Over the past five years, customer interactions with financial services have significantly moved online. Based on market forecasts, the global online banking market is predicted to reach $31.81 billion by 2027. This trend is also driven by two main factors: increasing business opportunities and changing customer expectations. So, the number of online banking users will keep growing, contributing to the digital transformation of banking systems.

For these reasons, many banks and financial institutions are choosing to keep pace with the future of banking technology, offering effective solutions to meet their customers’ needs and grow their capabilities. However, on the way to achieving it, the fintech participants should consider many technical and commercial aspects before implementing the idea.

Based on RewiSoft’s experience in online banking website development, we’d like to share our industry knowledge to help you become a part of a profitable business. So, in this article, you’ll find out current online banking website trends, examples of banking solutions, essential functionality, technical considerations, and workable advice on how to start the bank website development right.

Bank Website Development: Overview

Online banking is the way banks and financial institutions can provide remote services through a website or an app. In such a way, users can manage their finances, make payments and transfers, perform various financial transactions, as well as make deposits and loans without physically visiting the bank.

When developing a bank website, you can automate financial procedures through leading software technologies to provide a simple and fast customer experience and increase overall business efficiency.

Based on the market overview, the main drivers for investment in online banking website development are also the growing fintech market, the booming e-commerce industry, government incentives for rapid digitalization, and consumer demand for remote and feature-rich services.

This means that today, you can not only automate your financial and banking practices to solve particular business challenges, but you can also develop custom features to open additional revenue channels and promote banking services.

Since the online banking market is huge, there is always room for startups, emerging players, and existing fintech players who can consider developing technology-based banking solutions to meet any need.

How to Create an Online Banking Website With RewiSoft [AWSM Case Study]

RewiSoft team developed a neobank application that allows parents to control their children’s money transactions. AWSM bank, an online banking website application, has two mobile versions with different functionality for parents and children. One of the key features is the ability to teach children financial literacy.

Challenges:

• Develop a kids-friendly neobanking app with different feature sets that both kids and parents can use
• Design and develop features of online financial literacy training to attract children

Solution:

The RewiSoft team completed the project tasks on time and developed the following online banking website application features:

• A design system from scratch with eye-catching typography, icons, headings, dropdowns, etc
• Two color app themes
• Special features for kids to create cards, make transactions, study, apply for loans, and save money by setting a goal in the app
• Tailored features for parents to top up children’s cards, set transaction limits, and create scheduled payments for children
• Parental control feature
• Online education for children
• A built-in calculator for calculating the amount by which parents need to replenish the child’s card

AWSM bank has advanced banking functionality to help meet the goals of app users. Both parents and children use this application to solve specific problems. Children learn how to manage money and be responsible for finances properly, and parents can remotely control children’s transactions. The RewiSoft team successfully released the neobanking application under the client’s expectations, budget, and deadlines.

FYI, RewiSoft team provides the following banking development services:

• Document management software development. We help create modern software solutions to streamline back-office activities, including document workflows.
• Mobile banking development services. The RewiSoft team has expertise in designing and building mobile banking software solutions to meet the needs of customers and banking businesses at the same time.
• Online banking software development. Our team of professionals can help you with the top-level digitalization of financial services and the modernization of ineffective legacy banking systems.
• Core banking systems. Our team of experienced software professionals offers help in optimizing your core banking functions for cloud and on-premises environments.
• Banking RPA development. We provide robotic process automation (RPA) services to support banks in effective risk management, customer service, compliance, and operational efficiency.
• Banking CRM and ERP integration. RewiSoft provides CRM and ERP integration banking services to help your business plan resources wisely, retain customers easily, deliver personalized offers, and unlock new cross-selling opportunities.

If you have any questions regarding one of the services, contact us today!

3 Website Application Development Scenarios From RewiSoft

In this section, we’d like to share ready-to-use strategies that will help you understand how to create an online banking website and grow your banking business in terms of specific development scenarios.

Scenario 1: You don’t have your banking website

As a bank owner or representative, you may want to digitize your business and find a solution that will help you effectively solve your main problems and win the battle against competitors. To achieve your goal with minimum effort and cost, you should consider where to start.

• Option 1. Talk to experts to help you analyze your target audience, identify main problems, prioritize business goals and find optimal solutions.
• Option 2. Consider investing in bank website development to attract more customers and expand business opportunities.
• Option 3. Research additional integrations and tools that you can use to grow your banking infrastructure.

