: digital banking apps, lending origination and servicing, payment infrastructure, and KYC/AML tooling. PCI-DSS and KYC/AML rules are designed into the architecture before any code is written. Teams typically launch a validated v1 in 10 to 16 weeks at a fixed cost, then iterate.

Trusted by

And PSD2-aware architecture from sprint one: PCI-DSS

Weeks to a validated v1, then iterate: 10-16

Clutch rating across our work: 4.9/5

Cost, agreed before we start: Fixed

Banking software that compliance teams can ship

Banking software has two hard requirements that most software doesn't. It has to work reliably at the transaction level (financial errors aren't acceptable), and it has to satisfy the compliance and audit requirements that regulators impose.

Both requirements have to be designed in from the start, not retrofitted after the product is built.

Problems we solve in banking

01
Problem
Regulatory compliance costs eating into margin
Solution
Compliance teams spend weeks manually extracting data from disparate systems to produce BSA, FinCEN, or open banking reports. Every manual step adds cost and introduces the risk of errors that regulators notice. When an examination finds gaps in your audit trail, remediation costs far more than building the right infrastructure the first time. We build compliance tooling into the product architecture so reporting is automated and auditable from day one.
02
Problem
Legacy core banking blocking every new product
Solution
A new savings product or loan type requires months of core system changes, IT sign-off cycles, and vendor involvement. By the time the product is live, competitors have already captured the market. The core becomes a constraint on commercial decisions rather than infrastructure that enables them. According to McKinsey, roughly 70% of a typical bank's technology budget goes to maintaining legacy systems, leaving under a third for new products. We build an API layer over the existing core so digital products can launch without waiting for the core to change.
03
Problem
KYC and AML running on manual processes
Solution
Identity verification and transaction monitoring handled by staff takes days per customer and creates inconsistent results. Manual KYC processes don't scale and they don't satisfy auditors who want a documented, repeatable workflow. Suspicious activity that manual review misses becomes a regulatory liability. We integrate KYC and AML tooling directly into the product so every check is automated, logged, and auditable.
04
Problem
Fraud detection too slow to stop losses in real time
Solution
Batch fraud review catches fraudulent transactions hours after they clear, when recovery is difficult or impossible. The longer the detection latency, the larger the loss exposure. Rules-based fraud systems built years ago don't adapt to new attack patterns. We build fraud detection that runs at transaction time, using configurable rule sets and anomaly detection so suspicious activity is flagged before it settles.

What we build

Digital banking applications
Customer-facing banking apps with account dashboards, transaction history, fund transfers, payment initiation, statement downloads, and customer service integration. Mobile-first for the customers who don't visit branches. Includes secure authentication (biometrics, OTP, step-up auth for high-value transactions), session management, and device fingerprinting, so your customers transact with confidence and your security team can sleep at night.
Lending origination and servicing
Digital lending platforms covering application intake, document collection, automated underwriting with credit bureau integration, decisioning workflows, disbursement processing, repayment tracking, arrears management, and customer communications. Built for consumer and business lending, mortgage origination, and BNPL. Regulatory compliance for Truth in Lending, Equal Credit Opportunity Act, and state lending regulations is built into the workflow design, so your legal team isn't retrofitting requirements after launch.
Payment systems and infrastructure
Payment processing infrastructure: payment gateway integrations (Stripe, Adyen, Braintree), ACH and SWIFT payment flows, card program management, FX and multi-currency handling, and merchant payment platforms. Includes payment reconciliation, settlement, and chargeback management. PCI DSS compliance requirements are considered in the architecture from day one, so you don't carry certification debt into production.
KYC, AML, and compliance tooling
Compliance infrastructure for regulated banking products: KYC workflows with document verification (Jumio, Onfido, or similar), identity verification, sanctions screening, PEP checks, and ongoing monitoring. AML transaction monitoring with configurable rule sets and case management. SAR filing workflows and audit trail generation. Regulatory reporting for BSA, FinCEN, and international equivalents. Compliance tooling is built into the product rather than bolted on, so auditors see a system that was designed to comply, not one that was patched to comply.
Core banking modernization
Modernizing legacy core banking systems without stopping the bank. We build an API layer over existing core systems to enable digital products while the core is gradually replaced. New products run as microservices, independent of the legacy core. Data migration from legacy formats includes reconciliation and audit. We assess the existing system before recommending the modernization approach, so the plan fits your infrastructure rather than a generic playbook.
Banking automation and AI
Banking automation features: credit risk scoring with custom ML models, fraud detection and anomaly detection, document extraction for loan origination (income verification, bank statement analysis), automated customer support for banking queries, and automated regulatory reporting. Banking AI requires explainability for regulatory reasons. We build models with documentation adequate for compliance review, not black-box systems that your regulators won't accept.

