How to Find or Become a Great FinTech Developer [Lists & Criteria]

People first started using money around 2,000 B.C.E. in Babylon. A bit later (around 4,000 years, in 1865-1966 C.E.), the Trans-Atlantic cable introduced the idea of managing finances with the help of technology after millennia of cash being localized and maintained manually. It brought a bright era of digitalization and globalization that followed until 2008 when traditional financial systems got seriously challenged due to several global financial crises.

Since then, the FinTech industry has been evolving in leaps. Firstly, because technological progress was done in leaps and bounds with countless startups offering new and innovative solutions, and secondly, a change in the money system was needed. Blockchain, artificial intelligence, cryptocurrency, machine learning, open banking, and many more tools came to help and shape the FinTech landscape that we know today. 

As of 2021/2022, the FinTech industry around the world looked very promising.

What is FinTech?

Fintech, short for “financial technology,” refers to the use of technology to improve and automate financial services. This can include a wide range of applications and technologies, such as mobile banking apps, investment management software, and digital payment systems. Fintech can also refer to companies or startups that focus on creating these types of technology-enabled financial products and services.

One of the main goals of fintech is to make financial services more accessible and efficient for consumers and businesses, by using technology to automate processes, reduce costs, and provide new and innovative services. Some examples of fintech products include online lending platforms, robo-advisors for investment management, and mobile apps that allow users to pay bills and track their spending.

Fintech companies often collaborate with traditional financial institutions, such as banks and credit card companies, to offer their services to a wider customer base. They also compete with them by offering services and solutions that are faster, cheaper, and more convenient than traditional ones.

It’s a rapidly growing industry that’s changing the way we think about and interact with financial services.

What should you know before integrating with or developing FinTech software?

Before integrating with fintech products, companies should keep in mind the following:

Legal and regulatory compliance

Financial services are heavily regulated, so it’s important to ensure that any fintech products or services being integrated comply with relevant laws and regulations. This includes data privacy laws, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) in the United States, as well as laws specific to the financial services industry, such as anti-money laundering (AML) and know-your-customer (KYC) regulations.

Security

Financial data is sensitive and valuable, and companies have a responsibility to protect it. Before integrating with any fintech product or service, it’s important to ensure that it has robust security measures in place to protect customer data. This includes measures to prevent data breaches, such as encryption and multi-factor authentication, as well as incident response, and plans to manage any security incidents that may occur.

Integration

Integrating with a fintech product or service can be complex, especially if the companies use different systems or technologies. It’s important to understand the process of integrating the two systems, what are the required steps, and what kind of resources are necessary for the integration. The goal should be for a smooth integration process and a seamless user experience for the customers.

User experience

Customers expect a seamless and personalized experience when using fintech products and services. It’s important to ensure that any fintech product or service being integrated offers a good user experience and is easy to use. Companies should also consider how the fintech product or service can be integrated into their existing customer journey and how it can provide value to their customers.

Future developments

Fintech is a rapidly evolving industry, with new technologies and trends emerging all the time. It’s important to ensure that the fintech product or service being integrated can adapt to changing customer needs and can integrate with future developments in the fintech industry.

By keeping these points in mind, companies will be better equipped to make informed decisions about integrating with fintech products and services and to ensure that they are taking advantage of all the benefits that fintech has to offer while also minimizing potential risks.

What should a FinTech developer know? [Programming]

If you are looking for a FinTech developer or want to become one, here are some skills that you need to know or look for.

In terms of programming languages, the list differs from the “basic set” of PHP or JavaScript because it requires more industry-specific knowledge. Here are a few that would be helpful:

• Python. This language is the foundation for many of the data analytics and machine learning applications. Learning it would be a great advantage – even if you don’t work in FinTech, numerous industries and businesses value AI/ML quite highly.
• Java. For a language that came out in 1995, its community is strong and its ecosystem is well-established. Many embedded systems and IoT applications are using Java for their programming.
• Scala. It uses Java Virtual Machine (JVM) to run, and offers Java compatibility, but adds more high-level functional programming to it. Oftentimes, people are looking for Java/Scala developers and FinTech startups are among those seekers.