Scenario 2: You have your own banking website but lack advanced features

If you want to improve user engagement and increase your customer base, it’s time to add customization options.

• Option 1. Document your idea to understand what features you need to engage customers (savings and spending tracking, payment reminders, automated investments, gaming user experience, etc.).
• Option 2. Explore popular platforms like Clutch and GoodFirms to find an experienced software team, read real customer reviews, and evaluate value for money.
• Option 3. Submit the scope of tasks to a dedicated software development team to help you create a custom solution that fits your budget and schedule.

Scenario 3: You have a solid banking website

You can face a lot of unexpected challenges when managing a banking website to meet the targeted results.

• Option 1. Check which bank website features work well and which don’t.
• Option 2. Consider replacing old functionality with advanced features.
• Option 3. Create a convertible bank web design to provide an intuitive and clear user experience.
• Option 4. Create custom features to improve user experience and find ways to generate more revenue.

Top Trends in Online Banking Website Development

Let’s explore the major trends and technologies that disrupt the banking industry today.

Contactless payments

With micro-chip-enabled credit cards, the customers are free from the hassle of entering the passcode every time they need it. Today, contactless payments are a way to make a purchase more secure and cashless.

Bank cards, wearables, smartphones, and other devices can use radio frequency identification (RFID) and near-field communication (NFC) technology to complete payment transactions. At the point of sale, merchants have technology-enabled payment terminals that pick up the contactless card details and complete the transaction.

Machine learning (ML) and smart bots

Machine learning (ML) and smart bots allow banking solutions to optimize customer support, personalize services, and predict customer behavior. Smart bots can resolve any customer queries 24/7 while optimizing operating costs.

ML algorithms analyze customer data and behavior to provide personalized offers and different products at any time.

However, the application of ML algorithms can also help bank executives to notice changing customer behavior patterns or point out security breaches.

Biometrics

One of the most important aspects when building online banking systems is security. Online banking and financial experience should be highly secure, private, and consistent. To ensure top-notch security from unauthorized transactions is an integration of biometrics into banking systems.

Biometric technologies include fingerprint sensors, voice pattern scans, face scans, and retina scanners. One of these options can become a decent response to help users securely register and log in to access banking services.

Neobanking

Neobanks is a great and new business model that can offer a wide range of services only remotely. Neobank representatives focus more on the local market and incorporate features satisfying local clients.

These solutions can help clients manage financial operations via messengers and provide beneficial fintech services. Such banks can also be created from scratch without an initial client base.

If this topic bothers you, check out our guide on how to start developing a neobank application step by step.

Blockchain

Fintech participants can use blockchain technology to secure and decentralize financial transactions. In this way, the banking system can exclude a lot of intermediaries involved in every transaction while speeding up the transactions. Also, blockchain technology’s transparency and security allow banks with auditing and accounting.

Top Trends in Bank Website Design

We also want to share with you the best online banking website design trends to follow in 2023:

Data visualization

The quantity of information that internet users encounter on a daily basis is increasing, and banks are looking at methods to structure and organize data in an easily consumable manner. Data visualization in the form of graphs, charts, and infographics is widely used on the internet.

The best banking websites have also followed the broader trend of employing data visualization to educate customers on essential banking subjects.

Custom typography

The prevailing trend toward minimalism in banking design development benefits sites with unique typography by distinguishing them from others.

Typography adds a creative touch to the site.

Typography is also an important component of brand identification strategy. When done correctly, it may provide the appropriate message to visitors.

Consistency

For an effective bank website design, consistency is essential. An inconsistency in the user interface will never be recognized or praised. Customers who have to deal with it are likely to feel puzzled and/or annoyed.

A uniform design is easy to understand. It carefully walks customers through the banking website, removing any uncertainty and instilling a feeling of control, comfort, and dependability.

Custom iconography

Icons stand in for a global language that everyone understands. They provide visual context and improve the usability of the website.

Stock icon sets should be avoided by wise designers since they may be deceptive and never boost the brand’s style. Custom icons are becoming more popular due to their ease of use.

UI without UI

The goal of this design approach is to eliminate unneeded UI motifs. People do not want to waste time scrolling back and forth across the website in search of the information they want. They anticipate receiving it as soon as they open it.

So, apply your customer expertise to design the ideal website. Remove any extraneous patterns to make the user interface as basic and straightforward as feasible.

