The major requirement of people, in this digitally influenced era is to opt for different mobile app services for the sake of putting less effort. More the advancements and features your mobile app services are offering, the more users you can expect for utilization. In the banking sector, the emergence of mobile apps is working on significant revolutions and conquering all the traditional banking operations. This provides advantages like quick banking services, easy access to banking operations, round-the-clock availability, value-added services, remote banking, and accurate monitoring of banking transactions. Despite all the solutions offered by mobile banking apps, most users show severe concerns related to the security of these apps. Having these security concerns represents the increasing trends of cyber attacks, cyber security compromises, and data breaches.
Addressing these cyber vulnerabilities is essential as the continuous increase in mobile banking services covers the major market. The research on forecasting the mobile banking market forecasts a huge expansion in the coming years. As shown below the global mobile banking market value was observed at USD 772.96 million in the year 2022. And expected to grow to the value of USD1873.23 million by the year 2030. For this sector, the global market is expected to grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 11.70% within this timeframe of forecast.
Source: Vantage Market Research
Blog Highlights
While taking care of this research analysis, updating or making this mobile banking application. According to the security measures it has now become an essential need for long-term existence in the market. Ignoring these facts while working on fintech app development practices. That can lead to risks related to consumer money as well as market standards. With the follow-up of these security measures the users as well as the banks can get several benefits. These are financial security, effective brand reputation, data encryption, secure communication, compliance with regulations, and money transactions with proper security.
This blog is all about the secure practices of mobile banking practices. These practices are becoming the essential needs of users these days. The major highlights of this masterpiece are the major benefits of mobile banking operations and technical ways of improving the security of these banking applications. A quick read of this blog is capable of enhancing knowledge and providing clearance of the doubts related to fintech mobile app development practices.
Read more: Crafting Mobile Apps For FinTech Startups: Security, Scalability, and UX
Enhancing Security in Mobile Banking through Technical Measures
The services provided by the concept of mobile banking are only limited to mobile apps. These are categorized as app-based banking for specific mobile applications for banking operations, Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) that supports customers without accessing the Internet, and SMS banking for making customers complete certain actions related to bank transactions. All of these three categories are equally essential for making an accurate and secure banking transaction. The practices that can be adapted to make these transactions completely secure are explained further.
1. Secure Distribution and Secure Enrollment
The development of applications used for banking operations needs to be secured for an authentic process. In this practice channeling customer activities leads to a reduction of banking risks. The approach suggests featuring the application link to the app stores and on their websites. This results in protecting the banking customers to stay away from fraudulent websites. Along with this continuous checks of APP integrity from the bank’s backend and a monitoring of device health leads to creating an additional security layer.
2. Dedicated Department for Fraud Detection
While taking into consideration the research data discussed in the initial section of this blog, banking fraud detection is equally important as the expected increase in mobile banking services. Dedicating an individual fraud detection department can lead to many secure changes and ensure the customer for a secure money transaction. These departments are capable of detecting fraud with the approach of differentiating different IP addresses for a particular span of time and can take appropriate actions for these suspicious activities. The requirement of this department can be to adapt specific tools that can effectively work in detecting fraud.
3. Secure Authentification
This process starts with the step of user authentication which includes multifactor authentication with advanced practices. Such as biometric protection, certificate pinning, and secrets. After this phase, the procedures involving banking-grade security and protection against tampering come into play. These practices are designed to create, host, and manage certificates, thereby preventing access by third parties. This practice requires the development environment to be crypto-agile as a default condition.
4. Emerging KYC & KYB Principles
Involvement of practices like Know Your Customers (KYC) and Know Your Business (KYB). Works on securing different financial transactions while verifying the details of counterparties. In other words, both these approaches are considered as a system that contains a chain of third-party services for the accurate analysis of user data. This approach helps financial organizations to place secure transactions of private or business money. In the outcome, mobile banking frauds are detected at an early stage and save huge losses for the bank as well as the consumer. These practices can be enabled with risk management engines of digital banking software or applications.
5. Secure Communication
The establishment of secure communication can effectively result in a secure mobile banking transaction. The communication process between the application and the backend server must be protected as a mandatory requirement. The server sending data should ensure that it communicates only with the intended system. This involves several mechanisms, which involve protection for access tokens and cookies, encrypted transport protection, and HTTPS tunneling. Also, this requires additional mechanisms to authenticate the mobile device as well as the back-end system.
