Velmie vs FintechOS:
Which Digital Banking Platform Wins in 2025?
Author: Ekaterina Podgaiskaya
Last updated October, 15
The digital banking revolution can no longer be described as looming on the horizon — it's already underway!
Customers are clamoring for real-time access, seamless interfaces, and digital-age financial products. Traditional banks, fintechs, and neobanks are all under pressure with offering faster, smarter, and nimbler service than anyone has yet delivered.
Institutions are confronted with a get-it-right-or-get-left-behind moment and a defining choice – what platform will become their enabler of digital transformation?
Two names are often mentioned in those debates – Velmie and FintechOS. Both vow to speed up innovation, simplify operations, and break free from dependency on outdated legacy systems.
But underneath the covers, they represent diametrically opposed philosophies. Velmie presents a modular, source-code–based approach with a prime focus on flexibility and long-term ownership and will appeal to institutions that desire independence and the freedom to forge their own future. FintechOS takes a low-code approach with a SaaS-driven offering that helps extensive enterprises digitize customer journeys without tearing out their current IT setup.
It's not a question of features — it's a matter of strategy. Are you an organization that wants customization and control or one that wants convenience and a vendor-managed platform? It's one of the issues this article helps you unpack, so you can determine what works best for your future.
Why Compare Velmie and FintechOS for Digital Transformation?
When financial institutions are looking at digital transformation, consideration inevitably starts at face-end capabilities: slick mobile apps, real-time onboarding, or elegant lending workflows. Beneath those capabilities lies a more elemental decision — the platform that will support them. Your platform choice determines what you can offer today as much as how you will adapt tomorrow.
It is here that Velmie and FintechOS are frequently pitched against one another. Both are digital-finance accelerators, yet they are complementary rather than equivalents. Velmie is intended for institutions that desire complete control of their tech stack with freedom to grow into crypto assets, gold assets or other niche assets.
FintechOS targets big enterprises that desire quick and easy deployment and are often major banks and insurers looking at a refresh of their business with a desire not to rebuild everything from the ground up.
What are the implications of this decision? Enormous. Owning means flexibility, value of IP, and freedom — and with that comes responsibility. SaaS-based low-code means rapid deploy and predictable support — and often restricts what you are able to govern. Understanding the compromises involved enables you make the right decision.
What Is Velmie and How Does It Empower Fintechs and Banks?
Flexible, modular core banking with source-code ownership
And that's more than a technical detail — it's a long-term competitive edge. When you own the code, you turn your technology into an asset you can retain on your balance sheet, customize as you see fit, and potentially leverage as a backup tack or valuation benchmark.
The modular nature of Velmie's core banking makes this possible. Customers can deploy just the mandatory modules — core banking, payments, lending or wallets — and expand subsequently as their strategy changes. Modularity ensures institutions don't over-provision at first, yet still get the essentials of a scalable architecture. For rapidly scaling fintechs and medium-sized banks, this makes all the difference between getting stuck with a vendor and determining a platform that scales with their business.
In a world of finance where independence and flexibility are survival mechanisms, Velmie's approach speaks loud and clear with companies that are unwilling to sacrifice long-term sovereignty in exchange for short-term convenience.
API-first architecture enabling banking, lending, crypto, and gold
But Velmie isn't only modular — it's also API-first. And as a natural extension of that approach, everything about its platform has been architected with integration from Day One. Velmie doesn't present a walled ecosystem; connection is possible: clients may connect with payment processors, compliance engines, KYC/AML vendors or third-party data sources with no heavy-tailored build-out.
What truly distinguishes Velmie, however, is that it offers support across a variety of asset classes. Core banking activities of the traditional variety such as deposits, payments and lending are all accommodated. However, Velmie also extends beyond this, and allows customers to support crypto wallets, tokenized assets and gold-backed financial products. of particular use are fintechs that are active in emerging markets or niche sectors where interest in alternative assets is increasing at a dramatic pace.
By marrying openness with breadth, Velmie enables its customers to innovate faster. A neobank can embark on simple retail banking today and venture into lending, crypto, or investment products tomorrow — with no need to rebuild its core. This makes Velmie a platform of today's needs and a launchpad of tomorrow's opportunities.
How fast can you launch a fintech with Velmie?
Time-to-market matters most in fintech. Funders demand traction, customers demand usability, and rivals are always poised to poach. Velmie appreciates that urgency and has been built with weeks rather than months of deployment time.
Speed enables new neobanks to get out the door that much faster and get their ideas tested and their models refined under real-world conditions before they've spent years of investment and build. But it's not just a blessing of speed — it's speed and ownership. Even as institutions come live quickly, they still own their codebase outright.