How to Create an Online Banking Website and What Key Systems to Add

How to create an online banking website that will cover a modern user’s needs? You can invest in custom bank website development by identifying your banking system’s key system that needs improvement. Depending on your business needs and requirements, you can choose a specific solution that will be a perfect fit for your business model.

Financial management systems

Financial management solutions provide a wide range of management tools to help in bank planning, budgeting, accounting, and transactional procedures. Financial management solutions can provide a high level of transparency and efficiency in the overall banking system. The common examples of such solutions are:

• Accounting management
• Management of financial resources
• Financial planning and budgeting
• Management of consolidated financial statements, etc

Administrative management software

These banking solutions help bank administrators and employees streamline banking workflows and better manage banking operations. Administrative management software boosts the overall efficiency of the banking systems. Managers can focus on their high-priority tasks and reduce the time it takes to assign and monitor staff tasks. The typical examples of such solutions are:

• Materials management
• Staffing
• Budgeting
• Cost control
• Personnel management
• Payroll management, etc

Customer service solutions

The banking CRM systems cover all stages of customer interaction with your banking services, from attracting to post-sales service. In terms of working with these systems, you can easily interact with your customers and boost their engagement level by delivering personalized offers. These solutions allow you to identify their pain points and improve the communication process. The CRM system’s modules can be applied to:

• Automate financial processes
• Improve customer service
• Run marketing campaigns

Top Features to Add During Banking Website Development [Money Storage]

How to create an online banking website that will be highly functional and full of opportunities for users? Any bank performs three main functions: store money, transfer money, and provide customers loans. Let’s define the main features required to implement into your bank’s website in terms of the three main functions of a bank.

Budget and savings tracker

With this feature, your banking website can allow users to track their spending and control their current budget. This feature is handy for people who often use cards and bank accounts to make purchases.

Money box

Moneybox is an easy and convenient micro-savings service. Users can set goals for accumulating and easily monitor them each time. Users can also set up automatic savings based on several options:

• Transfer a selected amount of money or a percentage of income or expenses.
• Round off the balance every day.
• Set up regular top-ups.

Deposits

Users can open deposits on specific percentage terms and easily manage them through your banking website. You can also provide a built-in calculator to help clients calculate the amount of money they will receive over a given period of time.

Securities

Bank customers can invest in securities online through your bank website. You can implement functionality to let users access a list of securities, buy them, build their portfolios, and track analytics.

Top Features to Add During Banking Website Development [Money Transfers]

Below you can see the basic features for users to transfer money and perform various financial transactions.

Transfers to a card

This is a convenient and safe service that allows customers to transfer their money online. With this feature, your customers can make money transfers between cards in their own account, from/to the VISA/MasterCard card and other banks.

Transfers by bank details

With the money transfer feature, users of your bank’s website can avoid visiting banks in person, wasting time in queues, and paying additional fees. All they need is to enter payment details and confirm the transaction with a few clicks.

International transfers

The same logic works for international transfers. Customers of your bank can easily select a company (WesternUnion, MoneyGram, PayPal, RIA, and others) to receive transfers by entering transfer details into the template.

Top Features to Add During Banking Website Development [Loan Facilities]

Thanks to the bank’s lending features, your bank’s website can offer various lending services to customers. Let’s detail each feature.

Credit limit

Within loan facilities, users should be able to set and change the credit limit for obtaining a loan on a single card. Detailed information about loans can be presented in the wallet, where users can see the available amount, limit, debt, and due date. In addition, you can add different filters based on categories and time periods to make it easier for users to find specific details.

Payments by installments

With payments by installments, your customers can split purchases by a convenient number of payments. In such a way, users can buy goods instantly and pay later.

Credit with cash

This feature allows users to apply for a cash loan up to a certain amount and view the loan term, monthly rate, and monthly payment. Adding an FAQ section to improve the customer experience on your bank’s website is also a good practice.

Mortgage

With mortgage lending, your bank’s customers can quickly get a turnkey solution online. Once the mortgage is registered, users can easily manage and pay for the mortgage through your website.

Car credit and leasing

Thanks to this financial service, your bank’s customers can purchase a car in installments, view the contract details, and track the monthly payment online. You can present information with various trackers and blocks showing car price, prepayment amount, installment rate, and calculated monthly payment.

