Fintech Software Development Services
Fintech software development, compliance built in from day one.
Building a fintech product on a generic software platform means discovering too late that compliance, audit trails, and financial-grade reliability weren't designed in. Payment rails, AML/KYC checks, open banking connections, and regulatory reporting are not features you bolt on after MVP.
We build fintech software with compliance and financial-grade reliability built into the architecture from day one. Payments, lending, open banking, wealth management, RegTech, and embedded finance, scoped to your specific product and your specific regulatory obligations.
Financial-grade reliability with audit trails and compliance controls built in from the start.
PSD2, MiFID II, FCA, GDPR, PCI DSS, and AML/KYC compliance-aware architecture.
Open banking, payment rails, and embedded finance integrations.
Shipping production fintech and financial services software since 2015.
Bring the problem, the current workflow, or the existing code. We reply with a practical next step within one business day.
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The brief
Start with what is not working.
Good software decisions begin with the constraint, not a list of features or a preferred technology.
Building a fintech product on a generic software platform and discovering that compliance, audit trails, and financial-grade reliability weren't designed in?
Six months from launch and your fintech platform still can't pass a bank's vendor security review?
Plain answer
RaftLabs builds fintech software for payments, lending, open banking, wealth management, RegTech, and embedded finance for clients across the US, UK, Europe, Canada, and the UAE. Compliance-aware architecture covers PSD2, MiFID II, FCA, GDPR, PCI DSS, and AML/KYC. A validated v1 ships first, then grows.
What to remember
- RaftLabs builds fintech software for payments, lending, open banking, wealth management, RegTech, and embedded finance.
- Compliance-aware architecture covers PSD2, MiFID II, FCA, GDPR, PCI DSS, and AML/KYC from the start of development.
- A validated v1 ships first, then grows into the full platform.
- A first fintech module with one core workflow is the smallest credible slice; the full platform grows from there over time.
- Shipping production fintech and financial services software since 2015, rated 4.9/5 on Clutch.
The build that couldn't pass the bank's security review.
A team ships a fintech MVP on a generic software platform. It works in the demo. Then a partner bank sends its vendor security questionnaire, and the gaps show up all at once: no append-only audit trail, no consent management, transaction handling that was never built to be idempotent.
None of it was negligence. Compliance, audit trails, and financial-grade reliability were treated as features to bolt on after launch, not decisions to make in the foundation. Six months in, the rebuild costs more than building it right the first time would have.
Payment rails, AML/KYC checks, open banking connections, and regulatory reporting are not features you add after MVP. They follow from the regulation, and the regulation belongs in the architecture from day one.
Generic software platforms break when you try to build fintech products on them. The architecture decisions that work for a SaaS product do not work for a regulated financial service. Audit trails, idempotent transaction handling, consent management, and regulator-ready documentation need to be in the foundation, not the finishing coat.
According to BCG's 2024 Global Fintech Report, fintech revenues grew 21% in 2024, three times faster than traditional financial services, driven by payments, lending, and embedded finance. For the software teams building these products, the differentiator is not speed to market but compliance architecture that survives a regulator's scrutiny as transaction volumes grow.
We build fintech software with the compliance requirements of your specific product and your specific market designed in before the first line of code. Whether you're building a PSD2-compliant payment platform, a FCA-regulated lending product, or an embedded finance layer on top of Banking-as-a-Service infrastructure, the architecture follows from the regulation. RaftLabs has shipped production software since 2015 for clients across the US, UK, Europe, Canada, and the UAE. One team scopes the regulatory obligations, builds the platform, and hands it over. The people who assess your problem in week one are the people who ship it, with PSD2, MiFID II, FCA, GDPR, PCI DSS, AML/KYC, and SOC 2 requirements scoped in week one, not retrofitted before launch.
Proof
- shipping production software across fintech, healthcare, hospitality, and logistics
- Since 2015
- RaftLabs delivery record
- average client rating across delivered projects
- 4.9/5
- Clutch, verified reviews
- PSD2, MiFID II, FCA, PCI DSS, AML/KYC, and SOC 2 requirements scoped into the build, not retrofitted
- Week one
- Every fintech build
For lending and credit software in depth, including loan origination, credit decisioning, and mortgage-specific workflows, see our dedicated lending page.
Fintech pays off as a custom build when the regulation is specific to you.
