Choosing the right automation tools for financial applications

Over 70% of financial service providers have accelerated digital transformation initiatives to stay competitive. But in that rush to scale, something critical often gets sidelined: quality. Releasing faster shouldn’t mean releasing broken. Yet that’s the bind many FinTech companies find themselves in.

Against this backdrop, traditional quality assurance approaches are showing their limitations. Manual testing processes that once served the industry well now create bottlenecks in development pipelines.

In fact, PwC reports that financial institutions waste approximately 25% of their technology budgets on inefficient testing and quality assurance practices – resources that could be directed toward innovation instead.

That’s where smart QA automation services step in. It’s not about replacing people with tools – it’s about freeing your best people to focus on what matters, while automation handles the repeatable, high-volume testing that keeps your system stable, compliant, and ready to grow.
How automation bridges the gap between speed and safety
While 76% of financial institutions have begun implementing test automation according to Capgemini's World Quality Report, only 32% report achieving the expected benefits. This gap exists because implementing automation tools without the right strategy creates complexity without delivering value.
What the right automation strategy delivers
A well-executed QA automation plan does more than “check the box.” It transforms how your teams build and ship financial applications.

The most successful financial institutions don't simply purchase automation tools – they deploy strategic automation frameworks aligned with their business objectives. When properly implemented, these frameworks consistently deliver three core benefits:

Faster releases with fewer defects: Automation shortens test cycles, especially regression testing, which often slows teams down during major updates.
Cost savings through smart resource allocation: Instead of throwing headcount at QA bottlenecks, automation lets your engineers focus on feature development.
Consistent, repeatable results: Automated tests don’t skip steps or misinterpret outcomes. They run the same way every time, flagging issues before they escalate.

Automated testing can boost defect detection rates substantially (up to 80-90% improvement compared to manual testing), which implies a significant reduction in production defects.
Business metrics that matter
This isn’t just efficiency for the sake of optics. It’s a measurable drop in customer-facing defects, compliance violations, and reputational risk.
The impact of automation shows up in the KPIs your board actually cares about:
Regression testing time slashed from days to hours: Automated regression testing allows teams to quickly verify that new code changes haven't introduced unintended side effects.
Release velocity up without increasing headcount: With automation handling routine testing tasks, development teams can release new features and updates more frequently without needing to expand their headcount.
90%+ test coverage, leading to fewer production incidents: Automation enables comprehensive test coverage, ensuring that a larger portion of the application's functionality is tested.
Spotlight on services that make the difference
DeviQA’s experience in financial software QA has shown us that some services move the needle more than others. Here’s where automation delivers the greatest impact:
Automated regression testing: Keep your release cycle on schedule without missing a beat.
API testing: Ensure your integrations, microservices, and internal APIs don’t become failure points.
Dedicated QA team: Maintain velocity with scalable resources and zero onboarding friction.
Case in point – How Tipalti achieved 2x faster regression cycles
Even the most forward-thinking FinTech companies run into the same wall: how to scale product releases without sacrificing software quality.

Tipalti – a global leader in automated accounts payable and mass payments – faced this exact challenge. And their solution illustrates what effective QA automation really looks like in action.
What was holding them back
As Tipalti’s customer base expanded and the platform matured, the complexity of their tech stack grew – and so did the QA workload. Here’s what they were up against:
Manual testing couldn’t keep up
Every release required significant manual QA effort. As features piled on, regression testing turned into a bottleneck that slowed down sprints and increased the risk of missed bugs.

Regression cycles were too long
A full pass of test cases could take up to two full days – eating into release windows and delaying updates.

The QA process didn’t scale
Without a structured, scalable test automation strategy, new functionality often meant starting from scratch, leading to duplicated effort and rising QA costs.

This wasn’t just inefficient – it was unsustainable for a FinTech player processing critical financial transactions around the clock.
Facing these challenges, Tipalti partnered with DeviQA to transform their quality assurance approach. Rather than simply implementing tools, DeviQA began with a comprehensive assessment of Tipalti's testing processes, identifying opportunities where automation would deliver the greatest business impact.
The DeviQA intervention
Tipalti partnered with DeviQA early in their journey – starting with a single QA engineer. As needs evolved, that partnership expanded into a strategic testing program that now supports every major release.
Introduced automated regression and performance testing
Designed 7500+ test cases, with 250+ regression tests
Reduced regression testing time by 50%
100% coverage of performance scenarios for critical flows
Results that matter
With automation embedded into the development lifecycle, Tipalti’s QA function now supports growth – instead of holding it back. The outcomes speak for themselves:
Over 250 successful releases
12,000 bugs identified before production
Test documentation and STPs that scale as the product grows
Solid QA foundation that enabled rapid feature rollout and confident compliance reporting
Their story isn’t about flashy tools or QA fads. It’s about treating software testing like the strategic function it is – and executing it with focus, discipline, and automation built to scale.
How to choose the right QA automation tools for financial applications
The Tipalti case study demonstrates the transformative potential of the right quality assurance approach. But how can financial technology leaders identify the automation tools and strategies that will deliver similar results for their unique circumstances?

