Reference stack
Build a digital wallet or neobank
A consumer or business wallet architecture covering accounts, ledger, cards, payments, identity, fraud and notifications.
Intended audience and markets
Audience
Markets
Infrastructure layers
Accounts and regulated partner
RequiredProvide account infrastructure and customer-funds model.
Selection criteria
- Jurisdiction
- Account ownership
- Safeguarding or deposit protection
Ledger and core
RequiredMaintain balances, holds, fees and product rules.
Selection criteria
- Real-time ledger
- Availability and auditability
- Migration and export
Cards and wallets
RequiredIssue cards and support mobile-wallet provisioning.
Selection criteria
- Issuer and processor roles
- Tokenisation
- Card controls and disputes
Payments and FX
RequiredSupport transfers, direct debits, local rails and currency conversion.
Selection criteria
- Required rails
- FX model
- Returns and reconciliation
Identity, fraud and AML
RequiredOnboard customers and manage lifecycle risk.
Selection criteria
- Identity assurance
- Account takeover controls
- Monitoring and cases
Implementation sequence
- Accounts and regulated partner
- Ledger and core
- Cards and wallets
- Payments and FX
- Identity, fraud and AML
Regulatory considerations
- Consumer account, e-money, card and credit features may each have separate regulatory requirements.
Technical considerations
- Use a resilient event model for balances, notifications and payment statuses.
- Design account recovery and fraud operations as core product features.
Questions to ask providers
- Which legal entity contracts for each service and in which jurisdictions?
- Which responsibilities remain with the product operator rather than the provider?
- What are the implementation, approval, testing and migration timelines?
- How are incidents, exits, data portability and business continuity handled?
- Which capabilities are supplied by the regulated partner and which are operated by the product team?
What this stack does not cover
- Customer support, complaints operations and regulatory reporting teams are not replaced by vendors.
Related stacks
Reviewed on 2026-07-07.
Provider options are examples of infrastructure roles, not endorsements or a guarantee of suitability, availability or regulatory compliance. Confirm requirements for your product with each provider and qualified advisers.