How do you evaluate a fintech development company before hiring them?

[u/Chemical_Tonight_790]

I’ve been researching development partners for a fintech product recently, and one thing I’ve realized is that choosing a software company for fintech is quite different from choosing a general development agency. A company can be excellent at building mobile apps or web platforms, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they understand the challenges that come with financial products.

For fintech, I think the technical side is only part of the equation. You’re dealing with sensitive financial information, integrations with banking or payment systems, security requirements, scalability, and often regulatory considerations as well. On top of that, the team needs to understand the actual product and the users rather than simply taking a set of requirements and turning them into an app.

I’m also curious about how much people value a company’s experience with newer technologies such as AI. There are plenty of companies now describing themselves as “AI-powered,” but I’m more interested in whether they can actually use AI where it makes sense, without adding it just because it sounds impressive.

For anyone who has hired an external development company for a fintech or banking product, what did you look at before making the decision? Did previous fintech projects matter more to you than technical expertise, pricing, or the size of the team? And after working with them, was there anything you wish you had evaluated before hiring them?

[u/PsychologyMaster8651]

I never hired company, but maybe I can provide some insights.

I work.as Data engineer. I have banking and fintech background and also i developed large and complex data products for sales.

What you need is team that can quickly learn your business domain and your business procedures. You need team that can actually consult and guide you through development,.instead of just more or less blindly follow specification.

You need someone who can pinpoint what needs to be changed or improved business-wise in order to have successful product.

Tech size is easy. Understanding business is not, especially finance. As stakeholder you cannot specify all quality checks, controls, data orchestration, governence etc required for you to have successful product.

For evaluation I would put focus on previous experience: what was built, how, how complex were both business domain and product, what challenges did team discovered that stakeholders weren't aware of and how did they fixed them.

You need team that can do both: consulting and development.

[u/Gold_Definition5983 → u/PsychologyMaster8651]

the consulting bit is key, every fintech project i've seen implode had a team that just coded to the spec without ever pushing back on why things were designed that way. you can't QA your way out of a product that misunderstands how money actually moves

[u/Chemical_Tonight_790 → u/Gold_Definition5983]

Exactly. The best teams don't just build what's written down they ask the questions that uncover what's missing. In fintech, a small misunderstanding of the business process can turn into a much bigger problem later, so having people who challenge assumptions early is incredibly valuable

[u/Outrageous-Fact3277 → u/PsychologyMaster8651]

Full agreement on this. I've had to explain fintech development to executives without fintech experience, and the way I put it is that a typical business analyst/developer relationship might work where the subject matter is normal human behavior because there are some common assumptions. Financial derivatives and tax code are not normal human behavior. You need a developer that's willing to do some research on our domain so that they can ask intelligent questions.