That means they are not tied to a vendor release schedule or subject to a third-party permission before they can bring a feature live. If a fintech wants to pivot or bring a new service line online, it can do that right away and doesn't have to wait their turn. The quick deployment strategy also makes Velmie especially ideal for EMIs and middle-sized banks undergoing digitalization.
Rather than embarking on multi-year IT transformations, they can modernize incrementally — quickly deploying digital products and scaling as demand from customers expands. For banks operating in volatile markets, this balance of speed and control becomes a deciding factor.
What Is FintechOS and Who Is It Designed For?
A British/Romanian company with low-code fintech infrastructure
FintechOS goes at a completely different angle from Velmie. With a base of Romania and the UK, it has created a name as a low-code fintech infra provider that targets mainly big established institutions. Its pitch is simple: Instead of trying to get organizations to redesign their systems, FintechOS enables digital capabilities to be added incrementally on top of established infrastructures through the use of low-code tools.
This strategy attracts business that desires rapid modernization while minimizing disruption from replacing core legacy systems. With FintechOS, much of the heavy lifting is done with pre-built components and customizable workflows that require much less extensive customization code. For insurers and banks, that translates into quick launches of customer-facing capabilities, from digital onboarding through lending experiences, while leaving their back-office systems unaltered.
In effect, FintechOS offers a "bridge" — a platform through which traditional financial institutions could remain competitive in the digital age while continuing to use the systems they developed over a period of decades.
Why do big banks and insurers choose FintechOS?
FintechOS's list of clients says a lot about where it sits. Its platform has widespread adoption among Tier-1 and Tier-2 banks and insurance companies, especially in Europe. These institutions may have the size, resources, and regulatory sophistication that makes a scratch-from-scratch rebuild unviable. What they require is gradual transformation: you can modernize customer experiences, automate workflows, and become more efficient without destroying their complete stack.
That's where FintechOS comes in. Using low-code tech, such institutions are able to very quickly deploy quality enhancers in loan origination, KYC/AML onboarding, or insurance policy management. These are customer-facing high-impact activities that drastically benefit from digitalization.
Instead of portraying itself as a disruptor of startups like much of its competition has done, FintechOS framed itself as the preferred modernization partner of mainstream participants. It's an evolution of gradual steps and not radical disruption.
Strong corporate presence worldwide and dependence on SaaS
Another characteristic of FintechOS is its significant European enterprise footprint with major bank and insurer deals secured as the institutions aim to digitalize their activities. Its legitimacy in the segment is one of its largest strengths — a new fintech venture might not worry about enterprise case studies, yet for major institutions, observing that other peers already trusted the platform holds value.
But this business approach has trade-offs. There's a low-code and SaaS orientation with FintechOS, and thus customers are dependent a great deal on provider roadmap, infrastructures, and refresh cycles. Some view that as a plus point: ongoing vendor support, refresh of regulatory needs and a consistent delivery of innovations. Others feel they are restricted — and especially if they want customization beyond the platform's capabilities.
Eventually, FintechOS offers convenience and credibility in exchange for a degree of control. For business with deep pockets and advanced IT infrastructures, that's often a fair exchange. For institutions that crave autonomy, it becomes more of a limitation.
How Do Velmie and FintechOS Compare in Features and Ownership?
Let's have a clear comparison of the features of both platforms:
How Do Velmie and FintechOS Differ in Pricing and Ownership Models?
Why Velmie?
One-Time license + Full ownership
Velmie's business approach is a rarity with the current SaaS-focused world of fintech: a one-time license fee that leaves you or your institution with complete ownership of the code base. What a contrast with the subscription-happy business models that are characteristic of fintech for the enterprise. With Velmie you are not signing up for repeated payments indefinitely. Your one-time payment gets you a tangible asset you can own, modify, and continue to build upon as you see fit.
The attraction of this model is both financial and strategic. From a financial point of view, it enables cost predictability. Instead of budgeting rising SaaS costs that rise with customer bases, Velmie customers budget once and then allocate resources towards growth, innovation, and compliance rather than making ongoing vendor payments. From a strategic viewpoint, it eliminates the most common pain of fintech infrastructure: vendor lock-in. When you own the code base, you are never subject to a provider's roadmap changes, license changes, or policy changes. You build at your own pace.
This is particularly beneficial for emerging market institutions or startups that cannot afford burgeoning operational costs. A license-for-life consolidates stability with the assurance that the technology actually resides with the institution. In an industry where the competitive advantage often lies with control and flexibility, Velmie's business model presents foresightful fintechs with a means of obtaining both.
An asset balance sheet and not a service
Aside from cost reductions, Velmie's one-time license can convert software into an established and recognized financial assets. Owned source code can be capitalized on the balance sheet under generally accepted accounting standards like IFRS and GAAP and amortized over a period of time. Owned source code can be part of a company's intellectual portfolio.
