Banking Domain Application Testing: Checklist and Sample Test Cases

Similar to other industries, the digitalisation of the banking industry has brought a significant shift in the way financial services are provided. Millions of individuals with bank accounts now consider mobile banking applications as indispensable companions, relying on them for a diverse array of services.

However, as banking apps handle the most sensitive human data, which comprises financial information, testing scenarios for them must be meticulously designed. Nothing can be left to chance, and inadequate test coverage could result in potential risks and vulnerabilities. 

In this article, we will explore the various aspects of banking domain application testing, including a comprehensive checklist and sample test cases to ensure the robustness and security of these applications.

What is a Banking Domain?

A banking domain encompasses all the essential elements required to execute a financial service end-to-end. This includes the entire transaction and distribution process, the various methods through which customers interact with the business's system, products, and services, as well as the technology involved. 

In simple words, the bank domain is a single system that comprises internal processes designed for staff members and external services dedicated to the end users. Typically, a banking system includes the following elements:

• Market segments – The primary business lines the bank engages in, such as consumer banking, retail banking, investment banking, and others. 
• Target customers – Corporate clients and individuals using banking products.
• Banking products – All revenue-generating operations for the bank, including loans, deposits, investments, and more.
• Sales campaigns – The methods of delivering banking products to clients, both online and offline.
• Business processes – Internal and external processes that occur as the bank operates.
• Technologies – all technologies used to facilitate banking services.

#PRO TIP: To ensure the app runs smoothly, you will need to understand the entire banking ecosystem and collect enough information about each service you check.

Functions Of Banking Domain

The banking domain encompasses a wide range of functions and services that financial institutions provide to individuals and businesses. There are two main functions of the banking domain:

Primary Function - Traditional Banking

The Primary Function involves facilitating transactions between depositors and borrowers. This core function can be categorized into savings and lending, which maintain the cash flow in the economy and market.

• Core Banking
• Retail Banking
• Corporate Banking

Secondary Functions- Service-Based Banking

The non-banking functions in the banking sector, often referred to as secondary functions, involve additional services that contribute to profit generation. These functions encompass tasks such as overseeing payables, collecting checks, and managing portfolios.

• Loan
• Trade and Stacks
• Private Banking
• Front End Delivery

Challenges in Testing Banking Domain Applications

Testing applications in the banking industry presents its fair share of challenges. Assessing the performance of such complex apps demands a high level of financial expertise and a robust understanding of QA tools. Here are some of the key obstacles faced during the testing process:

1. Multi-Layered Architecture

Typically, banking apps have several tiers to organise their functionalities and services:

• A server that implements the app logic
• A database for storing user information
• A payment processor that handles financial transactions
• A client interface that accepts and redirects users' inputs

It’s crucial to ensure that all these components work seamlessly together to provide a unified banking experience. Therefore, testers will need to run different tests through the mobile app and report bugs to the responsible developers: server, front-end, database, etc.

2. Regulatory Compliance

The banking industry is highly regulated, with various laws and regulations in place to protect customers' interests and ensure fair practices. Testing banking apps for compliance with these regulations is a complex task because testers need to have a thorough understanding of the regulatory framework and ensure that the app adheres to all relevant guidelines. This comprises testing for anti-money laundering (AML) measures, electronic know your customer (e-KYC) protocols, and data protection regulations, among others.

3. Complicated Integrations

Most banking institutions have a legacy IT infrastructure that has been built over the years. Testing new banking apps for seamless integration with these legacy systems is a significant challenge. Hence, QA experts need to ensure that the app can communicate effectively with the existing infrastructure, including core banking systems, payment gateways, and CRM tools. 

Additionally, banking apps often require to interact with external systems, such as payment gateways, third-party APIs, and core banking systems. Thus, testers need to consider API testing to verify the seamless functioning of third-party connections and perform manual checks on individual data entries. 

4. Vast Amount of Database

For one thing, a testing team needs to possess a diverse account pool to effectively test a banking domain app. Moreover, QA specialists should utilise automation testing tools to verify database connectivity and manage its logical functions. Since the security of user data is of utmost importance, testers commonly employ VPNs to ensure secure testing practices.

