Work with me · Fintech app development
Fintech app development for banks and insurers
I design and build banking, payments and insurance apps where every move of money passes a checkpoint you control: identity, sanctions, limits, and a person for the big decisions, with a record an examiner will accept.
I’m Mo Tawfik Khalifa, chief product officer and forward deployed engineer. I have built a bank app where customers hold dollars, stablecoins and tokenised gold in one balance behind a checkpoint of ordered rules, and a cross-border payments pitch for a network of banks.
What banks worry about
Worried a new app means a new core, a stretched team and a long vendor review?
Four things bankers and their regulators have said in public, and what I do about each.
“The core can’t be all things to all people.”
Steve Schieffelin, SVP, Dime Community Bank, in ABA Banking JournalI build alongside the core you already run, not instead of it. The app and its checkpoint sit in front, connected to your core ledger, your identity provider and your sanctions screen. Nothing gets ripped out.
“What can we absorb?”
Matthew Hein, EVP and chief banking officer, Firstrust Bank, in ABA Banking JournalYour team writes the rules with me in plain English; I do the build. The first pilot is one product, one group of customers and low limits, and you talk to me, the person who builds it, not a salesperson.
More than 80% of banks and credit unions plan to increase technology spending in 2026, “yet many continue to fall short on planned system deployments.”
Cornerstone Advisors, What’s Going On in Banking 2026The price is fixed in writing after the first call, before work starts. The work shows up on a live link you can click every week, so you see it moving, or see that it is not, long before a deadline.
The interagency guide for community banks lists six due diligence topics for a fintech partner.
OCC, Federal Reserve and FDIC, Conducting Due Diligence on Financial Technology Companies (PDF)I bring written answers your vendor team can file against the topics that apply to the build:
- Information security: the security controls and who can reach what.
- Risk management and controls: the rules in order and the hash-chained audit log.
- Operational resilience: the support plan and the written handover.
- Legal and regulatory compliance: the checklist below, marked law or good practice.
What you get
- Code, repo and accounts in your name from day one
- Price fixed in writing after the first call
- A live link to click every week
- A written handover, so you are not dependent on me
Flagship · Use the bank
Use the bank. Then try to break it.
Harbour Mutual is a made-up London bank, and this is its app, working. Send money, freeze the card, buy and sell tokenised gold, hold pounds, dollars, digital dollars and gold in one balance, and file an insurance claim. Every move stops at the checkpoint first: you see which rule approved, held or blocked it, and each decision is sealed into a hash-chained audit log.
Sample bank, sample people, sample balances, a sample gold price and a three-name sample sanctions list. The rules and the SHA-256 audit chain really run, in your browser; nothing you type or upload leaves it. The AI triage is simulated.
What we build
Six things banks, fintechs and insurers ask for
Each one is the same pattern underneath: the screens customers love, wired to the partners you already use, with your rules checked in order before any money moves.
- 01
Banking app development
Accounts, cards, payees, card freeze and statements, on iPhone, Android and the web.
Try the sandbox bank - 02
Digital banking platforms and BaaS
A white-label app on a partner bank’s licence, with your rules in front of every move.
What a bank must build itself - 03
Payments and cross-border
Payment gateway integration, payouts and B2B cross-border payments, stablecoin rails included.
Stablecoins against SWIFT - 04
KYC and KYB onboarding
Identity checks, business checks, sanctions screening, and verified results customers can reuse.
Reusable verified credentials - 05
Insurance software development
Claims on a phone, AI triage that suggests, and a person who approves the large payouts.
File a sample claim - 06
Tokenised assets
Gold, digital dollars and property, held next to cash in the same balance.
How tokenising property works
How a project runs
A first pilot in 90 days: small, measured, easy to stop
This is how I would run a first release with a bank or insurer. It assumes your core systems stay as they are.
- 1Days 1 to 15
One product, rules in plain English
Pick one product and one group of customers. Write the rules with your compliance officer, in order, with the outcome of each: approve, hold or block.
- 2Days 16 to 45
Wire the checkpoint
Connect it to your identity provider, sanctions screen and the core ledger you already run. Every rule gets a test that breaks it on purpose.
- 3Days 46 to 75
Live with low limits
Staff first, then a small group of customers. Track holds, blocks and time to decide every week.
- 4Days 76 to 90
Review and decide
Walk compliance through the audit log, then widen, change the rules or stop, with the numbers in front of you.
Proof
Work already published
I built these. The clients can’t be named under NDA.
A bank app with dollars, stablecoins and tokenised gold in one balance
A white-label app where a bank’s customers hold all three side by side. Every send or purchase passes a checkpoint of ordered rules with plain-English reasons, including “unavailable” when a fact it needs, such as the gold price, has gone stale. It ships with a test script that checks every claim on the screen.
A cross-border payments pitch for a network that settles between member banks in seconds: switch one part off and watch the payment fail, so a buyer sees what each piece is for.