This difference matters equally to growth-stage startups and banks. For startups, paying off source code investments enhances financials, and investor confidence and company valuations improve as a result. Rather than seeing software costs vanish into the "operating costs" column, they become part of the company's long-term base of assets. For incumbent institutions, owned source code fortifies the portfolio of intellectual property as a strategic asset supporting M&A activity, collateralization, or license opportunities.
Ownership of the code also opens up innovative revenue streams. A neobank could license sections of its technology stack to others, capitalize on innovations through revenue streams, or lateral out new business ideas from a base of infrastructure. These are all possibilities absent with platform subscriptions, where the provider has ultimate ownership.
In a nutshell – Velmie doesn't sell infra. It sells the creation of assets. For thinkers beyond the next quarter and with a mind towards enterprise value, this difference runs deep.
Why FintechOS?
Enterprise subscription model
FintechOS takes a more traditional subscription model approach. Customers pay periodically, usually once a year, with costs depending on usage, number of modules implemented, and support. With this "pay-as-you-grow" approach, adoption becomes simpler for enterprises: less initial outlay lowers the cost of entry and enables institutions to dip their toes into digital transformation without paying once and foreclosing future opportunities.
However, the convenience of subscription pricing has a hidden cost – total expenditure grows significantly over time. What may appear manageable in year one often balloons by year three or five, particularly as customer volumes and usage increase. For enterprises with large IT budgets, this scaling model may be tolerable. But for startups and mid-tier banks, it can lead to spiraling TCO that strains resources.
In addition, subscription models entrench dependence. Since their customers are never the owner of code, they are fully reliant on FintechOS for ongoing updates, maintenance, and evolving compliance changes. Should the provider terms or price shift, their customers are stuck with the cost or suffer a disruptive migration. For others, dependence isn't a problem because it diverts risk and responsibility. But if an organization desires true strategic freedom, the subscription model feels binding.
Greater TCO but corporate support
Although more expensive in the long run, FintechOS offers full-scale enterprise-level support that covers the model well for most institutions. Customers enjoy ongoing vendor supervision, automated updates, regulatory monitoring, and managed infrastructure. This offers a lot of appeal to incumbent banks and insurers that don't have internal technical expertise to handle sophisticated infrastructure systemically.
Effectively, subscription fees are more than paying for software — they are paying an insurance premium against failure. Institutions are able to rely on FintechOS to keep systems current with evolving rules of compliance, stay on top of security risks, and stay up. For risk-averse executives with a lot at stake, this type of guarantee is priceless.
Also, the SaaS approach complements already familiar vendor-managed IT departments. Instead of requiring staff restructuring or process rebuilding, they can integrate FintechOS into established workflows and worry less about technical deep-engineering and more about customer-facing transformation.
The tradeoff is clear – greater TCO and no physical ownership of assets in exchange for low operational risk and business-class support. For less budget-flexible companies where stability matters more, this could well be a fair trade.
Which Use Cases Are Best for Velmie and FintechOS?
Use cases for Velmie
Innovators and agile startups
Velmie's sweet spot is with startup and agile innovation companies that need speed, flexibility, and long-term strategic ownership. Early-stage neobanks, EMIs, and fintechs are caught with a choice: build in-house (slow and expensive), or use SaaS (fast and limiting). Velmie offers a third choice: fast deployment with full ownership.
For founders, that's a paradigm shift. Starting a neobank in weeks versus years allows them to bring customers on board, grab investor attention, and start scaling while they don't have to endure years-long IT cycles. And since they hold the code, they are no longer beholden to a vendor's roadmap. They are free to innovate on their own schedule, poke their nose into niche features, or grow into underserved markets with no permission required from a vendor.
From an investor's perspective, Velmie-backed startups are especially compelling. Ownership of tech is a signal of defensibility, of IP value and of scalability. Far from being considered as "another customer" of a SaaS company, the startup is a tech company per se with assets that can gain value with the business.
Global banks wanting flexibility
Velmie also goes after global and mid-sized banks that want modernization with no relinquishing of control. Unlike SaaS solutions, frequently setting a limit on customization as part of a promise of multi-tenant reliability, Velmie allows complete customization of the source code to meet requirements that are local regulatory, cultural, or strategic.
For example, a bank entering a new market with different regulatory frameworks can implement Velmie's platform locally without any reliance on a vendor release. Similarly, banks experimenting with non-standard products — such as crypto custody, tokenized securities, or gold-backed deposit — can develop and launch the products at their own paces.
This flexibility is especially valuable for banks in regions with rapidly evolving regulations or customer expectations. By retaining ownership, they can respond dynamically, ensuring their platform remains competitive in diverse markets. For institutions seeking to position themselves as innovation leaders rather than followers, Velmie provides the autonomy to succeed.