Other languages valued in the FinTech industry are:

• MATLAB (for long-term investments calculations and financial operations in general),
• C++ (used by many established companies)
• Rust (favored for its memory-safe properties, similar to C++ otherwise)
• Haskell (popular in enterprise products’ development. For example, smart contracts use this technology.)

What else? A good FinTech developer should have a good understanding of the way relational databases work, for example, Oracle, MySQL, PostgreSQL, MariaDB, and others.

What should a FinTech developer know? [Skills]

Okay, with languages it is more or less understandable. But what do you use those programming languages for? Even in real life, when you just know a language but can’t combine a sentence, your wide word vocabulary isn’t worth anything because you cannot apply it. 

Therefore, what skills should a FinTech developer have?

Cloud Computing.

An understanding of the way cloud computing works and how to benefit from the scalability in a way that would not have issues with compliance is a must for the FinTech developer. After all, successful FinTech products have to be easily scalable considering the amount of data that has to be accepted, processed, evaluated, analyzed, and stored. Good to know: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, IBM cloud, data security, and PCI DSS standards, working with APIs.

Blockchain.

This technology has been around for over a decade now but for many, it remains a mystery of sorts. A good FinTech developer should at least understand how it works, but it’s good when there are also skills such as cryptography, blockchain architecture, and data structures. Another useful skill for blockchain developers is smart contracts, which is also useful for FinTech because those contracts find their direct application for financial data.

Data Science.

FinTech is one of the industries that rely heavily on data science. Risk management, fraud detection, pricing automation, and algorithmic trading among many others use this skill. It’s no longer simply “programming” but understanding how the data interconnects with other data and how to build such data structures that would be both flexible and yet “sturdy.” 

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.

We mentioned it previously, but let’s stop a bit more on AI/ML. FinTech companies are along the top ones that deal with big data. In order to receive, process, and analyze that big data, you need specific processes and it cannot be done manually. (Well, it can, but it’ll take so long that the data would be completely obsolete by then.) Therefore, AI and ML come to the stage as superheroes to save the day. These technologies help to identify fraud, find anomalies in data, and minimize human error. 

Cybersecurity & DevSecOps.

Last, but not least by far, knowledge of how to provide data security is critical for a FinTech developer. You’re dealing with literally thousands or even millions of dollars or other currency. All those finances belong to various people and while for some it might not be a big loss, for some – it’s all they have. Therefore, if you are a FinTech business owner, your first priority is to ensure proper security practices. One of the ways to do that is to get a DevSecOps on your team, whose main task is to integrate security into every part of the software development lifecycle. However, your FinTech developers also should know the science of security and anti-fraud and data protection because otherwise, you’re facing a lot of lawsuits.  

Where to find an ideal FinTech developer?

In case you need to find a FinTech developer for your company, you need to access the CVs of the candidates and see what skills they have that match the lists above. 

Is it possible to find one ideal FinTech developer that would be able to fill out all the tasks? Well, maybe such people exist, but they are like unicorns and would probably cost as much as breeding one. 

In reality, it is much more feasible and efficient to hire a FinTech development team to cover all these tasks. You can look for such teams in business directories, such as TechBehemoths, Clutch, or GoodFirms. Real clients’ reviews fuel these directories so they are more trustworthy than just googling something and seeing advertisements. 

At HUSPI, we also have quite extensive experience with developing complex FinTech products. One of the biggest projects that we’ve created was an online payment portal called EasyPay and the business results after our involvement were quite good.

Therefore, you don’t have to go far – if you’re here already, tell us what your FinTech needs are, and let’s connect to see how to achieve your business goals with the help of the HUSPI team’s experience.