Reviewed by Dr. Dmytro Nasyrov, Founder and CTO • Last updated April 24, 2026
Banking Software Development
Digital banking platforms, core banking modernization, open banking API integration and neobank solutions.
- 15+ FinTech projects
- 12+ years in business
- 90+ Clutch reviews
Reviewed by Dmytro Nasyrov
Founder and CTO
23+ years in custom software development. Led 70+ projects across FinTech, healthcare, Web3 and enterprise. ISO 27001 certified team.
What is banking software development?
Authoritative citations 12 sources
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PCI DSS v4.0 Standard
The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard v4.0 is the binding specification for any system that stores, processes or transmits cardholder data, and we design every payments build against its 12 requirement families from day one of discovery.
pcisecuritystandards.org
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European Banking Authority PSD2 RTS
The PSD2 Regulatory Technical Standards on strong customer authentication and secure communication define the EU rules for payments, account information and dedicated interfaces, which govern every open banking integration we ship in the EEA.
eba.europa.eu
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FATF Recommendations on AML/CFT
The Financial Action Task Force 40 Recommendations are the global AML and counter-terrorism financing baseline that our screening, customer due diligence and transaction monitoring designs implement in every regulated FinTech engagement.
fatf-gafi.org
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Stripe Engineering Blog
The Stripe engineering blog publishes deep-dive posts on idempotency, ledger design, distributed counters and payment lifecycle that inform how we architect money movement systems and idempotency keys across our custom FinTech builds.
stripe.com
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Plaid Reliability Post-mortems
Plaid engineering publishes detailed post-mortems and reliability reports on the infrastructure behind bank connections, which we read closely because our payment and account aggregation flows depend on similar third-party reliability envelopes.
plaid.com
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Bank for International Settlements CPMI Reports
The BIS Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures publishes authoritative reports on cross-border payments, CBDC and fast payment systems, which inform every FinTech engagement touching international money movement or central bank rails.
bis.org
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NIST Digital Identity Guidelines SP 800-63
NIST SP 800-63 defines authenticator assurance levels and identity proofing that we map to KYC flows, step-up authentication and regulated account opening journeys in FinTech platforms subject to US regulators.
pages.nist.gov
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ISO 20022 Payments Messages
ISO 20022 is the global messaging standard replacing legacy MT and ACH formats across Fedwire, SWIFT, SEPA and instant payment rails, and we design ledger and integration layers for ISO 20022 first with legacy adapters rather than the reverse.
iso20022.org
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Basel III Framework
The Basel III regulatory framework governs capital, leverage and liquidity requirements for banks, which cascades into our build decisions when platforms integrate with regulated institutions needing reporting, stress testing and risk data pipelines.
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SWIFT Customer Security Programme
The SWIFT Customer Security Programme mandates security controls for institutions connecting to the SWIFT network, which shape our reference architecture whenever a client integrates FIN, gpi or the ISO 20022 SWIFT rails.
swift.com
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OWASP Application Security Verification Standard
OWASP ASVS provides a ranked control set for application security verification that we map against PCI DSS, SOC 2 and ISO 27001 requirements when building the control baseline for new FinTech platforms.
owasp.org
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FSB Financial Stability Reports
The Financial Stability Board publishes reports on FinTech, crypto-asset regulation and cross-border payments that shape our regulatory risk posture for client platforms operating across multiple jurisdictions.
fsb.org
- Full core banking replacement without a sponsor bank or charter partner
- Crypto-adjacent banking without jurisdiction analysis from qualified legal counsel
- Projects where the client wants us to hold the regulatory license
- Lending products without regulatory review of usury and disclosure rules
Banking software at Pharos Production at a glance
- Banking systems: 10+ production banking systems since 2018 (neobanks, BaaS platforms, core-adjacent middleware, loan origination)
- Compliance: PCI DSS, SOC 2, ISO 27001 certified, GDPR, PSD2-compliant, FCA/CFPB-aware architecture
- Stack: Elixir/Phoenix, Java/Spring, Node.js, PostgreSQL with double-entry ledger, Kafka event bus, AWS VPC with CloudHSM
- Integrations: FIS, Fiserv, Jack Henry, Thought Machine, 10x Banking, Marqeta, Galileo, Sumsub, Onfido, Plaid, TrueLayer, Mastercard, Visa DPS
- Pricing: Banking MVP from $80,000-$200,000; full platform $200,000-$800,000+; retainers from $12,000/month
- Timeline: Discovery + compliance review 4-6 weeks; MVP 4-7 months; full platform 9-18 months with sponsor-bank integration
- Disaster recovery: RTO < 1 hour for transactional systems, RPO < 5 minutes, quarterly DR drills
- Honest scope: We recommend Unit/Treasury Prime/Column for early-stage and decline full core replacements without charter partners
Delivering bank-grade software
Banking software projects follow Pharos Verified Delivery with bank-grade gates: discovery includes regulator-ready compliance modeling and sponsor-bank integration planning; build includes double-entry ledger + idempotent transaction handling + audit log on every state change; production readiness covers disaster recovery drill, regulator audit readiness and 4-hour SLA on P1 incidents; support includes monthly reconciliation reviews and quarterly regulator-readiness walkthroughs.
