Mobile Application Development: Best Practices for Banks

Mobile applications have undergone a massive evolution over the years. From the first set of preloaded apps on the Blackberry 5810 in 2002 which included a ringtone editor and to-do list, to the advanced apps of today that help us travel, shop, and bank online, mobile applications have become the backbone of the digital age, and with the global mobile app market estimated to reach $756 billion by 2027, mobile application development is only set to grow and shows no sign of slowing down. 

Disrupting almost every industry, from hotel booking to meetings to health and fitness, banking is no exception. With 85% of European adults using mobile banking apps at least once a month, mobile applications are no longer nice to have but a necessity for banks to stay competitive in the modern age. 

The mobile application development industry has led to advancements that have set a high standard for what consumers expect from their banks. From being able to access financial information 24/7, monitor investments, and conduct smooth transactions from anywhere, these types of feature demands have necessitated banks to not only develop mobile apps but also develop them using the best practices to facilitate secure, high-performing, and user-friendly mobile apps. This article covers the best practices for mobile application development, and why they’re important for banks to prioritize when building modern solutions for customers. 

Security

With banking being one of the most highly impacted industries by cyber attacks, as well as digital banking customers ranking security amongst the most important aspects of a banking app, banking mobile apps are responsible for the storage of sensitive financial data. Due to this, banks must prioritize security as part of their mobile application development practices. Ways in which banks can do this include the following

• Preventing unauthorized access to information through practices such as multi-factor authentication, which is where users will need to provide multiple verification elements that verify their identity. This can be done through a combination of using passwords, mobile devices for one-time passwords (OTP), and the use of unique personal traits to verify their identity (biometric verification). 

• Protecting sensitive data through data encryption, which involves transforming data into an unreadable format that prevents interceptors from exploiting compromised data. 

• Securing the main pillar of your mobile application development projects, which is your code. You should be incorporating various measures into your code including input validation, SQL injection, and cross-site scripting, whilst regularly reviewing code to make sure there are no vulnerabilities before release. 

Performance

With 53% of users leaving an app if it takes more than 3 seconds to load, optimizing for performance is also one of the best practices that a bank can consider as part of their mobile application development process. Since banking applications are responsible for critical functionalities, performance issues can lead to lost transactions, discrepancies in financial data, and more. Banks can enhance the performance of their mobile applications by doing the following:

• Optimizing the code and architecture: you can structure the code using modular architectures such as MVC that separate different aspects of the code, making it easier to manage and scale. For performance bottlenecks that may appear in the code post-development, you can use profiling tools such as Google’s gprofiler or built-in profilers in development environments such as Visual Studio, to detect where in your code could be the main cause of performance issues. 

• Regular updates and maintenance: banks need to adopt an iterative mindset when developing applications, meaning they’ll need to keep the application running smoothly and continue to release enhanced versions of the app to users. They’ll need to have the correct DevOps and Version Control systems (such as Git) in place to allow efficient updates. These activities can also include monitoring app performance and receiving user feedback to identify areas of improvement based on their experiences or updating security patches for vulnerability protection. 

Quality Assurance (QA)

This is a critical pillar of the application development life-cycle, with dedicated professionals responsible for making sure that apps are bug-free and functioning as intended. Prioritizing Quality Assurance as part of your mobile application development can prevent future issues, enhance performance, and maintain customer satisfaction. Banks can implement Quality Assurance within their projects through the following types of testing:

• Manual testing: users will manually test the application to evaluate its current performance without the help of any automation or scripts. The aim here is to emulate a real user using the application to simulate scenarios that may not be replicable by a machine, which helps identify more bugs to be fixed. 

• Automated testing: an increasingly popular form of testing with more than 24% of companies having automated 50% or more of their tests, this is where automation tools are used to check if your application is working correctly. This is particularly suitable for banking applications that are larger in nature so banks may not have the resources to test everything manually. This has been shown to save 75% of testing time and increase how much of the code is covered by tests (code coverage). Implementing automated tests involves choosing a testing framework such as Selenium or Express,  developing test scripts to cover various scenarios and functionalities, and integrating tests into your CI Pipeline (continuous integration pipeline) so these tests are automatically run when code changes are made.

• Regression testing: this provides a verification process in place so that, in the inevitable case where you’ll be making updates and code changes, there aren’t any unexpected issues. You’ll need to have strict version control systems to understand which change introduced a particular bug should any be found. 

Prioritising User Experience (UX)

With 97% of users ranking ‘Ease of Use’ as the most important quality for mobile apps, banks prioritizing UX during mobile application development projects go beyond enhancing aesthetics, but facilitating an intuitive and accessible mobile banking app experience where users can complete key actions such as payments and investments, with ease. Banks can prioritize User Experience when building mobile apps by doing the following:

• Conducting UX research: This involves understanding the different types of users that will be using the mobile application and their goals, and pain points. This can be done by creating detailed user personas that represent the different segments of the target user base. This will then help in designing your application in a way that suits their needs. 

• Facilitating Accessible Design: with millions of people now using banking applications, there will undoubtedly be an immense range of users using your mobile application. Incorporating accessible design as part of your mobile application development process will allow accessibility to all users including those with disabilities. Ways this can be done include high colour contrast in your design for visually impaired users, and allowing screen reader compatibility. 

Summary - the Growing Importance of Mobile Application Development for banks

The digital age has made mobile application development a core pillar for banks to maintain a competitive edge and offer modern solutions to their users. As users increasingly rely on digital solutions for their banking needs, it’s imperative for banks to not only release features but also cultivate a culture that embraces best practices at every stage of the development process.

Moving forward, emerging technologies such as AI and Machine Learning will make it easier to provide secure, personalized, and high-performing mobile applications to digital bankers.