Ask HN: How do you build a payments app like Venmo?

[idax]

I understand the MSB MTL side of the business and the regulatory barriers of entry, but how difficult is it to create a payments application that allows businesses to perform Bank Transfers and Credit/Debit transfers between two parties?

[wilde]

How much are you willing to spend per transaction? With Stripe or Braintree it’s trivial but expensive.

Are you targeting just the US market and dollars? Going directly with a bank is cheaper but more complex [1]. And unless you’re adding significant value you’ll probably need a money transmitter license in your state.

And if you’re planning on letting any asshole on the internet use this, you need an anti-fraud strategy because settlement times are measured in days and there are plenty of ways that money can be sent but never refunded.

Good luck!

[1] http://engineering.gusto.com/how-ach-works-a-developer-persp...

[idax]

Thanks for this. That link is extremely helpful and goes in depth to the ACH Networks from a developers perspective. Cheers!

[JJE_Cassinfo]

Cass is an agile bank /fintech that you may be able to partner with for cost effective access to the ACH network. We support payments for various marketplaces. (Disclaimer: I work for Cass.)

[ziyadparekh]

Hi I did this for Pakistan.

Https://getsafepay.com

We partnered with a bank and built a custome Cybersource integration that supports visa and MasterCard cards

Let me know if you have questions

[idax]

Any payments developers out there? What does it take to connect to different banking systems to transfer funds and how do you go about it?

[masudrhossain]

Building from scratch or using an API?

You can use plaid.com for that. It also integrates with stripe.com pretty well too.

[idax]

Plaid seems like an incredible company, going this route would save a huge amount of engineering initially, but would cut into revenues. I might explore this further. Thanks!

[idax]

Ideally building from scratch because the platform relys on taking a small percentage of each transaction for revenue.

[pepper_sauce]

If you're in the EU, read up on PSD2. It's opening up payments significantly.

[idax]

US Based, but I read an article about it. Pretty interesting.