There’s no shortage of automation tools in the market – Selenium, Cypress, Playwright, JMeter, Postman, and the list goes on. But choosing the right tools isn't about picking the most popular ones. It’s about making sure your QA stack aligns with your infrastructure, compliance obligations, and delivery goals.
Criteria that matter to leaders
When evaluating automation solutions for financial applications, three criteria consistently emerge as the most significant determinants of success:
Can it reduce release cycle time?
The right automation framework should shrink QA windows – not create new bottlenecks. Your tools should integrate with CI/CD systems like Jenkins, GitHub Actions, or Azure DevOps and enable quick feedback on code quality.

Does it ensure compliance and data integrity?
Especially for BFSI environments, testing must account for encryption, access control, audit trails, and edge-case validation. Your QA stack needs to simulate user behavior under realistic data conditions – without putting real data at risk.

Will it integrate cleanly with your tech stack?
Tools should work with your architecture, not against it. That includes compatibility with microservices, cloud platforms (AWS, GCP), containerization (Docker, Kubernetes), and database layers (SQL, MongoDB, etc.).
Your automation toolchain isn’t just a developer decision – it’s an executive one. Because the wrong tool doesn’t just cost engineering time – it slows product-market fit.
What you should demand from your QA partner

Tools are only half the equation. Execution is what separates smooth releases from production meltdowns. That’s why your QA partner should bring more than hands-on-keyboard skills.

Not all testing providers have the specialized expertise necessary for financial applications. When selecting a quality assurance partner, financial technology leaders should prioritize:
Proven track record in software testing in financial services
This isn’t eCommerce or EdTech. You need a partner who knows financial logic, how to test multi-currency systems, and how to validate things like AML/KYC workflows and ledger integrity.

Expertise in banking application testing under regulatory constraints
FinTechs face audits, privacy regulations (GDPR, CCPA), and operational controls. Your QA partner should anticipate compliance testing requirements and bake them into test strategies.

Capabilities in automated testing services for BFSI environments
Whether it's batch processing, real-time fraud checks, or high-frequency API calls, BFSI systems need resilient test automation that mirrors production conditions.

Flexibility to handle API-heavy, cloud-based architectures common in FinTech
Your best QA vendor should move as fast as your sprint cycle. That means writing API tests, running parallel test suites, and integrating with observability tools like Prometheus, Grafana, or Datadog for post-deployment insights.
Avoiding common pitfalls
Even well-funded FinTechs stumble when implementing QA automation. These are the traps to watch for:
Buying tools before defining strategy
It's tempting to grab shiny automation platforms and hope they’ll fix quality issues. But without a clear roadmap – what to automate, when, and why – most tools become shelfware.

Overengineering the test suite for low-risk areas
Not all tests are worth automating. Focus automation on high-traffic paths, core business logic, and integration points. Don’t waste time scripting edge-case UI validations with minimal business impact.

Underestimating the value of a dedicated QA team
Tools are only as effective as the people behind them. A dedicated team ensures consistent implementation, fast response to code changes, and actionable insights that make your releases stronger – not just faster.
Conclusion
For FinTech leaders, automation isn’t a luxury – it’s the difference between scaling confidently and tripping over your own velocity.
We’ve seen it firsthand with Tipalti.
For organizations navigating this landscape, three principles consistently lead to successful outcomes:
Start with strategy, not tools: Define the specific business outcomes you need from your testing approach before evaluating technical solutions.
Align testing with business risk: Focus automation efforts on the functionality where defects would have the greatest business impact.
Leverage specialized expertise: Financial application testing requires domain knowledge that generalist testing approaches often lack.
To take control of your application quality and drive growth, we invite you to schedule a testing audit with our experts. This audit will help you identify opportunities to optimize your testing processes, implement effective automation strategies, and achieve your business objectives.