Trading platform software development
Itransition helped the customer to create the roadmap for online trading platform development, optimize the mobile applications’ performance, and enhance their security.
Challenge
Customer
Our customer is a European bond-trading service with over $1 billion worth funds raised for its trusted partners. The company’s mission is to make bond trading convenient and accessible to everyone. With the idea to help both professional and beginning private investors to monitor the market and invest in bonds even when away from home, the company decided to release identical mobile apps for iOS and Android to match its existing web portal.
Objective
The customer developed the MVP with basic functionality using their in-house resources, yet they needed a partner specialized in online trading platform development to improve and finalize the product. The areas for improvement included the app’s security, which didn’t comply with the industry standards, and a complicated sign-up process
For this purpose, the customer turned to Itransition, relying on our track record of successfully shipped financial applications as well as our expertise in mobile-specific programming languages and security
Solution
Itransition’s team developed iOS and Android mobile applications that mirror the extensive functionality of the customer’s bond-trading web portal. The applications contain the following features:
- Registration and verification of new users
- User account management
- Bond listing and purchasing
- Credit card payment support
- Bond portfolio management
- Purchasing and payout history
Online trading platform development in detail
User sign-up
One of the most significant hurdles for the apps’ usability was that users had to be physically present in the customer’s office to sign a brokerage agreement. To facilitate access to the application for new users without the need to attend the customer’s office, we implemented SIMiD. This service enables Electronic Digital Signature via SIM cards, which allows users to remotely sign a document while maintaining the legal power of their signature. Now, the process of opening a brokerage account via the apps goes as follows:
- The user enters their phone number that supports SIMiD
- The user enters their ID data manually or scans the corresponding pages of their passport with a phone camera to automatically add the required information
- The user enters their bank account details
- The user signs the brokerage agreement with their digital signature
Once the sign-up process is completed, the user receives their signed statement, brokerage agreement, corporate policies, and other documents, which they can view in their profile anytime. To sign in to the app, users receive a one-time password that must be changed after the first login.
User authentication and security
When dealing with finance software development, security can’t be overlooked. The customer’s MVP had a serious problem in this regard. Cybercriminals could easily gain access to users’ accounts and their financial information because the sign-in tokens originally had no expiration date.
To solve this problem, we implemented the solution on an OAuth 2.0-enabled authorization server with both access and refresh tokens in use. Access tokens ensure time-limited access to the apps’ resources. This ensures the apps’ security by significantly shortening the window when an attacker can use a stolen token. After the user’s one-time access token expires, the refresh token automatically renews access to the apps without forcing the user to once again grant permissions, which also allows for faster loading.
To make the authentication process more user-friendly, secure and efficient, we enabled the Face ID feature for users of iPhone X and later models, as well as Touch ID for earlier iPhone versions.
Bond availability synchronization
While auditing the MVP, our team revealed a serious bug: purchased bonds weren’t withdrawn from the pool of all available bonds, which could potentially lead to duplicate purchases of the same bonds by different users.
To solve this problem, we enabled payment transaction check through the server. Acquired bonds are now immediately removed from the pool and become unavailable for purchase.
Integration of third-party tools
In addition to the core functionality, we integrated Firebase Cloud Messaging to add push notifications that inform users when new bonds are issued or when purchased bonds approach their maturity date.
We integrated Deeplink to enable page opening in one click, thus ensuring smooth user experience and unhindered engagement. We also added UniSender to automatically send mass emails to the users as part of unified marketing campaigns.
Process
During the first stage of the project, Itransition’s team collaborated with the customer to identify the requirements and the current problems with the MVP, as well as set the vision for future development.
To build the route for effective collaboration with the customer’s team, we assigned the product owner with a strong background in mobile development and financial technologies to manage the project on our side. Based on the customer's feedback and goals, the product owner created, managed and prioritized the product backlog, further communicating it to our development team.
To help both the customer and the development team to stay on track, the product owner also created and maintained the project roadmap divided in two-week sprints.
Results
As we took the customer’s app from the MVP stage to the full-fledged market-ready solution, we helped ensure the applications’ highest level of security, enhance their UX, and significantly expand their functionality. Three months into the release, there were no bug reports across both iOS and Android platforms.
Remote sign-up became the key value proposition for new users. As a result, the delivered mobile bond-trading apps helped the customer increase their user base by three times. The app’s usability and thought-out design also attracted a new wave of bond issuers to the platform, growing the customer’s bond portfolio by 18%.
In the final part of our trading platform software development services, we wrapped it up by elaborating the product development and maintenance roadmap for the next 12 months and sharing it with the customer.
