Fintech App Development
Our fintech app development work covers mobile banking, payments, lending and investing products for Canadian financial companies and startups. Money apps get judged on trust, so we plan security, testing and review time into the schedule rather than bolting them on at the end.
- Fixed-scope quoteA written price and milestone plan before any work starts.
- From $4,999 CADTypical single-platform apps $5,000 to $12,000.
- You own the codeSource, designs and store accounts are yours.
- Reply within 24 hoursMon to Fri, Toronto time. Call +1 (365) 440-1786.
Who this is for
Fintech app development suits banks and credit unions adding a mobile channel, payment and lending startups launching a regulated product, wealth and investment firms giving clients self-service, and established businesses embedding payments or wallets into an existing service. Each group has a different regulator and a different definition of done, so discovery starts with who oversees you.
Apps we build for fintech
- Mobile banking apps with balances, transfers, statements and card controls
- Digital wallets and person-to-person payment apps
- Budgeting and personal finance apps that categorise spending
- Investing and trading apps with portfolios, watchlists and order flow
- Lending apps covering application, document upload, decisioning and repayment
- Insurance quote, policy and claims apps
Key features
- Biometric sign-in, multi-factor authentication and device binding
- Identity verification flows with document capture and liveness checks
- Encryption in transit and at rest, with keys held in hardware-backed storage
- Transaction alerts, limits, card freeze and dispute reporting
- Anomaly detection hooks and session monitoring for suspicious activity
- Statement export, tax documents and clear transaction history
Systems we typically integrate with
- Core banking platforms and open banking or screen-scraping aggregators for account data
- Payment processors and card issuing platforms for tokenised payments and virtual cards
- Identity verification providers for document capture, liveness and watchlist screening
- Interac e-Transfer and other domestic rails through your financial institution or partner
- Credit bureaus for lending decisions, subject to your agreements
- Accounting, CRM and fraud monitoring systems
Integration access is confirmed during discovery, before we quote, because vendor onboarding often takes longer than the code. Our backend and API service covers the server side of these connections.
What discovery covers for a fintech project
The first week or so answers these questions, and the answers set the fixed-scope quote:
- Which regulator and which licences apply to the product, and who on your side owns compliance
- Whether you hold funds, move funds or only display them, since each changes the security scope
- Which partner banks, processors or aggregators you have agreements with, or still need
- The identity verification standard your compliance team requires at onboarding
- What a penetration tester will need to see before launch
- How disputes, freezes and account closures are handled operationally
Build custom or use an off-the-shelf tool?
Custom is not always the right answer. This is how we advise fintech clients in the first call:
| Need | Off-the-shelf is usually enough when | Custom makes sense when |
|---|---|---|
| Accepting card payments in an existing app | A payment provider SDK is the right answer almost every time | Custom only around the checkout experience, never the card handling |
| Consumer budgeting or spending insights | White-label personal finance tools exist but limit differentiation | Custom when the insights are the product |
| Mobile banking channel | Core banking vendors sell branded apps with limited flexibility | Custom when the vendor app cannot support your features, brand or integration plans |
| Lending with document upload and decisioning | Loan origination platforms handle back-office decisioning | Custom for the borrower experience, connected to the platform's API |
Compliance and considerations
Financial apps in Canada sit under PIPEDA for personal information, and card data is governed by the PCI DSS rules your acquirer and payment provider impose. If your product moves money on behalf of others, your compliance team may also have obligations under Canada's anti-money-laundering regime administered by FINTRAC, including identity verification and record keeping. We build to the control requirements your compliance and risk people define: tokenised payments so raw card numbers never touch your servers, logging that supports investigations, and a codebase ready for penetration testing before launch.