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Phase 01 / 04 Paid Discovery
2-4 weeks- Technical validation
- Architecture proposal
- Scope refined estimate
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Phase 02 / 04 Iterative Build
2-week sprints- Working demos every sprint
- CTO review at milestones
- ADRs documented
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Phase 03 / 04 Production Readiness
- Monitoring and alerting
- Security audit Pen test
- Runbooks and rollback
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Phase 04 / 04 Support
Ongoing- Security patches
- Performance tuning
- 4h SLA response
Pharos Verified Delivery applied to 70+ production applications since 2013
Banking engagements we shipped
Three recent banking engagements with the regulatory and integration calls that made them pass their first audit.
Pre-launch neobank with a sponsor bank relationship but no core-adjacent platform. Needed ledger, card issuance, KYC, mobile app and customer support tooling within 6 months.
Full neobank platform delivered in 5 months and 2 weeks with card issuance via Marqeta, KYC via Sumsub, ledger on PostgreSQL and mobile app in Flutter. FCA go-live on schedule. 40,000 accounts opened in the first 90 days.
We ran the build in parallel tracks: ledger + regulatory + mobile app + KYC each had a dedicated squad coordinating through a shared API contract defined in week one. The sponsor bank integration was the critical path and got the most senior engineer.
Regional bank with a 25-year-old FIS core. New digital features took 9-14 months to ship because every change required coordinating with the core vendor.
Integration abstraction layer (middleware + event bus) that isolates the core from the product layer. New feature cycle down to 6-10 weeks. Core upgrade cycle decoupled from product release cycle. Zero downtime during the 4-month rollout.
We did not replace the core — we abstracted it. The middleware translates between the core's batch-oriented interfaces and the product layer's real-time needs. The core still runs nightly batches; the product layer sees real-time via event sourcing over a Kafka bus.
Manual partner onboarding taking 6-8 weeks per integration. Each partner required custom compliance review. Scaling blocked on human-in-the-loop approvals.
Self-service partner portal with automated KYB, risk scoring and compliance controls. Onboarding time down to 4-6 days. Partners scaled from 12 to 47 in 8 months without headcount increase in compliance.
The automation does not replace compliance — it front-loads the information gathering and flags high-risk cases for human review. 62% of partners clear automated checks and go live in 4-6 days; the remaining 38% enter a review queue with pre-filled risk assessments.
Client names anonymized under NDA. Full case studies at /cases/.
When custom banking software is not the answer
We decline roughly 30% of RFPs we receive. Forcing a bad fit costs both sides 3-6 months and damages outcomes. Here is how we think about scope:
- Full core banking replacement without a sponsor bank or charter partner
- Basic deposit products where existing neobank infrastructure (Unit, Treasury Prime, Column) would ship in weeks
- Lending products without regulatory review of usury and disclosure rules
- Crypto-adjacent banking without jurisdiction analysis from qualified counsel
- Projects where the client has no compliance program to operate the software
For early-stage neobanks and BaaS-powered products, providers like Unit, Treasury Prime, Column, Synapse and Increase ship in weeks with inherited compliance. Custom banking software makes sense when you need direct sponsor-bank pricing at scale, proprietary risk models, non-standard products or regulatory ownership that BaaS cannot deliver. We have recommended BaaS over custom on many engagements.
Read before you commit
FinTech Development at Pharos Parent hub covering FinTech services including banking, payments, KYC and crypto rails with engagement models and case studies. Continue readingPharos banking portfolio
Pharos banking software delivery portfolio observations, 2019-2026
Ranges we consistently see across 25+ banking engagements.
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99.99%+ achieved on mid-market deploys with automated reconciliation; residual exceptions flagged within 6 hours on end-of-day batch.
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16-28 weeks from discovery to production-ready multi-entity ledger with reconciliation, reporting and audit pipeline[7].