Everything on the left should already be true for your product. Even one thing on the right, and a configured fintech SaaS or Banking-as-a-Service tool is the smarter spend right now.
A fintech product with real regulatory obligations across payments, lending, open banking, wealth, or embedded finance that generic platforms can't support.
Compliance requirements (PSD2, MiFID II, FCA, GDPR, AML/KYC) that need to be designed into the architecture, not retrofitted before launch.
A decision-maker who can define the regulatory scope, and budget for a fixed-scope build.
A standard need a configured fintech SaaS or Banking-as-a-Service tool already covers well.
Pre-revenue with no budget and regulatory requirements still forming.
Shopping for the cheapest hourly team, not a fixed-scope partner.
The first decision is not what to build.
It is whether software is the right answer at all. We use four possible recommendations before discussing a development scope.
- 01
Buy
Choose a maintained product when it handles the core workflow and the remaining gaps can be solved with configuration, a connector, or a small process change. Paying for software you do not have to maintain is often the better trade.
- 02
Repair
Keep the existing product when users still get value from it and the code can be understood safely. Start with evidence: where the code lives, how the data is organized, what is tested, which outside services it depends on, who can access what, and how updates go live.
- 03
Build
Own the system when the regulated workflow shapes margin, customer experience, speed, or a product customers pay for. Start with one complete path and the system connections that path cannot work without.
- 04
Wait
Do not turn a changing policy into permanent software. Stabilise the rules, name the workflow owner, and measure the cost of the current process before paying for a product.
Not sure which path is yours? Bring it to a 30-minute call. Leave with the answer in writing.
Scope
What we build
Payment platforms
Payment processing integration with recurring billing, subscription management, and proration, built on major payment processors or direct acquirer connections with multi-currency FX and settlement. Card data is handled by the payment processor, not your servers, on a PCI DSS architecture, and settlement reporting reconciles what the processor collected against your ledger, catching discrepancies before they compound.
Lending and credit software
Loan origination workflows from application to offer, with automated credit decisioning against your risk rules and underwriter queues for applications that fall outside auto-decisioning thresholds. Bank-statement analysis and credit bureau connections feed the decision. For deeper coverage of loan origination, mortgage workflows, and servicing systems, see our lending software development service.
Open banking and API banking
PSD2-compliant account aggregation pulling live balance and transaction data with explicit user consent, plus payment initiation for direct bank-to-bank payments without card rails. AISP and PISP connections via certified open-banking providers, with consent and token management handled for you. Financial data analytics built on live account data: cash flow categorisation, spending analysis, and affordability assessment.
Wealth and investment platforms
Portfolio tracking across asset classes with performance calculation, benchmark comparison, and P&L reporting. Broker or prime-broker API execution and investor portals, with MiFID II suitability documentation workflows covering the questionnaire, risk profile calculation, suitability record, and periodic review. On the corporate side, we build the same visibility for treasury teams. Multi-bank cash position lands in one view, forecasting builds around actual receivables and payables, and multi-currency FX exposure is tracked before it shows up in the numbers at quarter end.
RegTech and compliance
AML/KYC automation covering identity verification, sanctions and PEP screening, transaction monitoring with configurable rules, and suspicious activity reporting (SAR) workflows. Audit logs for every financial decision and data access event are stored in an append-only format that regulators and auditors can inspect. Where a single rule set can't cover the case volume, we build agentic workflows that triage flagged transactions and customer support requests end-to-end, escalating only what genuinely needs a human decision.
Embedded finance
BNPL integration on existing commerce or marketplace platforms with credit decisioning at checkout, plus embedded payments and card issuing via Banking-as-a-Service providers. White-label financial products put your brand on the customer-facing product while the licensed infrastructure sits behind it.
