Building for Fintechs — Lessons from M2P and Beyond

Fintechs sit at the intersection of finance and technology, leveraging software to disrupt traditional financial services. Building products for fintechs is both exciting and challenging. It demands deep domain expertise, compliance awareness, agility and the ability to scale quickly. Theecode’s collaborations with fintech companies such as M2P have provided valuable insights into what it takes to succeed in this space. This article distills lessons learned from those collaborations and offers guidance for organisations that want to build for fintechs.

M2P, now a leading fintech infrastructure provider in Asia, started as a small team aiming to simplify digital payments and card issuance. Theecode partnered with M2P to design and build several components, including onboarding flows, dashboards and developer portals. The journey revealed that fintech clients require more than just good code; they need partners who understand regulatory compliance, risk management, user experience and scalability. These lessons apply to projects beyond M2P, from neobanks and payment processors to lending platforms and wealth management apps.

Lesson 1: Compliance is Non‑Negotiable

Financial services are regulated for a reason. Payments, lending and investing involve money, personal data and systemic risk. When building for fintechs, compliance must be integrated from day one. This means understanding licensing requirements, anti‑money laundering (AML) rules, know‑your‑customer (KYC) obligations, data protection laws and industry standards such as PCI DSS. For example, when building card issuance modules for M2P, Theecode worked closely with compliance experts to ensure that user verification processes met regulatory standards and that data flows were secure. Ignoring compliance or bolting it on later can lead to costly rework or penalties.

Compliance is also dynamic. Regulations evolve, and fintechs may expand into new geographies with different rules. Building configurable compliance modules—where risk thresholds, document requirements and workflows can be adjusted—helps fintechs adapt quickly. Documenting decisions and maintaining audit trails support transparency and facilitate regulatory reviews. Collaborating with legal counsel and regulatory advisors ensures that products remain compliant as they scale.

Lesson 2: Design for Trust and Transparency

Finance is deeply personal. Users entrust fintechs with their money and data. Trust is therefore critical. Design plays a key role in establishing trust. Interfaces should be clear, transparent and consistent. For M2P’s card management dashboard, Theecode prioritised clarity in presenting fees, limits and transaction details. Visual cues, like green for successful transactions and red for declines, provided immediate feedback. Progressive disclosure allowed users to see high‑level summaries first, then drill into details. Transparency extends to pricing; hidden fees erode trust quickly. User education—via tooltips, FAQs and onboarding guides—helps demystify financial concepts.

Security features such as multi‑factor authentication, biometric logins and real‑time notifications reassure users. However, they must be balanced with convenience. Fintechs should offer configurable security levels, allowing users to choose their comfort level. Trust also involves consistent performance. Downtime or errors can undermine user confidence. Investing in reliability engineering—monitoring, redundancy, failover mechanisms—builds resilience. Transparency about incidents and quick resolution reinforces trust when issues occur.

Lesson 3: Build API‑First and Modular

Fintech platforms rely on ecosystems of partners—banks, payment processors, card networks, data providers. API‑first architecture enables fintechs to integrate new services quickly and scale. When working with M2P, Theecode designed services as modular APIs, with clear documentation and versioning. This allowed M2P to expose functionality to clients and integrate third‑party services without tight coupling. Modular architecture also supports experimentation. Fintechs can test new features, iterate and roll back with minimal disruption.

API design should consider security (authentication, authorisation), throttling (rate limits) and observability (logging, metrics). Standardising data formats and error codes simplifies integration for clients. Developer experience is key. Comprehensive documentation, sandbox environments, code samples and support channels accelerate adoption. With M2P, the developer portal included interactive API explorers and guides for common use cases, which increased developer satisfaction and reduced support tickets.

Lesson 4: Plan for Scale from the Start

Fintechs often experience rapid growth. A product that onboards a few thousand users can soon face millions. Building with scalability in mind prevents performance bottlenecks and downtime. This involves choosing the right infrastructure, such as cloud‑native platforms that scale horizontally. It means adopting asynchronous architectures—message queues, event streams—to handle spikes. It requires optimising databases, using caching and sharding when necessary. For M2P, Theecode used microservices and container orchestration to enable independent scaling of components like card issuance, transaction processing and reporting. Load testing identified stress points, and auto‑scaling rules ensured that the platform handled peak loads.

Observability supports scale. Implementing centralised logging, distributed tracing and real‑time metrics allows teams to detect anomalies and optimise resources. Scalability also applies to processes. Onboarding new clients should be streamlined, with automated KYC, configurable workflows and self‑service portals. Support infrastructure—knowledge bases, chatbots, ticketing systems—must grow with the user base. By planning for scale, fintechs avoid firefighting and maintain user experience during growth spurts.

Lesson 5: Foster Collaboration and Communication

Building for fintechs involves collaboration across disciplines: developers, designers, compliance experts, product managers and clients. Communication breakdowns can lead to misaligned expectations, delays or security flaws. Theecode worked closely with M2P’s stakeholders, holding regular stand‑ups, design reviews and demos. Shared documentation and collaboration tools ensured that everyone had access to decisions and updates. Engaging clients’ developers early surfaced integration issues before launch.

For distributed teams, asynchronous communication and clear documentation become even more important. Tools like Slack, Notion and Figma facilitate collaboration. Feedback loops—beta testing, user interviews, A/B testing—inform product direction. A culture of openness encourages team members to raise concerns about compliance, usability or performance. When building for regulated industries, a “no surprises” policy—sharing potential issues as soon as they arise—builds trust with clients and regulators.

Future Opportunities and Challenges

The fintech sector continues to evolve. Embedded finance, open banking, blockchain and AI are creating new opportunities and challenges. Builders must stay abreast of technological advances and regulatory changes. Opportunities include offering banking‑as‑a‑service to non‑financial companies, using AI to personalise financial advice and leveraging decentralised finance (DeFi) for new lending models. Challenges include data privacy, cybersecurity threats and competition from big tech. Builders must consider ethical implications, such as algorithmic bias in credit decisions and inclusivity for underserved populations. Responsible innovation requires diverse teams, user testing and regulatory engagement.

Partnerships will be crucial. Fintechs cannot build everything themselves. Collaborating with banks, technology providers, regulators and community organisations will unlock new markets and drive adoption. Building for fintechs thus becomes building with fintechs and their ecosystems. Those who master this collaborative, compliant and user‑centric approach will shape the future of finance.

Conclusion

Building products for fintechs requires a blend of technical expertise, regulatory knowledge, design sensitivity and scalability. Lessons from Theecode’s work with M2P and other clients highlight the importance of compliance, trust, API‑first architecture, scalability and collaboration. These principles enable builders to deliver secure, reliable and user‑friendly solutions that meet the demands of a fast‑evolving industry. As fintechs continue to innovate and disrupt, those who embrace these lessons and remain adaptable will be well‑positioned to thrive. The future of finance belongs to those who can build with integrity, creativity and a deep understanding of both technology and human needs.