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8-14 weeks with Temenos, Mambu, Thought Machine or custom core banking platforms via ISO 20022 message adapters[8].
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40-60% reduction in annual PCI audit preparation via automated evidence generation versus manual control binders[1].
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Approximately 35% of engagements involve migrating from legacy batch rails to real-time or ISO 20022 equivalents, typically as multi-phase strangler patterns.
Banking software development outlook 2026-2027
Three shifts are reshaping banking platform engineering.
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FedNow, SEPA Instant and UPI-style real-time rails move from emerging option to baseline expectation. Batch-first banking platforms face integration pressure from customer-facing apps expecting sub-second settlement[8].
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PSD2, FDX, Australia CDR and similar regimes no longer serve only compliance reporting. Banks monetise structured API access and partnership rails, and platforms without API-first architecture lose B2B distribution[2].
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Mid-market banks join the shift from pure rules engines to hybrid rules plus gradient-boosting fraud models. Banks without ML tier fraud detection report higher false-positive rates and measurable customer churn[3].
Our four-dimension banking software evaluation template
Every banking software engagement we ship runs against the same four-dimension readiness evaluation before handover.
Production post-mortem
When a ledger idempotency gap caused a settlement discrepancy
A mid-market neobank ledger we shipped in Q3 2024 had two write paths: a primary path protected by idempotency keys, and a rarely-used manual reconciliation path that did not enforce idempotency. During a batch operator action, a duplicate manual write created a measurable but bounded settlement discrepancy across 47 accounts. End-of-day reconciliation caught it within 6 hours; no customer-facing impact.
All ledger write paths now share a single idempotency middleware regardless of operator or automation source. Two-phase commit wrapper introduced for manual corrections. Post-mortem runbook documented and added to the production readiness checklist for subsequent bank engagements.
Published record
Published Pharos research
Technical articles, comparison guides and methodology deep-dives we write from our own delivery experience.
Platforms We Work With
Trusted by Coinbase, Consensys, Core Scientific, MicroStrategy, Gate.io and 10+ more Web3 and enterprise platforms
16+ partnersOur 16 technology partners include:
- Consensys
- Gate Io
- Coinbase
- Ludo
- Core Scientific
- Debut Infotech
- Axoni
- Alchemy
- Starkware
- Mara Holdings
- Microstrategy
- Nubank
- Okx
- Uniswap
- Riot
- Leeway Hertz
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Consensys
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Gate Io
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Coinbase
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Ludo
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Core Scientific
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Debut Infotech
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Axoni
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Alchemy
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Starkware
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Mara Holdings
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Microstrategy
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Nubank
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Okx
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Uniswap
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Riot
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Leeway Hertz
Banking software we develop
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Digital banking platformsFull-cycle neobank and digital banking solutions with account management, KYC/AML integration, lending modules and open banking APIs. -
Core banking modernizationLegacy system migration to modern architectures. Microservices-based core banking with real-time processing and API-first design.
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Open banking integrationsPSD2-compliant API layers connecting banks with third-party providers. Account aggregation, payment initiation and consent management.
About Founder and CTO
I design and build reliable software solutions — from lightweight apps to high-load distributed systems and blockchain platforms.
PhD in Artificial Intelligence, MSc in Computer Science (with honors), MSc in Electronics & Precision Mechanics.
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12 years in architecture of great software solutions tailored to customer needs for startups and enterprises
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23 years of practical enterprise customized software production experience
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Lecturer at the National Kyiv Polytechnic University
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Doctor of Philosophy in Artificial Intelligence
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Master’s degree in Computer Science, completed with excellence
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Master’s degree in Electronics and precision mechanics engineering
Choose your cooperation model
Feature-scoped regulated module with audit trails, logging and readiness for SOC 2 or PCI.
Production platform with KYC, AML, PCI-DSS compliance, secure payments and observability.
Multi-region, multi-tenant platform with full compliance, fraud detection and 24/7 incident response.
Prices vary based on project scope, complexity, timeline and requirements. Contact us for a personalized estimate.
Or select the appropriate interaction model
Request staff augmentation
Need extra hands on your software project? Our developers can jump in at any stage – from architecture to auditing – and integrate seamlessly with your team to fill any technical gaps.
Hire dedicated experts
Whether you’re building from scratch or scaling fast, our engineers are ready to step in. You stay in control, and we handle the code.
Outsource your project
From first line to final audit, we handle the entire development process. We will deliver secure, production-ready software, while you can focus on your business.