The stack we build FinTech software on
We are not tied to one framework. We pick the stack that fits your compliance obligations, transaction volumes, and handover needs, then document every choice so any competent engineering team can maintain it. The technologies we reach for most often when building financial software:
| Layer | Technologies we use | Where it fits |
|---|---|---|
| Frontend | React, Next.js, TypeScript, Tailwind CSS | Customer portals, compliance dashboards, and investor-facing UIs |
| Backend | Node.js, Python, Java, Go | Transaction handling, decisioning engines, and financial-grade APIs |
| Databases | PostgreSQL, Redis | Double-entry ledgers, append-only audit logs, and low-latency caching |
| Payments and data | Stripe, Plaid, card networks, ledger services | Card processing, open banking connections, settlement, and reconciliation |
| Cloud and compliance | AWS, PCI-DSS, SOC 2 | Production-grade hosting with compliance scope designed in from sprint one |
The rule holds at every layer: no proprietary frameworks that lock you in, and no stack we cannot hand to your team on day one. For open banking and payment initiation we connect to certified providers such as TrueLayer, Plaid, and Nordigen rather than screen-scraping, and card data is handled by the payment processor rather than your servers to keep PCI-DSS scope small.
Tell us where your fintech architecture is under strain.
Walk us through your product and your regulatory obligations. We'll scope the build, compliance-aware from day one, and give you a fixed cost with full source code ownership.
How it works
How we build fintech products
- 01
Regulatory and compliance scoping
We map your product's regulatory obligations before designing anything. The compliance requirements are specific to your product type, your target market, and your licensing position. A PSD2 payment initiation service has different obligations than a FCA-regulated consumer credit product. We document what applies, what you're already compliant with, and what the platform needs to support.
Regulatory obligation mapping: product type, geography, licensing position.
Compliance controls required at the platform layer vs your compliance team's operational processes.
Third-party compliance service selection: identity verification, AML screening, credit bureaus.
Fixed-cost scope for the first phase with milestone delivery dates.
- 02
Architecture design
Financial software architecture decisions are harder to change than most. We design the data model, API structure, transaction handling approach, and audit trail architecture before writing code. The architecture review is where we catch the decisions that create compliance debt or reliability problems at scale.
Data model and transaction handling design: idempotency, double-entry accounting where required.
Audit trail architecture: append-only event logs, audit event schema, retention policy.
Third-party integration architecture: payment processors, AML screening, open banking APIs.
Security architecture: authentication, authorisation, data encryption, PCI DSS scope reduction.
- 03
Compliant platform build
We build in 2-week sprints with deployed builds at the end of each. Compliance controls are built into each sprint, not added in a final compliance sprint before launch. Your compliance team can review what's been built at each sprint rather than seeing it all at once.
2-week sprints with working product demos at the end of each.
Compliance controls built as first-class features alongside functional requirements.
Automated tests for business rules, compliance checks, and regulatory workflows.
Third-party integration testing against sandbox environments throughout build.
- 04
Compliance testing and audit preparation
Before launch, we run a compliance testing phase that validates the controls work as designed, not just that the code passes unit tests. Transaction monitoring rules, AML screening outcomes, consent management flows, and data subject request handling are tested against realistic scenarios.
Compliance control validation: AML screening, KYC workflows, transaction monitoring rules.
Consent management and data subject request handling tested end-to-end.
Audit trail integrity verification: append-only storage, tamper detection.
Penetration test support and security review documentation for FCA or bank vendor reviews.
- 05
Launch and regulatory documentation
We deploy to production and prepare the documentation your compliance team and any regulator will ask for. Data flow diagrams, API documentation, compliance control descriptions, and audit trail formats in the format that FCA applications, bank vendor onboarding, and SOC 2 audits expect.
Production deployment with monitoring, alerting, and on-call response plan.
Regulatory documentation: data flows, compliance controls, audit trail formats.
Incident response procedures for payment failures, data incidents, and AML escalations.
Post-launch support and compliance review cadence.
Proof
Fintech and financial services products we've built
- 01
Mobile POS app
- 02
GrantHub business grants finder
- active grants indexed
- 1,600+
- countries covered
- 21
- average time to find a relevant grant
- 10 min
- 03
Musgrave receipt scanning software case study for SuperValu and Centra
Musgrave's post-campaign report records 1,062 users and 1,610 receipt submissions. At the reporting snapshot, 1,158 were AI approved, 409 AI rejected, 4 manually approved, 10 manually rejected, and 29 remained processing.- users in the campaign report
- 1,062
- receipt submissions at the reporting snapshot
- 1,610
- project period recorded in the task
- About 2-3 months
Fintech software vs standard banking software
Buyers often ask where a custom fintech build sits next to a core banking system. They solve different problems. A fintech product is API-first and product-driven; a core banking system runs a bank's ledger and back office. Most fintech products sit alongside core banking via open banking APIs rather than replacing it.
