The idea of creating a digital bank stemmed from the market’s needs. In particular, there is a high demand for faster, easier, more modern and more flexible banking services. Traditional banks are still slow to adapt to the latest technology trends and clients’ demands. Based on our previous experience within the industry, we concluded that most of the clients had the same or similar problems when it comes to using services from traditional banking institutions. That is why we decided to create a flexible digital bank.

FinTech industry is an industry that develops or uses information technology in order to improve financial services. It is changing rapidly. There is plenty of innovation and new approaches that shape the concept of the digital bank, as well as the final product. We have spent a lot of time developing a concept itself in order to have a clear vision of where do want to be and what we want to offer. Product is developed while doing a lot of brainstorming, refinement, and refactoring. In focus is quality code that can be easily maintained and quickly changed. With the help of DDD, clean architecture and microservices we are building software that can be easily adapted to different demands. It is also flexible enough to enable quick and efficient changes.

In order to show you what this project is all about, we asked our employees to share some insights. What motivates them? What is the most interesting part of the project? In which way they are learning and advancing their career? These are their answers.

Oliver (Business Operations Manager) – I am motivated by the challenges. Creating a digital bank is a complex project that requires a team of people with knowledge in different fields. Digital banking, as well as developing a digital banking solution, is not that common in Serbia. There are different challenges every day, starting from forming a team to building a system that will support the team’s work. With every step, there is another matter to solve, whether is that creating a specific politics and procedures or everyday issues that require fast decisions and even faster solutions.

The distinctiveness of this project is in the variety of knowledge needed for its realization. It is not only about the domain knowledge, but also about all the operational aspects that this kind of company needs to utilize in order to develop such a product. I started to work for this company as a digital marketer and now I am the HR & Business Operations Manager. That being said, I can confirm that the width of knowledge I received here is enormous and that is truly priceless.

Milan (.NET developer) – The most compelling part of my job is working on a greenfield project in-house. For me, the greatest motivation comes from working with the latest technologies, modern approaches and software architecture. We learned many things about the industry and advanced in our careers through gaining new skills and expertise. It is not only about the FinTech, but also about learning technical skills through working with new technologies.

Uglješa (Software Architect) – A good part of my career I’ve worked in a slow-paced industry. New technologies and practices were not always welcomed there. One could say that the banking industry is the same. However, new regulation adopted by the EU called PSD2 revolutionized the industry. It required traditional banks to open their processes to third parties. We are in the industry that redefines itself. That means that we are challenging the status quo. We do that by defining new ways of doing banking. Until recently, banks were the primary focus of every banking software, but now it is the customer. At Zero21 there are no out-of-the-box solutions and no legacy systems to maintain. It lets us use all the best practices and technologies. Competing with tech giants such as Google and Alibaba made this project the most challenging in my career. When we succeed, we are going to be a part of something big. We could say that we participated in FinTech revolution and created a solution that redefined the future.

Sofija (Head of Sales) – Banking platform was another challenge for us. All members of the team are seniors when it comes to the most popular payment options in Europe, Asia, and Latin America. What made the puzzle complete is digital banking, learning through our and others’ experience. Creating a new solution gave us additional confidence in front of potential partners. Service we can provide now had put us ahead of competitors. Our clients see multiple benefits from working with us, because we have set standards of digital banking with our platform.

Sandra (Marketing Assistant) – Working as a Marketing Assistant, I am involved in the creative part of the process. It’s exciting to work on a greenfield project since everything needs to be done from scratch. This means we have the opportunity to create a marketing strategy, as well as tactics that would make the biggest impact. For me, this is a great chance to use my creativity, expand my knowledge, and be involved in building a digital bank that will shape the future of FinTech.

Danka (Head of Marketing) – After multiple years of working in the IT industry, I decided to take the challenge and switch to FinTech. New industry and new tasks helped me leave my comfort zone. It also helped me to expand my knowledge. I am motivated by the freedom to set the complete marketing strategy from scratch, as well as to learn, experiment and take time to share knowledge.

If you would like to know more about our project you may visit the following webpage https://www.zero21.eu/ or send an e-mail to schedule an informal talk with our team at hr@zero21.eu We are looking forward to meeting you!