fintech
fintech
Nextbank Mobile Banking: White label mobile banking app for SaaS banking company
A white label app for bank-in-a-box cloud software company now used by 10 banks in Asia
Nextbank is a software-as-a-service company which provides cloud banking services to 30 banks in Southeast Asia. The bank-in-a-box solutions, used by a third of Nextbank clients, includes 10 web and mobile white-label products, allowing financial institutions to build customised retail and corporate banking applications in less than 10 weeks. The innovative software developed by Miquido, with the flagship mobile banking application, helped Nextbank revolutionise the finance industry in the Philippines in just 5 years.
Prologue
While expanding its business offer in 2020, the company needed a new version of its native Android mobile banking application, reflecting Nextbank’s business strategy. The new mobile banking app had to be accessible, secure, and easy to develop and maintain for our partner – and, thus, for their clients.
During our cooperation, we developed a critical competitive advantage by rewriting the native application to Android and iOS applications via Google’s cross-platform framework, Flutter. The results? Nextbank can now implement new functions and application improvements in a fast and cost-effective way. The company has also strengthened its position as the fintech leader in Southeast Asia and regularly wins prominent industry awards.
10
Banks Using Nextbank Mobile Banking
+ 2 Mln
App Downloads
2nd place
2020 Singapore Fintech Awards
Challenges
Third-party integrations with local providers
Nextbank mobile banking is an application designed specifically for the Asian market. Here, seamless third-party integrations with local payments, KYC, remittance or insurance providers, are essential for fintech apps looking to provide users with diversified financial services. Building a future-proof, secure microservices architecture and ensuring it was compliant with government regulations required careful provider selection. Miquido needed to help our client find the perfect balance between the application’s security, performance, stability and user satisfaction.
Compliance with OWASP security standards
Nextbank needed a scalable, multi-platform software that would be cost-effective in development and maintenance. At the same time, the feature-rich mobile banking app had to meet the strict OWASP Application Security Verification Standards. Knowing the importance of agility in Nextbank’s business strategy, Miquido recommended rewriting the native app with Flutter – an open-source framework created by Google to streamline the app development process. Aware of the emerging technology limitations, we took up the challenge of developing the mobile banking app with the cross-platform SDK while taking care of the highest data protection, privacy, and security standards.
Universal, user-friendly white label app design
Nextbank required a competitive mobile banking application that would meet the needs of a diverse range of users and devices. It was crucial to design user-friendly dashboards with accessible, consistent, and engaging core fintech features, including account management, deposits, loans, payment and transaction processing. Additionally, the white label application had to be scalable and easily adaptable – to enable Nextbank clients to quickly personalise the software and adapt the design to their brand. Knowing that the white label app interface would play a massive role in the sales process, our client sought a perfect combination of all the above mentioned aspects in a minimalist, functional design.
Solutions
Using native code to handle sensitive data with care
OWASP distinguishes several data categories that require particular attention in fintech applications: usernames, authentication tokens, location data, personal information or transaction histories. And although Flutter allows storing of this data locally, especially for banking applications, the safest method is choosing native iOS and Android data storage systems. Therefore, we decided to embed the native Android and iOS code via MethodChannel. Binding to native code allowed our cross-platform team to quickly deliver a secure application compliant with OWASP standards.
Pen-testing and external cybersecurity audits
Mobile penetration testing (pen-testing) is a security assessment methodology recommended by OWASP to gain insights regarding the app vulnerabilities such as insecure data storage or weak authentication. Nextbank was one of the first Flutter banking applications using native and cross-platform libraries. Therefore, we recommended performing pen-tests and IT security audits to verify the app’s compliance with industry regulations. The external assessment proved that our development team perfectly handled clean software architecture, data encryption, multi-factor authentication and code obfuscation.
Cohesive design system
With the idea of a universal app that can be easily scaled and adapted in mind, our design team recommended starting the project by building the design system. A design system is a set of UI components, such as typography, colour palettes or icons and visual design guidelines that constantly evolve with the product. In the case of Nextbank, we grounded it in minimalist UI elements and bright colours: white and blue for the default theme. To diversify the design and support the user experience, we used emojis to mark the banking features in the app’s dashboard.
Designing for scaling
Applying the design system in the white-label app allowed us to create a set of design principles empowering Nextbank’s clients to adjust the mobile app to their brand design quickly and seamlessly. With the minimalist white-label application created by Miquido, banks can easily customise key branding elements, such as colour palettes, fonts or shapes, and add their logos, illustrations or icons. Building the design system enabled our client to ensure a unified and cohesive visual identity while making it more efficient for designers and developers to create new products and features.
Functionalities
Seamless user onboarding
Safe user registration with one-time authorisation code
Account verification
Biometric authentication
Customisable banking dashboard with accounts management
Money transfers
Bill payments
Mobile top–up
Cash deposit & withdrawal
Loans
QR code payments (scan-pay-go)
Services & tech stack
Services
Mobile development: Flutter
UX & UI Design
Team Augmentation
Tech stack
Bloc State Management Library
Firebase (Analytics, Crashlytics, Messaging)
Meta App Events
Results
Security confirmed by external IT security audits
Throughout our cooperation, Nextbank has grown into one of Southeast Asia’s most trusted fintech leaders. The company regularly runs cybersecurity risk assessments, including penetration testing, application security testing (AST), security scanning and security audits – which confirm the application’s compliance with relevant security standards.
Native-like performance
Choosing Flutter enabled Nextbank to use the full spectrum of capabilities of native platforms while benefiting from cross-platform efficiency and scalability. Google constantly improves its framework by facilitating Dart’s communication with the native code to take advantage of platform-specific features. With each Flutter update, Nextbank benefits from breakthrough performance, integration and developer experience improvements introduced by Google.
Cost-effective design, development and maintenance
The cooperation with Miquido enabled Nextbank to optimise costs on many levels, from developing and maintaining the white-label Flutter app to delivering tailor-made banking apps for Nextbank clients. A minimalist design based on a design system and modular application features allows Nextbank to build personalised mobile banking applications at a competitive pace of around 10 weeks. Banks employing Nextbank services can scale their products quickly and cost-effectively. Therefore, it is no wonder why the SaaS fintech company is becoming increasingly popular in the banking sector.
An independent, mature project that is still developing
Flutter enables Nextbank to quickly expand its offer in line with market trends and customer expectations. The company constantly works on innovative application features, such as QR code payments or InstaPay (quick transfer of electronic funds) – and immediately distributes them to iOS and Android. Additionally, thanks to Miquido’s help in building an in-house development team for Nextbank, the SaaS company is now a mature, dynamically evolving project – supported by Miquido as a permanent technological and consulting partner.
Miquido’s greatest strengths are attention to detail and business awareness. Their expertise and attitude were the key factors to project success.”
Łukasz Rączka, CIO at Nextbank
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