6. Enabling Secure Data Encryption and Data Storage System
The development of mobile applications necessitates meeting various conditions. This results in creating an application tailored to fulfill the desired requirements. An experienced fintech app development company can work on the same motive. To make these banking applications more secure organizations prefer to involve industry-proven and government-approved cryptographic algorithms, modes, and libraries. In this, the fintech app developers are required to follow these mentioned practices which work on ensuring the cipher code configurations and a secure setup of block modes. Additionally, developers can take the initiative to encrypt private data with a managed key during transfer and while it is at rest, thereby ensuring the maintenance of data integrity and confidentiality.
7. Secure Mobile Application Design
Source: Cryptomathi
Processing a secure banking transaction also depends on the design techniques of the mobile application. The designing of mobile applications requires proper follow-up of security measures in an iterative manner. In this design process, mobile banking app developers should consider accepting three major approaches. The first approach, known as application hardening, focuses on protecting the application against the concept of reverse engineering and involves various techniques. These are native code obfuscation, anti-debug, data obfuscation, root and jailbreak detection, emulator detection, and anti-temper.
These security mechanisms work to make the mobile app adaptive to different cyber attacks in a layered manner. This involves practices like Runtime Application Self Protection (RASP), device fingerprinting, public key infrastructure (PKI), and auto-update. Along with this, the third approach to secure app design is secure storage and execution. Which works on making the storage and execution of banking operations secure with protective practices. These are Key Encryption Keys (KEKs), obfuscation, hardware security modules, smartcards with EMV chips, trusted platform modules, trusted execution environment, user Input/authentification, secure enclave, and keyStore.
Advantages of Ensuring Security in Mobile Banking Transactions
Opting for secure mobile app development is the key demand for customers. This can lead to different benefits that can result in overall business growth. Further discussion delves into the major advantages of these secure practices.
Banking Operations with Financial Security
Secure mobile banking offers numerous advantages, with one of the most prominent being the assurance of financial security. This means that users can conduct their banking operations with confidence, knowing that their sensitive financial information is protected from unauthorized access and potential threats. This heightened level of security ensures that your hard-earned money stays safe, and your financial transactions occur without any worries.
Enhanced Brand Reputation
For banks and financial institutions, offering secure mobile banking services significantly enhances their brand reputation. When customers trust that their financial data and transactions are secure, they are more likely to choose a bank’s services over competitors. A strong brand reputation built on security can lead to customer loyalty, positive word-of-mouth, and sustained growth in the competitive banking industry.
Data Encryption
Secure mobile banking employs advanced encryption techniques to safeguard the data exchanged between the user’s device and the banking server. Encryption converts sensitive information into complex codes that are virtually impossible for hackers to decipher. This ensures that personal and financial data, such as account numbers and passwords, remain confidential and inaccessible to cybercriminals.
Secure Communication
Secure mobile banking platforms prioritize secure communication channels. This means that encrypted and protected channels carry out all data transmission, including login credentials, account balances, and transaction details. Users can access their accounts and conduct transactions with the confidence that their data is shielded from interception or eavesdropping.
Compliance with Regulations
Mobile banking services are subject to strict regulatory standards to ensure the protection of user data and financial transactions. Banks and financial institutions must comply with these regulations, which often include rigorous security measures. Secure mobile banking ensures adherence to these standards, preventing legal and compliance issues while also reassuring customers of the institution’s commitment to following industry best practices.
Read more: The Visual Edge: Data Visualization’s Impact on Financial Technologies
Money Transactions with Security
One of the primary functions of mobile banking is facilitating money transactions. Secure mobile banking platforms provide a high level of security for these transactions, protecting users from fraudulent activities and unauthorized access. Whether you’re transferring funds, paying bills, or making purchases, secure mobile banking ensures that it carries out every transaction with the utmost security.
Wrapping Up
In the world of mobile banking applications, safeguarding your hard-earned money is paramount. Your financial data deserves robust protection when you use mobile banking apps. These applications provide comprehensive solutions tailored to diverse banking needs, but the increasing demand for secure financial transactions has spurred visionary developers and forward-thinking financial institutions to prioritize the security of your financial assets. Despite the initial challenges often encountered in this field, many have successfully established themselves as pioneers in the realm of secure mobile banking apps. In today’s ever-evolving financial landscape, the adoption of smart digital solutions has become increasingly accessible, empowering both consumers and financial institutions to adapt seamlessly to the evolving demands of modern banking while ensuring the safety of your financial transactions.
Amplework, a leader in mobile app development with over 5+ years of immersive experience, recognizes the critical importance of security in mobile banking apps. Our dedicated team consistently exceeds client expectations, earning a reputation for reliability and trustworthiness. We’ve achieved significant milestones by supporting various organizations, all while adhering to the highest security standards. Explore our website to discover the exceptional mobile banking app development services we offer. Partner with Amplework to embark on a transformative journey towards ensuring the robust security of your financial assets in the world of mobile banking apps.