How to Create an Online Banking Website Securely

Since users entrust financial data and personal information when dealing with the banking website, security is one of the main features. Any security gaps and potential risks of cyberattacks must be effectively addressed. Otherwise, the potential damage and security breach could cost your business a fortune or lead to total bank failure.

To help prevent this scenario, we’ve compiled a list of effective security practices to help your banking website provide top-notch security and robust resilience to crashes and data loss.

1. Host your banking website in a dedicated environment, not a shared one. Shared hosting environments are less expensive, but you must share the same server space with other websites. That can degrade your website’s ability to run consistently due to dependency on other websites that may be using the same server.
2. Ensure SSL 256-bit encryption to make your customer’s data secure and private and safeguard your banking website from external threats.
3. Focus on preventing Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks if the hackers attempt to overload your server. You can use the dedicated server and other practices mentioned here to prevent this.
4. Perform vulnerability scanning to spot potential breach locations in a specific network or group of networks.
5. Conduct regular CMS and plugin updates to support security at all times.
6. Implement biometrics and two-factor authentication (2FA) to verify user login and authorization.
7. Monitor the security of your banking website regularly.
8. Ensure your data center complies with the industry standard, the Statement on Standards for Attestation Engagements SSAE 16.
9. Conduct regular and encrypted website backups.
10. Ensure you have a disaster recovery plan.

Applying these techniques to your bank website development ensures top-notch banking website security and can help you provide reliable customer service. If you need well-versed security professionals to help create a secure website infrastructure, don’t hesitate to contact us with any questions or concerns.

Bank Website Development Architectures

When you create a profitable website for your banking system, investments are not enough to help you take a special place in the financial market. Another vital requirement for better customer service and top-level security is a digital bank architecture design. Let’s consider two main types.

Layered architecture

There are three layers in a typical layered architecture: backend, middleware, and frontend.

The backend layer includes specific components:

• Core banking system. A bank’s core banking system is like the engine that drives a bank’s core operations. Customer information, payment transactions, loan issuing, and accounting systems are parts of the core IT infrastructure.
• Digital banking. Thanks to this component, all products, and services of the bank are available at the frontend level.
• Data and analytics. This component includes links and transactional data needed to analyze customer data to predict future actions.
• Private and public APIs. Private APIs include services for making payments or retrieving account balances, while public APIs provide seamless integration with third-party services.

The middleware layer is the software that connects the frontend, backend, and other business applications. It receives messages from the frontend layer, interprets them, and passes them to the appropriate system in a suitable format. The middleware layer also includes the functionality for customer authentication.

The frontend layer enables customer interaction with the digital banking system. The frontend technology solutions include mobile and web banking apps, chatbots, and software for wearables.

Microservices architecture

Another popular type of digital banking architecture is microservices. This technical solution allows more flexibility, many integrations with third-party services, and scalability opportunities. This will be the right option if you’re planning to scale your solution in terms of functionality and client base. A microservices architecture consists of an API gateway, services mesh, and microservice-based core.

• API gateway. Through API gateway, microservices are accessible to external channels, allowing them to interact with banks’ data, products, and services.
• Service mesh. The service mesh can scale services at peak loads and perform load management functions.
• Microservice-based core. This core consists of loosely coupled microservices and small independent processes that interact with each other via APIs and protocols.

As you may see, the choice of digital banking architecture depends on your current business needs, functional requirements, and security requirements. Contact us to perform all the necessary analyses of your business and choose the ideal solution architecture.

The Main Specifics of Bank Website Design

The banking website is a platform for constant communication between the banking business and its customers. The financial structure’s profitability depends on its work’s reliability and efficiency.

Let’s look at the essential bank website design tips and recommendations:

Navigation is everything – design from tasks, not vice versa

Everything rests on the main menu, the sections’ structure and the relationships’ organization. The tasks of promoting and selling banking products should subjugate the design of the site. Do not put design in the first place if the simplicity and efficiency of the work of Internet users with your web resource will suffer from this.

Intuitive and easy to use

Your bank’s website should be clear at a glance. You have 10 to 30 seconds to either win over a potential client or they will leave. Therefore, a relevant customizable site search, section structure and an intuitive navigation menu on the main page are the main things to start designing your online banking.

Use wire-framing prototyping

Prototypes help make navigation intuitive, remove redundant elements, and trace the main paths customers take to and from your site. Do not forget about calls to action, banners and buttons, organization of elements and the relationship of various sections of the site to each other.