Technologies, tools and frameworks we use
Our engineers work with 187+ technologies across blockchain, backend, frontend, mobile and DevOps - chosen for production reliability and performance.
AI and Machine Learning
LLM Providers 8
AI Frameworks 15
Vector Databases 7
MLOps and Infrastructure 11
AI Agent Tools 4
Blockchains
Private and Public Blockchains 33
Cloud Blockchain Solutions 4
DevOps
DevOps Tools 15
Clouds
Clouds 6
Databases
Databases 15
Brokers
Event and Message Brokers 7
Tests
Test Automation Tools 6
UI/UX
UI/UX Design Tools 12
Partnerships & Awards
Recognized on Clutch, GoodFirms and The Manifest for software engineering excellence
An approach to the development cycle
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Team Assembly
Our company starts and assembles an entire project specialists with the perfect blend of skills and experience to start the work.
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MVP
We’ll design, build, and launch your MVP, ensuring it meets the core requirements of your software solution.
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Production
We’ll create a complete software solution that is custom-made to meet your exact specifications.
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Ongoing
Continuous Support
Our company will be right there with you, keeping your software solution running smoothly, fixing issues, and rolling out updates.
FAQ
Quick answers to common questions about custom software development, pricing, process and technology.
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No. Pharos Production builds banking software; the client (or a sponsor bank partner) holds the charter. We integrate with your sponsor bank or BaaS provider (Column, Treasury Prime, Unit, Increase, Synapse) and design the compliance program with your legal counsel, but we do not hold banking or money transmitter licenses ourselves.
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For early-stage neobanks, BaaS (Unit, Treasury Prime, Column) ships in weeks with inherited compliance - that is usually the right starting point. Move to custom when: you hit BaaS pricing or feature ceilings, you need products the provider has not built, you need direct sponsor-bank economics at scale, or regulatory ownership becomes a differentiator.
We have recommended BaaS for many engagements and helped others migrate from BaaS to custom when the economics flipped.
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BaaS-powered neobank: 3-5 months from start to public launch including compliance onboarding with the BaaS provider. Custom-built neobank with a sponsor bank: 5-9 months including ledger, card issuance, KYC, mobile app, customer support tooling and sponsor-bank integration.
Regulatory review and UAT with the sponsor bank typically adds 4-8 weeks to either path.
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Yes. We integrate with FIS, Fiserv, Jack Henry, nCino, Mambu and modern core banking platforms (Thought Machine, 10x Banking, Mambu) via SOAP, REST and event-driven middleware.
We build an abstraction layer so the product code stays decoupled from the core - your core upgrade does not break your customer-facing app, and your customer-facing feature cycle is not blocked by the core release cadence.
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Pharos infrastructure is PCI DSS architected and ISO 27001 certified. We minimize PCI scope via tokenization (Marqeta, Stripe Issuing, Galileo) so the primary account number never enters client logs.
SOC 2 evidence collection is automated via Drata, Vanta or Secureframe. Accredited CPAs issue the SOC 2 attestation - Pharos prepares the evidence and walks you through the audit.
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Yes. We integrate Sumsub, Onfido, Persona, Jumio, Alloy, Plaid Identity Verification and Trulioo for identity verification and risk scoring.
Sanctions screening via Chainalysis for crypto-adjacent products or WorldCheck for traditional FinTech. We design the KYC flow to match the sponsor bank’s risk appetite - low-risk auto-approve, medium-risk enhanced review, high-risk + PEP + sanction hits go to manual review with full audit trail.
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Banking systems typically target RTO < 1 hour and RPO < 5 minutes. We design multi-AZ active-active deployments with cross-region standby for regional failover.
Database backups run every 5 minutes with point-in-time recovery. Quarterly DR drills are included in the retainer - we actually fail over to the standby region and measure recovery time. A tabletop DR plan is not DR; we run the drill.
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We decline full core banking replacements without sponsor bank or charter partners, basic deposit products where BaaS would ship in weeks, lending products without regulatory review of usury and disclosure rules, crypto-adjacent banking without jurisdictional analysis, and projects where the client has no compliance program to operate the software. Forcing a banking build without the regulatory foundation damages everyone.
The Pharos takeaway on banking software development
Banking software rewards teams that treat compliance as architecture, not paperwork. Pharos ships banking systems with PCI DSS, PSD2 and ISO 20022 traceability from commit level, and declines engagements where regulatory posture is an afterthought[11].
Book a 30-minute banking platform readiness call
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Our offices
Headquarters in Las Vegas, Nevada. Engineering office in Kyiv, Ukraine.