Client background

Our client, based in the UK, is a leading specialist digital challenger bank for small businesses. They offer faster, smarter, simpler banking services for entrepreneurs, independent businesses, and consumers that power the UK economy.

For nearly two decades, they have been providing easier ways for millions of customers to pay, bank, and borrow funds through the user-friendly digital platform.

Business challenge

The client needed to redesign and rebuild a mobile banking application that would provide a more convenient way for their customers to interact with their platform. Additionally, they needed to implement Open Banking – a mandatory requirement from the UK financial institution.

ask facilities approach

An engineering team at ask facilities extended the client’s testing and backend development capabilities. Our team built the solution almost from scratch, completed Open Banking implementation, and introduced other features.

Value delivered

ask facilities built a solution that makes it easier for the client to manage their funds and provides an easy and straightforward user experience for their customers.

Business challenge: neobank transformation, improved security, and Open Banking compliance

The client had a mobile app that was designed for small business owners. Before our cooperation, the client used to outsource the development of its mobile app to other vendors. However, they needed a strong team that would take over the development completely and implement new features to improve the functionality for both the client and its customers. Additionally, the client needed to implement and support Open Banking, an API-driven platform that links financial services through Open Banking and is mandatory for financial institutions.

ask facilities approach: rebuilding and improving the solution with new features

Our cooperation started in November 2018. ask facilities mobile developers and QA engineers worked on backend development and extended the client’s testing capabilities. We were working on the client’s main product – a mobile application used by their customers. Soon, we took over the project and built it almost from scratch.

The ask facilities team was also responsible for implementing Open Banking. We introduced a set of regulations that aim at more innovative and highly secure online and mobile payments as well as better consumer protection.

Implementation: mobile applications and Open Banking

Mobile app. We received a base version of the app which was developed by the previous vendor. The mobile application was a portal that allowed users to access web pages. The entire API was initially written for the web version. Our task was to develop Android and iOS native apps.

Currently, about 70-80% of daily active users — over 50K — are mobile app users. Even if users want to log in to the web version, they need to use the mobile application from a trusted device, where the user generates a login key.

Together with our client, we pay a lot of attention to the application’s security. Therefore, we implemented the following security measures:

  • 24-hour fraud monitoring;
  • Secure face and biometric ID;
  • Ability to block cards from the app or online;
  • Instant app notifications when money leaves the account.

In early 2021, the client announced their intent to become a neobank. Since then, we have added new features, such as cashback and deposits. Also, we added dashboards and simple user analytics, e.g., how much money the user spent by categories. The mobile apps allow its users to:

  • Check account balance, track spending, and make payments seamlessly;
  • Manage multiple cards, including foreign currency cards;
  • Request PIN on the go.

What we have achieved together: accelerating time-to-market and implementing Open Banking

Working closely with the client, we constantly improved the backend, fully developed and supported native Android and iOS apps with over 50K daily active users. To accelerate time-to-market, we developed an automation testing framework from scratch.

Successful implementation of Open Banking allowed the client to become a fully-fledged digital bank. We added many new features, for instance, cashback and deposits. Also, we added various analytics that enable users to quickly comprehend data and draw actionable insights that would otherwise go unnoticed.

The ask facilities team drove the technology implementations to comply with the revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2) for EU countries.

Value delivered by N-iX: facilitating transformation into a neobank

  • Fully took over the development of two native mobile applications that provide convenient and fast management of customers’ funds;
  • Led the Open Banking implementation, as one of the mandatory steps for financial institutions;
  • Implemented Strong Customer Authentication, introduced push notifications that allowed the client to save the cost of sending SMS, and performed integration with Snowdrop 2.0 that makes customer transactions clearer;
  • Helped our client transform into a fully-fledged digital bank.