| Dimension | Custom fintech software | Core banking system |
|---|---|---|
| Built by | Non-bank companies, licensed or operating under an exemption | Banks and their core vendors |
| Architecture | API-first, product-driven, fast to deploy | Ledger-centric, back-office, slow to change |
| Typical use | Payments, lending, open banking, wealth, embedded finance | Deposit accounts, the general ledger, settlement |
| Relationship to banks | Sits alongside via open banking and BaaS APIs | Is the bank's system of record |
| Compliance focus | PSD2, MiFID II, FCA, PCI DSS, AML/KYC at the product layer | Prudential regulation and core ledger controls |
Pitfalls we plan around
Most fintech rebuilds we are called into failed on the same handful of decisions. We design around them from the first sprint.
- Non-idempotent transactions
- A retried request charges a customer twice. We make payment and ledger writes idempotent, keyed on a client-supplied reference, so a network retry never double-posts.
- Silent open-banking breakage
- Bank consents expire after 90 days and tokens lapse. Without a re-consent flow, data goes stale without warning. We build consent expiry handling, token refresh, and re-authentication prompts from the start.
- SCA friction vs abandonment
- Strong Customer Authentication is mandatory under PSD2 but blunt SCA kills conversion. We apply exemptions where the regulation allows and only step up authentication when the risk warrants it.
- Screening false positives
- Loose sanctions and PEP rules bury a compliance team in false hits. We tune screening thresholds to your risk appetite and route only genuine matches into the SAR workflow.
- Reconciliation drift
- What the processor collected and what your ledger recorded quietly diverge. We reconcile settlement against a double-entry ledger and surface discrepancies before they compound.
- PCI DSS scope creep
- Touching raw card data drags your whole stack into PCI audit scope. We keep card data with the payment processor so your servers stay out of scope.
Where fintech is heading
Two shifts are changing how fintech software has to be built. Open banking has moved from pilot to infrastructure. In 2024, more than 11.7 million UK consumers made over 22 million open banking payments a month (Open Banking Limited, 2024), and account-to-account rails now sit next to cards in mainstream products. Embedded finance is the second shift. BCG and QED project fintech revenue to grow sixfold to $1.5 trillion by 2030 (BCG and QED, Global Fintech 2023), much of it from finance embedded inside non-financial products.
We design for both. PSD2-compliant open banking connections replace screen-scraping, and Banking-as-a-Service integrations let a non-bank ship a regulated financial product without holding the licence itself. If you are building toward embedded payments, embedded lending, or an open-banking data product, the architecture has to anticipate it now, not bolt it on later.
What FinTech software development costs
We price by project, not by the hour. After a regulatory and compliance scoping session you get a fixed quote with a defined scope, timeline, and price, so you know the number before development starts. Most clients start with one module and expand once it proves itself:
- First fintech module
- One core workflow with compliance controls built in, and the smallest credible slice we would ship.
- Full platform
- Multiple product lines, regulatory reporting, and third-party integrations, built out from the first module over time.
What pushes cost toward the higher end: deep regulatory compliance such as FCA-authorised product workflows, MiFID II reporting infrastructure, or PSD2-certified API connections. Multiple regulated third-party integrations also add cost, as do native mobile apps alongside the web platform. What keeps it down: a narrow first scope, a single core workflow, and managed compliance services such as AML/KYC automation rather than building screening and monitoring from scratch. We scope every project before pricing it.
What it costs
Fintech software, compliance-aware from day one.
A defined scope, a timeline, and a number, agreed before development starts.
Most clients start with one core workflow, priced and agreed in week one, then expand scope once the first release is live.
Starting investment
Starts at $10000
Compliance controls scoped in week one. Start with the core workflow, then extend scope as the platform proves itself. After a 30-minute call, you get a written build, buy, repair, or wait recommendation plus first-phase direction. Free, whether or not you build with us.
No hourly billing
Once we scope your first phase, that price is locked in writing. No hourly billing, and a scope change is a priced request, never a surprise on the invoice.
Compliance built in
PSD2, MiFID II, FCA, GDPR, AML/KYC, and SOC 2 requirements are scoped in week one, not retrofitted before launch.
Work with us
Tell us where the work is stuck.