What drives the cost of a fintech app
Most apps we build land between $5,000 and $25,000, with complex platforms from about $25,000. These drivers decide where yours sits, far more than the screen count does. See our price sheet.
| Cost driver | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Security and compliance scope | Device binding, hardware-backed keys, session monitoring, logging for investigations and penetration test remediation add weeks of engineering. |
| Number of partner integrations | Every bank, processor, bureau or aggregator has its own onboarding, sandbox and certification steps. |
| Identity verification flow | Document capture, liveness checks and manual review queues need careful design and testing. |
| Money movement | Transfers, limits, reversals and reconciliation are more complex than displaying balances. |
| Reporting and statements | Statement generation, tax documents and exports often rival the app in effort. |
Timelines
- Focused first version. 8 to 12 weeks for a focused product on top of an existing payment or banking partner, with security review and audit logging built in.
- Full platform. 3 to 6 months, usually toward the longer end, for a full banking, wallet or investing app with verification and money movement.
What moves these ranges:
- Partner onboarding and certification, which can gate launch regardless of build speed
- Penetration testing and remediation cycles
- App Store and Google Play review, which look closely at financial apps
- How quickly decisions and feedback come back each week
- Scope changes mid-build, which we quote before starting
Common mistakes we help you avoid
- Building the app before partner agreements are signed, then rebuilding around a different provider
- Handling raw card numbers or credentials on your own servers instead of tokenising
- Treating penetration testing as a launch-week task rather than a milestone with time to fix findings
- Underestimating the operations side: disputes, freezes, support tooling and reconciliation
- Copying a competitor's onboarding without checking what your own compliance team requires
What a first version can look like
Illustrative example: a credit union wants a member app with balances, transfers and card controls. Discovery confirms the core banking vendor exposes an API and the card processor supports freeze and limit calls. Version one ships sign-in with biometrics and device binding, balances and history, transfers between own accounts, and card freeze. Interac e-Transfer, bill payments and in-app onboarding follow in later phases once the security review of the first release is complete.
Why fintech companies choose us
- Security is scheduled work with a named owner, not a checklist at the end of the project
- We work with your payment provider and card processor so sensitive data stays tokenised
- Penetration test support: we book the window, fix findings and retest before you go live
- Experience shipping apps that passed third-party security review ahead of a funding round
- Fixed-scope quotes with milestones your finance team can plan against
- Full code and infrastructure handover, with runbooks for your internal team
See every industry we serve, compare project pricing, or read how a project runs before you send us a brief.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Yes. We work against whatever API your processor, core system or banking-as-a-service provider exposes, build in a sandbox first, and keep card and account credentials tokenised so they never sit in your app or database.
We plan a test window before launch, work with the firm you choose or recommend one, then fix and retest findings. Remediation time is written into the schedule so a report does not delay your launch date.
Identity verification, payment integration and security testing are the usual cost drivers, and each is quoted as a separate line so you can see what you are paying for.
A focused product such as a wallet or budgeting app is usually built in 8 to 12 weeks, since security review and audit logging add time. A full banking or lending platform with verification and back-office tools takes 3 to 6 months, usually toward the longer end. Partner certification can still set the launch date.
Yes. Apple and Google both apply extra scrutiny to finance apps, including checks on who publishes the app and what claims you make. We prepare the listing, developer account setup and supporting documentation so review does not stall the launch.
Yes. We work with financial companies across Canada and abroad. The regulator and partner set changes by jurisdiction, so discovery starts with who oversees your product.
That is the normal setup. Your compliance lead defines the controls, we build and document them, and your chosen security firm tests the result before launch.
A payment integration adds checkout to an app you already have and is a small, well-understood job. A fintech app holds accounts, shows balances or moves money on a user's behalf, which brings verification, security and regulatory work with it.
Free quote
Tell us about your app
A senior engineer reads your brief and replies within 24 hours with questions and a fixed-scope estimate. No obligation and no sales sequence.
- Written, fixed-scope quote before any work starts
- You own the code, designs and accounts
- Typical apps from $4,999 CAD
Request your free quote
Takes about a minute.
Fields marked with an asterisk are required.
Thank you
We have received your project details and will reply within 24 hours.