A fintech website has one job before any other: convince a stranger it’s safe to give you their money or their data. Features come second. In practice that means a first sentence that says plainly what you are, your licences and regulatory status where people can find them, the disclosures your regulator expects written so a customer understands them, a real security page, fees stated up front, an honest preview of sign-up and KYC, and pages that load fast and work for everyone. Most fintech homepages get the polish right and skip several of these.
This is the checklist we work through. It isn’t legal advice: your compliance team or lawyer decides what your copy must say. The site’s job is to make what they require clear, findable and readable.
1. Say what you are, in plain words
People arriving at a fintech site are asking “what is this and is it a bank?” before anything else. Answer both in the first lines: what the product is, who it’s for, and what kind of company is behind it.
Our audits suggest this is the most skipped item. Of the 17 Indian fintech homepages we could read in our India vs US audit, 88% had complete Organization schema, the most of any category, and not one opened with a sentence that named the company and said what it does. A crisp line such as “Acme is a payments app for freelancers in India, licensed by the RBI as a payment aggregator” does more for trust than any hero animation. It’s also the line AI answers lift when someone asks what you are. How to write it.
2. Show who regulates you, and who holds the money
A visitor wants to know whether you’re licensed, and by whom. If you’re not a bank, they want to know who is.
- State your regulatory status in plain language and in the footer of every page: the licence, the regulator, and your registration number, so people can check it on the regulator’s public register.
- Name your partner bank or custodian if you work through one, and say what that means for the customer’s money.
- Don’t imply protection you don’t have. In the US, the FDIC has a rule against misrepresenting deposit insurance, and its 2024 signage rule requires insured banks to separate deposits from non-deposit products, crypto included, on their digital channels. If a partner bank’s insurance only applies in certain conditions, say which conditions.
Put this information on a dedicated “Licences” or “Regulation” page and link it from the footer. It’s one of the first pages a careful buyer, journalist or investor looks for.
3. Write disclosures people can read
Regulators increasingly judge disclosures by whether customers understand them, not whether they exist.
- UK: under the Consumer Duty, the FCA expects financial promotions to be fair, clear and not misleading, and its guidance on risk warnings says risk information should be prominent and in context rather than lost in small print. A bare “capital at risk” line, on its own, often isn’t enough.
- India: under the RBI’s 2025 digital lending directions, lenders and their lending service providers must display grievance officer details prominently on their websites and apps, keep a public privacy policy, and give borrowers a Key Fact Statement before a loan is signed.
- Everywhere: if a number has conditions (an interest rate, a cashback, an “up to”), put the condition next to the number, not three clicks away.
On the design side, that means disclosures get real type sizes and contrast, sit next to the claim they qualify, and use the same plain voice as the rest of the site.
4. Have a security page that says something
“Bank-grade security” means nothing. A security page earns trust when it is specific:
- How customer data is encrypted, stored and who can access it.
- Which audits or certifications you hold, by name, and the year. Only list the ones you have.
- How you handle fraud and what a customer should do if something looks wrong.
- How researchers can report a vulnerability. Publish a security.txt at
/.well-known/security.txtso they can find the contact. - What you will never ask for by phone or email, since phishing in your name is a when, not an if.
5. Put your fees where people can see them
Customers expect to find what a financial product costs without signing up. A pricing or fees page should list every fee, when it applies, and an example in real money: “Sending $1,000 to India costs $4.20 and arrives in one working day.” If there are conditions, show them in the table, not in a footnote.
This is also a trust signal in itself. A company that hides its fees reads as a company with something to hide, and in lending, payments and investing, the regulators above increasingly agree.
6. Preview onboarding and KYC honestly
Identity checks are where many fintech sign-ups drop off, often because the customer didn’t expect them. The website can lower that drop-off before the app ever opens:
- Say what you’ll ask for: ID, proof of address, a selfie, a bank statement, a tax number.
- Say why: that the law requires you to verify customers, and what you do with the documents.
- Say how long it usually takes, and what happens if a check fails.
- Say who can and can’t sign up: countries, residency, business types.
A short “What you’ll need” section on the homepage or sign-up page answers the question most people would otherwise email support about.
7. Make it fast on the phone people actually use
Many fintech customers are on mid-range Android phones and patchy networks, especially in India and Southeast Asia. Treat Google’s Core Web Vitals thresholds as the floor: main content visible within 2.5 seconds, the page responding to taps within 200 milliseconds, and nothing jumping around as it loads. Heavy hero videos and 3D cards cost more here than in most categories, because a slow page also reads as an unreliable company.
8. Make it accessible
Accessibility is a legal duty for many fintechs, not a nice extra. The European Accessibility Act has applied since 28 June 2025 to banking, payment and e-money services for consumers in the EU, including their websites and apps. Build to WCAG 2.2 AA: readable contrast, every action reachable by keyboard, forms that announce errors clearly, and fee tables marked up as real tables. It helps everyone, including the customer reading your fee page in sunlight on a cracked screen.
9. Show proof you can stand behind
Use logos, numbers and press only with permission and only when true. Partner banks, investors and coverage in credible outlets reassure people, but a claim you can’t back up does more harm than having none. Customer reviews help most when they come from a platform the visitor can check.
A quick checklist
| Area | The test |
|---|---|
| First sentence | Does a stranger know what you are and whether you’re a bank? |
| Regulation | Is your licence, regulator and number in the footer and on its own page? |
| Disclosures | Is every condition next to the number it qualifies? |
| Security | Is your security page specific, with a security.txt? |
| Fees | Can someone find every fee without signing up? |
| Onboarding | Do you say what documents you’ll ask for, and why? |
| Speed | Does the homepage pass Core Web Vitals on a mid-range phone? |
| Accessibility | Does it meet WCAG 2.2 AA? |
Where we’ve done this
We designed and launched the website for Slice Bank, the new bank for next India, in four weeks alongside their engineering team. More on how we approach fintech websites, and on what a website costs in 2026.
Quick recall
What comes first on a fintech site? A plain sentence saying what you are and whether you’re a bank.
Where should regulatory status go? In the footer of every page, and on its own page, with the registration number.
What makes a security page credible? Specifics: encryption, named audits, fraud process, a security.txt contact.
How should fees be shown? Every fee, when it applies, and a worked example in real money, without signing up.
Is accessibility optional? Not for many fintechs. The European Accessibility Act has applied to consumer payment and banking services since June 2025.
Written by 4080 Studio.