Bring the rough workflow, half-built product, or messy brief. We will map the smallest useful first move, then send scope, timeline, and price in plain English.
- 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.
Common questions
We build across the full range of fintech products: payment platforms covering card processing, recurring billing, multi-currency, and settlement reporting; lending and credit software covering loan origination, credit decisioning, and open banking integration; open banking platforms with PSD2-compliant account aggregation and payment initiation; wealth and investment platforms with portfolio tracking, trade execution integration, and MiFID II suitability documentation; RegTech and compliance tools covering AML/KYC automation, transaction monitoring, and suspicious activity reporting; and embedded finance products including BNPL, embedded payments, and card issuing via Banking-as-a-Service providers.
PSD2 compliance requires Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) for payment initiation, open banking API connections via certified AISPs and PISPs, and specific consent management flows. We build SCA into the authentication layer and connect to PSD2-compliant data providers rather than screen-scraping. MiFID II compliance for investment platforms requires documented suitability assessments for each client and investment recommendation, best execution policies, and transaction reporting. We build the suitability questionnaire workflows, the decision documentation, and the reporting infrastructure as part of the investment platform, not as afterthoughts.
Open banking integration involves connecting to account data (via AISPs) and payment initiation (via PISPs) through regulated API connections. We connect to regulated open-banking providers to reach bank accounts across the UK and EU. Account aggregation pulls live balance and transaction data with explicit user consent and a defined consent period. Payment initiation triggers a payment directly from the user's bank account without card rails. The integration handles consent management, token refresh, and the edge cases that appear when bank connections expire or accounts are closed.
AML/KYC automation covers identity verification at onboarding (document verification plus a liveness check), sanctions and PEP screening on onboarding and on an ongoing schedule, transaction monitoring rules that flag patterns matching money laundering typologies, suspicious activity reporting (SAR) workflows that route flagged cases to your compliance team, and audit trails for every compliance decision. The rules are configurable because your risk appetite and your product's transaction patterns are specific to you. We don't use one-size-fits-all thresholds.
Ask who is actually on the project: employees or subcontractors. Ask about Banking-as-a-Service and sponsor-bank experience. Ask how reconciliation works. Confirm IP ownership: code, repositories, and cloud accounts in your name from day one. Ask what the firm has declined to build, and why.
Scope the smallest version a real customer could use and pay for. One page, the same page to every firm, makes quotes comparable. A real fixed price needs a proper scoping exercise first; a number on the first call means padding or change orders waiting to happen. Sandbox behavior rarely matches production.
Compare on total cost to a safe release, not the cheapest hour. Hidden costs include vendor sandbox delays and certification cycles, compliance workshops and evidence production, knowledge transfer, after-hours payment-incident coverage, and rework when acceptance criteria ignored money-edge cases. Bolting compliance on later is expensive and risky. Your legal obligations need a lawyer's eyes, not just clean code.
Ask four questions. One: who holds the funds? Any firm that does not ask is a red flag; who holds the funds determines the whole architecture. Two: what have you declined to build, and why? Three: are code, repositories, and cloud accounts in our name from day one? Four: can we buy the smallest paid engagement before the big one? Then check the security basics: penetration testing before launch, permissions and audit-log design, and what sensitive data to avoid storing in the first place.
Most clients start with one core workflow. A first fintech module with compliance controls built in is the smallest credible slice we would ship. The full platform, covering multiple product lines, regulatory reporting, and third-party integrations, grows from there over time. Pricing is fixed cost based on scoped features, so you know the number before development starts.
A validated v1 with one core workflow, compliance controls, and payment or open banking integration is built to validate the product with real users, not to be the finished platform. The full platform, covering multiple product lines, regulatory reporting, and native mobile apps, is an ongoing build that grows from there. Timeline depends on integration complexity, the number of regulated third-party connections required, and how clearly the compliance requirements are defined at kickoff.
Fintech software is typically built by non-bank companies that are either licensed or operating under regulatory exemptions to deliver financial services to consumers or businesses via digital channels. It's built to be fast to deploy, API-first, and product-driven rather than built around a core banking ledger. Standard banking software (core banking systems) is designed to run a bank's ledger and back-office operations, typically large, expensive legacy systems. Fintech products often wrap or sit alongside core banking systems via open banking APIs rather than replacing them.