The bank website should meet the interests and expectations of the target audience

The brand book and website design must match – this is the first thing. Even if your online banking does not have a single list of design requirements (except for the logo and colors), make it recognizable. And most importantly, the future borrower or investor must find on the site exactly what he expects to see there. He should get answers to those questions that he (or she) has.

And the site should work for the benefit of your overall image and not just be a “business card” in order to attach to your marketers’ quarterly reports on the work done.

Bonus Tips for Successful Bank Website Development by RewiSoft

There are a lot of potential pitfalls you can face when you get into bank website development. As a business owner, your first task is understanding the logic behind bank website development and then hiring experienced software experts in the fintech industry.

While the latter depends entirely on your decision and business capabilities, we would like to help with the former by sharing pro tips to help you create a user-friendly bank web design and top-notch functionality.

Create an intuitive and clear bank web design

The main rule of any converting bank web design is simplicity, transparency, and responsiveness. To consider these aspects, you should avoid unnecessary complexities and remove visual clutter. In the case of developing a bank website, this criterion is fundamental since users deal with financial transactions. Bright colors, confusing navigational logic, and over-clutter distract users from the primary task.

Ensure your team follows bank web design best practices to make your banking website responsive to any screen size and browser, intuitive and easy to navigate, and with one-two-click functionality.

In the meantime, learn how to outsource web design successfully in our guide.

Choose a reliable technology stack

The choice of a tech stack and technologies helps build a banking website that offers an excellent and reliable customer experience. Typically, this process involves two development parts: frontend and backend. The skilled frontend developers are responsible for implementing bank web design by writing code. The backend developers deal with website functionality, performance, data integration, and banking website application security. The best technologies and tools that our team uses to create reliable and secure financial applications:

Provide customization and personalization features

By offering customization and personalization features to your customers, you can earn their loyalty and a successful brand reputation. Customization includes setting up personal notifications, changing color schemes, personalized money management tips, emailing, and more. By adhering to personalized customer service, your banking website’s retention rate will rise, ranking high against other market competitors and quickly recouping your investment.

Add accessibility features

When getting into the core bank website development, remember to add accessibility features so that users with physical disabilities can easily access your website. Your banking website should at least comply with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 Level AA and include a mode for the visually and hearing impaired. This will allow customers to access your banking website regardless of their ability, context, or situation.

Focus on information

Placing the most critical banking information on your website is a proven way to keep customers interested and give them all the answers in a few clicks. The focus on information and content will offer your website visitors helpful information about your bank’s services and products, tools, and resources so they can make more informed decisions about applying for loans, mortgages, saving, or transferring money.

How Much Does Bank Website Development Cost

If you are looking for a professional team to help you build a profitable and high-quality custom banking website, keep in mind some factors that can affect the final project cost.

• Business model
• Features package
• Expected time to market
• Development approach
• Team location
• Team size
• Team expertise
• Hiring model

On average, the price of banking website development starts from $40,000. The bank website development process can be divided into important steps where you may need help. Look at rough bank website development costs based on project stage and team location:

How Long Does Bank Website Development Take

How to create an online banking website and not lose a lot of time? You will not spend a lot of time on bank website development if you are well prepared for this process and understand how much time you need for each individual process. The time you need for bank website development depends on factors such as:

• Project size
• Project complexity
• Functional complexity
• Number of features
• Design complexity
• Team expertise
• Selected tech stack for development

For more information on project timelines, below you can also see RewiSoft’s timeline calculations based on project size and stage:

Our work estimate

For maximum benefits at a reasonable price, consider hiring an IT outsourcing provider in Eastern Europe who can take charge of the entire development process from idea concept and creating top-level bank web design to final deployment and post-release support.

Bank Website Development: Conclusion

The current technology-driven financial trend is enabling bank owners to deliver a great user experience and efficient banking. Thanks to modern technologies, you can start to follow a client-oriented and forward-looking approach right now and quickly realize any of your banking ideas.

Going into technical details, you can consult with professionals to discuss the specifics of your business and current requirements and make the best decision before the bank website development starts. The RewiSoft team has a broad portfolio of successful projects in the fintech industry: banking apps/ neobanking apps, loan apps, personal finance apps, cryptocurrency apps, mortgage apps, and others.

We provide our help by launching the bank website development from scratch, improving existing solutions, or finding ways to mitigate your individual banking industry’s current problems. Share your project details and get a professional software team in return!