Checklist for Banking Domain Testing Process

To ensure thorough testing of banking applications, it’s essential to follow this checklist of important phases:

1. Defining Requirements

Testers need to record each detailed requirement and categorise them as use cases or functional specifications. These requirements are typically divided into modules, each focusing on specific aspects of the app, including money transfers, bill payments, mortgages, loans, and deposits.

2. Reviewing Requirements

Once the requirements documents are gathered, it’s crucial to review the listed requirements to ensure testing cases don’t compromise with each other. 

For finance-related and banking projects, testers must possess sufficient domain knowledge. They should be capable of adopting perspectives from both stakeholders and end-users. During this phase, analysts collect and understand the requirements, conducting reviews with relevant stakeholders such as Business Analysts, Development leaders, and QA experts as necessary.

3. Building a Test Case Suite

As the banking app requires a broad spectrum of test cases, it’s important to clarify which should be tested manually and automatically. 

#PRO TIP: There should be an automation tester in a software development team to create custom scripts, run automation test generation and apply automated testing framework effectively.

4. Considering the Test Scenario and Test Creation

In this stage, test scenarios and test cases are developed based on the requirements document. The testing team must be meticulous in encompassing all relevant scenarios, consisting of functional, security, performance, and other nonfunctional aspects.

Here’re some test cases that you can consider implementing at different testing stages:

4.1 Database testing

In a banking app, intricate transactions occur at both the UI and Database levels, making database testing essential. The database represents a complex and distinct layer within the software. To run database testing effectively, banks will need to build a high-functioning testing team that has in-depth knowledge of the database procedures, functions, indexes, keys, and sound practical SQL. 

• Verify that the data fields have the appropriate format.
• Check the values of the computed field (e.g. DoB and Age).
• Evaluate whether each table has all primary keys, foreign keys, and unique index constraints.
• Check for any redundant and duplicate data.
• Verify the banking app's performance when the database server is inaccessible.
• Examine database performance when numerous customers use the app at the same time (e.g. Multiple users try to transfer money simultaneously).
• Ensure the database backup is taken regularly.

4.2 Functional testing

As digital user experience is the top priority of the banking app, this type of testing is performed to ensure all the internal and external operations within the banking chain are effectively developed, incorporated, updated, and deleted.

• Check login functionality with valid and invalid data.
• Review how the banking app behaves if the accounts/roles/branches are generated/adjusted with invalid data.
• Check whether all the fields have a valid character limit (e.g. The ‘Credit Card Number’ field should accept values between 16 to 19 digits).
• Verify the functionality of all buttons to ensure they are clickable and perform as intended.
• Ensure that the credit/debit calculations are performed as expected.
• Evaluate the banking app installation, uninstallation, and update processes.

4.3 Security testing

Due to the sensitive nature of the banking app, developers must make additional efforts to safeguard user data against cyber attacks and fraudulent activities. A QA team conducting security testing must ensure that the application complies with security regulations and standards such as OWASP.

• Verify how the app responds to numerous invalid logins.
• Check whether password requirements are strong enough.
• Check whether all the user IDs and passwords are encrypted.
• Verify if the app has a robust user authentication process in place (e.g. Besides the traditional User ID and Password, users may be prompted to enter CAPTCHA as an additional security measure).
• Ensure proper session timeout mechanisms are implemented (e.g. users should be automatically logged out after a period of inactivity).
• Check whether the URLs have sensitive information.

4.4 Performance testing

During specific time frames, such as payday, the end of the financial year, and festive seasons, there may be fluctuations or surges in-app traffic. To ensure customers do not experience performance failures during these periods, comprehensive performance testing should be conducted.

• Check app performance when numerous banking users log in at the same time or use the same functionality simultaneously (e.g. All the users try to transfer the money).
• Ensure the app runs smoothly when network connectivity is slow/ goes down/ keeps fluctuating between low and high speed (e.g. During an ongoing transaction if the network has a sudden fluctuation).
• Evaluate the app’s performance when the battery is low, medium, high, or charging.

4.5 Usability testing

Usability testing is essential for any banking app, as it caters to a diverse range of users, from tech-savvy individuals to those less familiar with technology. The objective of this kind of testing is to check the level of app ergonomics and assess how well it is prepared for users with particular needs.