Expertise in Action:
How Velmie Helped Metro Cable Launch a Scalable Digital Banking Platform
Metro Cable partnered with Velmie to deliver a fully scalable, multi-currency digital banking platform with integrated payments and compliance tools - all within record time. Our modular architecture enabled the client to go to market quickly while maintaining flexibility for future expansion.
"Collaborating with Velmie has significantly contributed to the advancement of our digital banking infrastructure. By utilizing Velmie’s platform, we have developed a secure and user-friendly financial solution that enhances access to essential services, promoting greater financial inclusion. Velmie’s robust technology aligns with our strategic objectives, providing a scalable framework that supports our commitment to fostering digital transformation and expanding financial services."
Aminata Bangura,
Head of Product @Vult
Get the Full Case Study
Discover how Metro Cable is transforming Sierra Leone’s digital financial landscape with Velmie’s innovative technology.
Use Cases for FintechOS
Big institutions with big budgets
FintechOS, however, suits only deep-pocketed big enterprises with intricate legacy systems. For Tier-1 and Tier-2 banks or global insurers, rebuilding from the ground up makes no business sense. These institutions require a system that can infuse digital capabilities onto infrastructures that are as old as four decades. And that's exactly what FintechOS offers.
It has low-code capabilities that enable institutions to build new digital experiences while not tearing down core systems. As such, an organization can rapidly and securely digitize while maintaining operational risk and still enhancing customer-facing capabilities. For institutions with high IT budgets, the cost of the subscriptions outweighs the speed and security of deployment.
It also attracts boards and CEOs who are less interested in radical innovation and more interested in managing risk. The higher TCO is acceptable with reference to the risk of reputational damage and disruption from unsuccessful digital transformation projects.
Enterprise IT with heavy governance
FintechOS is also the natural choice for governance-heavy enterprise IT departments. Because the platform is vendor-managed, institutions can rely on FintechOS for updates, compliance, and infrastructure stability. This reduces internal workload and ensures strict adherence to regulatory obligations.
In an insurance business where you cannot afford non-compliance, the quick configuration of compliant business workflows with low-code applications has untold benefits. It minimizes dependency upon thinly spread technical personnel, quickens product time-to-market while increasing customer satisfaction and satisfaction of corporate auditors.
Short of that, FintechOS is appropriate for stable institutions in which control and compliance are of greater value as compared to pure flexibility. It cannot introduce rapid experimentation with a new class of assets, yet it offers stable compliant digital transformation in which errors are too costly to indulge.
Final Verdict
All in all, the choice of Velmie or FintechOS boils down to whatever matters most in your institution.
If independence, long-term ownership, and speed are your major drivers, then Velmie reigns supreme. It presents a predictable cost one-time license offering, real enterprise value with source-code ownership, and an openness that enables quick innovation with both traditional and next-generation asset classes. Startups gain defensibility and investor traction while banks gain modernization with no compromising of control.
If governance, stability, and controlled support are your needs, the safer bet becomes FintechOS. With an enterprise subscription comes high TCO, but with it comes also the control, alignment with compliance, and vendor-managed infrastructures big institutions covet.
For Tier-1 insurers and banks, the balance of control and convenience often outweighs the negatives. Both are neither "better" nor worse than each other. Velmie shines where ownership and agility are a prerequisite. FintechOS reigns where scale and governance are at the top of the agenda.
Your choice then boils down purely and simply to your DNA as an institution — are you an innovator defining the future or an incumbent protecting the present? Make the right choice and excel in today’s modern financial landscape!
FAQ
Q1. What is the main difference between Velmie and FintechOS?
Velmie offers a modular, source-code–owned platform for fintechs and banks that value autonomy and scalability. FintechOS is a low-code SaaS solution designed for large enterprises wanting quick digitalization without replacing legacy systems. Compare Velmie’s flexibility to your needs >
Q2. What does “source-code ownership” mean for Velmie clients?
It means institutions fully own their core banking software, can modify it independently, and even list it as an asset on their balance sheet. This ensures long-term strategic and financial value. Learn how ownership adds enterprise value >
Q3. How fast can Velmie be deployed?
Velmie enables go-live in a matter of weeks, helping fintechs test, scale, and innovate rapidly while retaining full control. Request a fast-launch demo >
Q4. Does FintechOS support crypto or alternative assets?
No, FintechOS focuses on traditional banking and insurance products. Velmie, however, supports crypto, tokenized assets, and gold-backed financial products. Explore Velmie’s multi-asset support >
Q5. Can we integrate third-party services into Velmie?
Yes, Velmie’s API-first architecture supports easy integration with KYC, AML, payments, and compliance providers without heavy development work. Explore integration examples >