The sandbox above follows the same pattern, rebuilt from scratch for this page.
- Can a bank issue its own stablecoin?What the GENIUS Act allows, four ways in, and the checkpoint a bank has to own.
- Stablecoin cross-border payments against SWIFTHow they work, where the costs are, and when they win.
- What is a stablecoin?Reserves, redemption and the risks, in plain English.
- How to tokenise real estateThe legal wrapper, the token rules and the investor flow.
- Four AI and fintech buildsBank money, credentials, agent guardrails and tokenised homes.
- Verifiable credentials, explainedProve a fact once, reuse it everywhere, with KYC alongside.
- MVP development for AI and fintech startupsFrom idea to a launched first version, built by one senior person.
- Web application security auditFind and fix the holes before a regulator or an attacker does.
Free tool
What must your app block before money moves?
Tick what you are building and where. You get a checklist of controls, marked as law (with the primary source) or good practice. Copy it or print it for your next meeting with compliance.
What to bring to the first call
Five things make the first call useful
- The product and who it is for. One product, one group of customers to start.
- Your partners. Bank or BaaS provider, card issuer, payment gateway, KYC vendor, custody: whoever is already signed.
- Your rules, however rough. Limits, who needs a person to approve, what must never happen. The checklist above is a fair start.
- Where you operate. The markets decide which rules are law and which are your choice.
- The deadline behind the deadline. A board meeting, a regulator’s date, a partner’s launch window.
Questions people ask
Fintech app development, answered
What does fintech app development include?
The screens customers see, the backend and ledger behind them, the connections to your bank, card, payment and identity providers, and the part most teams underestimate: the rules that decide whether money may move, checked before it moves, and a record of every decision. I build all of it, starting from the rules.
How much does fintech app development cost?
For apps in general, Clutch reports the most common project at $10,000 to $49,999 and an average of $90,780.11 over about 11 months, as updated on 21 September 2026. Fintech adds identity, sanctions, limits, audit and partner integrations, so budget above the general average. That is market data, not my rate. I price each project after a first call. More in how much it costs to build an app.
Can you build a banking app for a bank or credit union?
Yes. Banking app development for an existing bank usually means a white-label app on top of the core ledger you already run: accounts, cards, payees, freezing a card, statements, and new products such as stablecoins or tokenised gold behind the same checkpoint. Nothing gets ripped out.
What is banking as a service?
Banking as a service is when a licensed bank lets another company offer accounts, cards or payments under the bank’s licence, through the bank’s APIs. The brand owns the app and the customer experience. The bank’s rules on identity, sanctions and limits still apply, so the app needs a checkpoint that enforces them before money moves.
What is a digital banking platform?
The software a bank or fintech runs its digital customers on: onboarding, accounts, cards, payments, support and the admin tools staff use. You can buy a platform or build on top of one. Either way, the decision layer, who may send what, to whom, up to what limit, is yours and has to be built around your rules.
What should KYC software do?
Verify who a customer is before money moves, screen them and their payees against sanctions lists, and check again when an ID expires. List prices for a full ID check ran from $0.33 to $1.89 when I compared vendors in the age verification guide. I connect the KYC provider you choose and can issue the result as a verifiable credential, so customers do not repeat the check at every step.
What does payment gateway integration involve?
Checkout is quick. The time goes into refunds, failed payments, webhooks that arrive twice, reconciling every payment to its invoice, and putting your own limits and screening in front of the gateway, so a payment the provider would accept can still be held by your rules.
How do B2B cross-border payments work with stablecoins?
A licensed partner turns your money into a dollar stablecoin, it crosses a blockchain in minutes, and a partner in the supplier’s country pays out in local money on the instant rail. The Financial Stability Board puts the average cross-border business payment at 1.6%, and only 39.6% of business payment services credit the payee within one business day. Stablecoins usually win on speed; on cost only when the conversions at each end are cheap. The full comparison is in stablecoin cross-border payments.
Do you build insurance software?
Yes, claims first. Insurance software development with me means claims intake on a phone, photo upload, AI triage that suggests a category and an estimate, and a person who approves every large payout, with each step in the audit log. The sandbox above shows the full flow.
Is Harbour Mutual a real bank?
No. Harbour Mutual is a made-up London bank with sample customers, balances, prices and a sample sanctions list. The checkpoint rules and the hash-chained audit log really run, in your browser.
Next step
Tell me what has to be true before money moves.
Bring the product, the partners and the rules you have. We leave the call knowing what to build first.
- 30-minute call. Your product, your partners, what is stuck.
- A written plan in 48 hours. What to build first, the rules in order, how long it takes, the risks.
- Start, or not. Use the plan with your team or with me. I reply to every email within one working day.
If you are building a banking, payments or insurance app, write to m@tawfik.tv with the product, the markets and the partners you already have.