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Fintech
Jul 20, 202510 min read

From Vibe Coding to Open Finance: How Embedded AI is Transforming Fintech Development

An in‑depth look at how AI-powered “vibe coding” and Open Finance APIs are reshaping the way developers build secure, intelligent fintech tools—from prototype to production.

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From Vibe Coding to Open Finance: How Embedded AI is Transforming Fintech Development



🔍 Overview


In this blog, we explore two converging revolutions:



  1. AI-assisted development, where code writes itself via natural language prompts.

  2. Open Finance, a global movement reshaping how financial data is accessed and used.


Together, they’re creating a world where developers can rapidly build secure, intelligent financial tools that talk to banks, automate tasks, and serve users better—with less code and more strategy.



✨ Introduction: The Era of “Vibe Coding”


"Hey AI, build me a fintech dashboard that fetches account balances and shows weekly spend charts."

That’s not a dream. That’s vibe coding.


Coined by Andrej Karpathy, vibe coding is how developers now describe what they want, and AI tools like GitHub Copilot, Cursor, and CodeWhisperer turn those descriptions into functioning code. It’s natural language becoming executable logic—your vibe, translated into software.


“95% of our code is now AI-written.” — said no lazy dev, just one adapting fast.

Y Combinator startups, solo hackers, and fintech giants are all embracing this shift.



⚡ Quick Note on Inspiration


I got the idea for this blog while building a web app called “Cashwise”—a personal finance tracker that used the Plaid API to pull real-time account data, categorize spending, and visualize trends with charts.


What started as a Copilot-powered prototype turned into a live tool that tracked monthly cash flow. The AI helped scaffold most of the logic: transaction syncing, expense grouping, even the React charting components.


That’s when I realized—AI + Open Finance is more than a dev shortcut. It’s a new dev paradigm.



📦 Section 1: Vibe Coding – The Good, The Meh & The Ugly


🔥 Benefits:



  • 💨 Rapid Development: Speed from prototype to production is dramatically faster.

  • 🧠 Focus Shift: Devs can zoom out to think strategically instead of sweating semicolons.

  • 🌍 Accessibility: Non-engineers can begin building logic using plain English.


⚠️ Cautions:



  • 🕳 Hidden Bugs: AI may write functional code that’s subtly wrong—dangerous in fintech.

  • 📚 Business Context Gaps: AI doesn’t know your compliance rules or user edge cases.

  • 🧯 Debug Debt: You may need to clean up AI-written code post-launch.


💡 Real World Example: KYC Flow


Manual dev: Days writing identity upload, status check, error handling logic.


AI-assisted:


“Create a KYC form with document upload and async verification callbacks.”

The AI scaffolds a form, hooks it to the /verify endpoint, and builds a success page.



🔐 Section 2: What is Open Finance?


Open Finance = Open Banking on growth hormones.


Where Open Banking lets apps access basic account info, Open Finance expands that access to:



  • Mortgages

  • Investments

  • Insurance

  • Pensions


Under regulations like PSD2 (EU), FIDA (India), and CDR (Australia), users own their data—and can let third-party apps use it securely via APIs.


Imagine this:

You grant an app access to your pension + mortgage + savings, and it gives tailored financial advice. That's Open Finance in action.



🤖 Section 3: When Vibe Coding Meets Open Finance


Now it gets spicy. Let’s say you want to build a personal finance tracker.


🎯 Prompt:


“Build a dashboard that pulls bank transaction data and shows monthly spending insights.”

✨ AI Generates:



  • OAuth2 flow to connect with Open Finance APIs (e.g., Plaid)

  • Backend call to /transactions from multiple accounts

  • Frontend bar chart (D3.js or Chart.js) displaying monthly categories


It’s drag-and-prompt fintech building. You focus on logic, AI handles syntax.



🌍 Real‑World Tools for This Fusion



  • Plaid: Easy-to-integrate banking API

  • MX: Data cleansing + categorization API

  • FinBox / SaltEdge: India-first and Europe-first open finance providers

  • Retool / Mendix: Low-code platforms + API connectors



🧱 Section 4: Security, Ethics & Biases


You must look under the AI hood—especially in finance.


🛑 Red Flags:



  • AI may miss:

    • Input validation

    • Rate limiting

    • Encryption & logging standards



  • Algorithms may unintentionally discriminate in lending decisions.


✅ What to Do:



  • Use static analyzers like Semgrep or SonarQube

  • Follow OWASP Top 10 checks

  • Don’t blindly trust Copilot—treat AI output like a junior dev's first draft



🧰 Section 5: Getting Future-Ready


Learn these if you want to stay ahead:



  • GitHub Copilot / Cursor: Daily driver for AI devs

  • Open Finance APIs: Use test accounts from Plaid, Yodlee, SaltEdge

  • Security practices: OWASP, JWT, API key hygiene

  • Low-code + AI: Retool, Mendix, Tooljet



🛠 Try Building This:



  • 🧾 Loan Eligibility Checker – AI prompts + credit history from Open Finance API

  • 📊 Spending Tracker – React + Copilot + Plaid sandbox

  • 🪪 KYC Automation Tool – Upload docs → receive verified status from API



✅ Conclusion: What’s Next?


“The future of fintech isn’t just financial. It’s conversational. It’s intelligent. And it’s building itself.”

You now have AI to write code, and Open Finance to access powerful data—safely and scalably.


This isn’t a hype train. It’s the foundation of next-gen fintech.



🚀 Take Action (Readers, I’m Looking at You 👀)



  • 🔍 Try prompting Copilot with a fintech task

  • 🔗 Register for Plaid sandbox or TrueLayer

  • 🧠 Review AI-generated code for bugs, bias, and blind spots

  • 🧪 Share your AI + Open Finance experiments with the dev community



🎁 Bonus Blog Follow-ups (Teasers)



  • "Prompt Engineering Secrets for Fintech Devs"

  • "Weekend Challenge: Build a Neobank MVP with Vibe Coding + Plaid"

  • "AI + Regulation: How Compliance Will Be Built Into Your IDE Soon”


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