How we work with banking clients

01
Compliance and technical discovery
We start by mapping your regulatory environment: PCI-DSS, KYC, AML, open banking, and any jurisdiction-specific requirements, alongside your existing core banking infrastructure. We identify what the core exposes via API, what requires workarounds, and where compliance constraints shape the architecture. You get a scoped proposal and a fixed cost before development starts.
02
Architecture design with compliance built in
Banking software architecture decisions have compliance consequences. We design data models, access control structures, encryption, audit logging, and infrastructure configuration to meet your regulatory requirements before any code is written. Your compliance team reviews the architecture document before development begins.
03
Sprint-based development with working software each cycle
We build in two-week sprints. At each sprint review you see working software you can test, not a slide deck of what's coming. Compliance-critical components are tested against your requirements at each sprint, not deferred to a final QA phase where fixing problems is expensive.
04
Security testing, launch, and handover
Before go-live, we conduct penetration testing and a security review against your requirements. We provide full technical documentation, run onboarding for your team, and support the production deployment. You own the source code and the infrastructure.

Frequently asked questions

: Requirements vary by product type and jurisdiction. Card systems need PCI DSS. Transaction monitoring and suspicious activity reporting fall under BSA/AML, and customer onboarding needs KYC. Customer data is governed by GDPR and CCPA, cloud-hosted infrastructure by SOC 2 Type II readiness, and API-based integrations by open banking and PSD2 standards. We engage your compliance team in discovery. Compliance shapes the architecture, not the other way around.
: Yes. Most banking software projects involve integration with an existing core banking system (Temenos, FIS, Fiserv, Jack Henry, or a proprietary legacy system). Integration approaches depend on what the core exposes: modern cores have REST APIs; older systems expose SOAP, FTP-based file exchange, or direct database connections. We assess the integration surface during discovery. The most common pattern is an API layer that abstracts the core, allowing digital products to evolve independently while the core remains stable.
: We treat security requirements as architectural constraints, not post-build additions. That means encryption at rest and in transit for all financial data, role-based access control with least privilege, and MFA plus step-up authentication for sensitive transactions. It also means full audit logging of who accessed what and when, penetration testing before launch, OWASP-aligned development with dependency scanning and secrets management, and infrastructure hardening for production.
: We build payment processing systems, PCI-DSS-scoped fintech products, and banking-adjacent applications for financial services clients. One example is a mobile point-of-sale platform for a UAE fintech operator that processed over 10,000 transactions in its first three months and passed a 2025 PCI DSS audit. Every financial services project treats compliance and data security as baseline constraints, not optional extras.
: BaaS providers handle the regulated infrastructure layer well for standard products: accounts, ledger, payment rails. Custom software makes sense in three cases. The product experience, credit model, or workflow is specific enough that BaaS configuration creates friction. You need to own the full stack for competitive or compliance reasons. Or per-transaction economics don't work at your volume. We scope both options during discovery and tell you which approach fits your situation.
: Most teams launch a validated v1 of a digital banking feature set in 10 to 16 weeks, then iterate from there. The full product is an ongoing build. We agree a fixed cost before development starts, with milestone-based payments. Cost depends on scope and compliance complexity, and core banking modernization is scoped separately from a digital product build.

Banking software by product

Proof

Payments and fintech proof

Mobile Point-of-Sale and Payments Platform for a Fintech Operator

10K+: Transactions processed in first 3 months
5K+: App downloads in first 3 months
4.8: Star rating on Google Play

Read case study

Related services

Talk to us about your banking software project.

Tell us the product, the regulatory environment, and your existing infrastructure. We'll tell you how we'd approach the build.

Scope and cost agreed before work starts. No surprises. No obligation.
Working prototype within 3 weeks of kickoff.
Pay by milestone. You see progress before each invoice.
60-day post-launch warranty. Bug fixes, UI tweaks, and deployment support. No retainer.
All conversations are NDA-protected.

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