iOS and Android Banking Apps Localized in 10 Languages for a US Neobank

About Our Client

The Client is a US neobank providing digital banking services to consumers and small businesses. The company operates an all-in-one online banking platform and offers mobile and web customer apps for streamlined access to personal and corporate banking services.

In-House Skill Gaps Hampered Mobile Banking App Delivery

The Client wanted to replace its existing mobile banking solutions with new iOS and Android apps that would be more convenient and engaging for international users.

It was critical for the Client to launch the new apps quickly. However, its in-house development team wasn’t able to meet the expected release pace. To speed up delivery, the Client decided to outsource a portion of development tasks. The company sought a vendor with a proven track record in banking IT and mature Agile practices to support the ongoing development flows. Following its project cost optimization strategy, the Client specifically looked for offshore competencies. ScienceSoft came across as an Agile tech partner with development centers in the US, Europe, LATAM, and the Gulf Cooperation Council, as well as decades of experience in creating custom mobile banking apps.

Dedicated Team to Develop Localization Features for iOS and Android Banking Apps

The Client asked ScienceSoft to arrange a dedicated offshore team of two iOS developers, two Android developers, and a QA engineer. The company had little experience with offshore engagements and was still in doubt regarding the candidates’ technical and communicative skills. To give the Client more control of and confidence in the resource choices, ScienceSoft actively involved the company in talent selection. The Client received a tailored pack of CVs for each development role and took part in interviewing the best-qualifying candidates to ascertain their competencies.

As soon as the team composition was finalized, ScienceSoft’s specialists explored the Client’s development environment, studied the project documentation, and joined the collaborative workflow. Throughout the cooperation, ScienceSoft’s team was primarily involved in developing localization features for the Client’s consumer-facing iOS and Android banking apps. Among the functional capabilities our team introduced are:

• UI personalization and localization for app users. Intuitive customer-facing features let users configure the mobile banking apps’ default language, color scheme, currency conversion widgets, and account time zone.
• Instant UI text translation. Our team integrated the Client’s mobile banking apps with Lokalise, a continuous localization and translation management service, to enable instant high-quality translation of the apps’ contents (menus, navigation elements, onboarding instructions, banking product descriptions, account statements, etc.) to ten languages.
• Auto-localization for new app users. When a user first opens the banking app, the app instantly requests the user’s location, defines the location-relevant language, and auto-translates the interface contents.
• Geography-based KYC. The app automatically applies authorization and Know Your Customer (KYC) verification procedures specific to the mobile banking users’ regions (e.g., displays localized document submission lists and automates document reconciliation against region-specific samples).
• Localized personal offers. The apps auto-translate in-app and push notifications about new product offers, personalized promotions, and app features to each user’s selected language and display them according to the user’s local time zone.

ScienceSoft’s QA engineer cooperated with the Client’s team to perform comprehensive localization testing of each delivered functional component. The QA procedures ensured the linguistic, cultural, and functional relevance of the mobile banking app interfaces to users in the target regions.

During the project, ScienceSoft’s experts took part in Agile backlog scoping and refinement together with the Client’s development team. ScienceSoft provided monthly reports to reconcile team member performance and billable efforts.

Mobile Banking Localization Functionality Obtained in 4 Months and at a 2x Lower Cost

Thanks to ScienceSoft’s established Agile collaboration practices and the solid technical skills of our banking IT talents, the Client managed to speed up its project delivery while ensuring consistently high quality of the mobile banking deliverables. By entrusting the app localization tasks to ScienceSoft’s offshore team, the Client leveraged resource rates that were more than 2x lower than the US domestic average.

With robust localization capabilities obtained in just 4 months, the Client got the opportunity to release a new mobile banking solution earlier than expected. The new app provides smooth experiences to international users, giving our Client the possibility to drive higher engagement and retention of its mobile banking customers.

Technologies and Tools

iOS, Android, Kotlin, Swift, Swift Package Manager, Lokalise, XcodeGen, Git, Gitlab, Jira.