Banking beyond borders in Liberia with AWS

In the vibrant heart of Liberia, a pressing challenge loomed large: a banking system ensnared in the slow dance of traditional transactions, where progress was shackled by persistent delays.

Days would elapse as funds painstakingly trickled from one bank to another, leaving individuals' financial aspirations in a state of suspended anticipation. This issue was not merely technical; it stood as a formidable barrier to economic freedom and growth. Enter Aethergo, approached by a UK-based fintech startup with a vision that was both audacious and essential. We embarked on an ambitious mission to revolutionize Liberia's financial landscape, crafting a solution that would transform the realm of financial transactions, turning instant fund transfers from a distant dream into a practical reality for all.

Market Drivers:

Financial Inclusion:

A substantial portion of Liberia’s population remains unbanked or underbanked. FinTech solutions like our client’s have the potential to provide convenient and affordable financial services to this underserved segment.

Mobile Money Growth:

With mobile money usage experiencing rapid expansion in Liberia, there is a prime opportunity for FinTech mobile apps to extend their reach and deliver impactful services.

Demand for Efficiency:

Individuals and businesses alike are seeking faster and more convenient methods for managing their finances. Features like instant transfers meet this growing demand for efficiency.

Limited Traditional Banking Infrastructure: The traditional banking infrastructure in Liberia is notably limited, especially in rural areas. FinTech solutions can bridge this gap by offering accessible and inclusive financial services.

Navigating the challenge

In typical banking wire transfer scenarios credit actions take more 2-3 days for the . To reimagine this existing process, banking systems needed to act as partners with us and our client to develop next level integrating solutions. But it has never been easy and simple to expose banking functionalities with simple APIs. Further this application is required to handle multiple banking integration considering the company’s growth strategy. Guided by the pioneering spirit that defines Aethergo, we embarked on the challenge with a singular vision: a world where money flows as swiftly as thought. The solution required meticulous handling of various complexities, including robust security measures, seamless connectivity with banks' on-premise networks, effective throttling, fault tolerance, and reliable rollback mechanisms. To bring this vision to life, we engineered a sophisticated payment aggregator—a pivotal core module that served as a bridge across financial divides. By integrating dynamically with multiple banks' APIs in an event-driven architecture, our solution enabled both push and pull money transfers. We worked as a close partner with banks to decide and act on what was needed. Every component was meticulously orchestrated to ensure each transaction advanced towards greater inclusivity and empowerment. Our mission was to construct a digital bridge, linking participating banks throughout Liberia and facilitating instant transfers between bank accounts and digital wallets, thus redefining financial transactions in the region.

Crafting the Solution

Our blueprint was founded on the principles of security and efficiency. By dynamically meshing with bank APIs, we ensured that the platform was a testament to seamless connectivity and interoperability. Through the employment of AWS Event Bridge and SQS-based event-driven architecture, our solution was not just responsive; it was alive to the needs of each transaction. It brought transparency and reliability into the fore, backed by robust error handling to ensure the wheel of financial motion remained unimpeded.

AWS EventBridge and VPC endpoints sculpted a backbone strong enough to shoulder high-volume transactions, ensuring the infrastructure was not just resilient but poised for growth. Encryption, AWS Secret Manager, and a secret-based authentication mechanism fortified our platform, making it a fortress of trust in a world wary of digital vulnerabilities.

Harnessing the power of infrastructure, we developed a modularized AWS Lambda based serverless software handling all relevant business logics. Utilizing Java’s OOPs concept we created a dynamic framework of request/response models to be utilized with all bank’s APIs, allowing us to not intrinsically develop code support for each bank’s integration. We incorporated fault driven rollback scenarios to reverse back different event points in the transaction life cycle, making the process clearly visible to customers and admins. To make this more powerful all events were integrated with notification support. The serverless repository was maintained with AWS SAM template, also including AWS API Gateway V2. To provide aggregated data we used AWS Step Function to batch process everyday transactions. Meantime using DynamoDB shared and stored the real time data. We developed a customized encryption/decryption support to incorporate encryption in all transaction level data.

The software acted as a middleware service between already existing consumer facing wallet applications and the banking APIs to enable the transactions. The approach allowed the release of the service in versions allowing seamless user experience in the application.

The Beacon for Businesses

But the story doesn’t conclude here. This journey unveils a compelling narrative for businesses across the globe, highlighting the transformative potential of innovative solutions to redefine entire industries. By adopting similar integrations and harnessing the power of event-driven architecture, organizations can craft a payment infrastructure that is not only resilient and efficient but also highly secure. Such an approach enables businesses to consolidate all distributed payment channels into a unified platform, providing a comprehensive view of the revenue stream and allowing for the identification of both low and high-risk elements within the system.

This case study transcends a mere demonstration of our capabilities; it stands as a testament to the transformative impact of visionary thinking, cutting-edge technology, and steadfast dedication. At Aethergo, our ethos revolves around dismantling barriers and forging pathways to prosperity. Let our journey serve as an innovative catalyst for all businesses poised to embrace the future of financial transactions, embodying the principles of innovation, reliability, and security.