• Check whether the user is able to navigate through the app smoothly.
• Verify the visibility and clarity of important messages and buttons on the page (e.g. During the transaction process, essential messages should be displayed clearly using larger fonts and darker colours, to enhance visibility and user comprehension). 
• Ensure all the links and buttons have text that is easy to understand.
• Verify whether error and warning messages are self-explanatory.

Read more: Banking Domain Application Testing 

4.6 User acceptance testing (UAT)

UAT ensures that the developed banking system meets the specified business requirements. Moreoevr, as banking systems often deal with sensitive financial data, and any flaws or errors in the system can pose significant risks, UAT helps identify and mitigate these risks before the system is deployed.

• Verify whether the banking apps run smoothly in any environment.
• Ensure the app performs as anticipated when dealing with real-world scenarios.
• Check whether the app allows utility payments and many other third-party integrations payments.
  

4.7 Unit & Integration testing

It's essential to assess each individual unit in isolation to verify its proper functionality. Besdies, we need to integrate these units and evaluate how they interact with one another. Integration testing verifies the interfaces between modules, ensuring that the system works as a whole.

• Test for correct handling of various types of accounts (e.g. savings, checking).
• Verify that users can customize settings in the banking app
• Validate interactions with external systems for services like currency conversion, international transactions, or third-party integrations.
• Ensure that data remains consistent across different modules.

4.8 Compliance testing

Banks typically contend with intricate regulations governing their banking applications. These regulations are in place to prevent errors within the application, as any identified mistakes may result in substantial fines for the bank, potentially impacting both profits and reputation.

Compliance testing ensures that the banking application adheres to all relevant regulatory requirements.

• Confirm that the application monitors transactions for unusual patterns or high-risk activities.
• Test the application's ability to decrypt and access encrypted data as needed.
  
• Test for unauthorized access attempts.
  

Learn more about the Testing Framework for the Insurance Industry!

Practical Test Cases for Banking Domain Applications

To ensure comprehensive testing of banking domain apps, it’s crucial to generate test cases that cover all key functionalities.

Use Case 1: New Account Opening

• Test that the app captures all required information properly when a customer requests to open a new account.
• Check to see whether the customer's data is available from all branches and synchronised with the current system.
• In the banking app, it’s essential to verify that a special account number is generated for the new account.
• Ensure the customer gets a notification indicating the account was opened successfully.

Use Case 2: Fund Transfer

• Ensure the app allows users to transfer funds between their own accounts.
• Check to see whether the banking app imposes transaction limits depending on the balance of the user's account.
• Test that the app displays proper error messages when inadequate funds are available for a transfer.
• Verify the accuracy of the transaction information, including the transferred amount and the recipient's account information.

Use Case 3: Bill Payment

• Test that the app allows users to pay bills to third-party service providers.
• Verify that the app displays a list of available billers and their corresponding payment options.
• Check that the software accurately calculates the total amount due and displays it to the user.
• Verify that the app records the bill payment transaction and updates the user's account balance accordingly.

Use Case 4: Account Statement Generation

• Verify that users may produce account statements for a certain time period using the app.
• Verify that all relevant transactions, including deposits, withdrawals, and transfers, are included in the produced statement.
• Check to see whether the statement was created in a legible format, such as PDF or HTML.
• Check to see whether the statement may be downloaded or printed by the user.

Read more: Automation Testing Requirements for Banking App

Bottom Line

App testing is an essential aspect of the development lifecycle as it guarantees that software operates smoothly or almost flawlessly when deployed in the real world. In the case of banking applications, testing involves a range of techniques and test cases to assess usability, performance, and security. It is crucial to refine all intricacies, ensuring that vital data remains intact even if server disruptions or internet outages occur. Additionally, the application's intuitiveness for all user groups needs to be verified.

In KMS Solutions, our specialisation lies in the development and testing of fintech and banking apps. We’ve worked with many businesses in the BFSI sector, such as Discovermarket, TPBank, ACB, Axi, and more, to deliver fir-for-purpose banking domain application testing strategies. Contact us now for your special requests!