Reliable banking with CockroachDB

There is probably not a day goes by without us accessing our banking apps on our smartphones. Like me, you have probably experienced that time when the app is unavailable to log you in or you have read on social media that a leading high street bank’s payment system has failed. We read about the resulting queues at supermarket checkouts and the ultimate embarrassment of payments being declined through no fault of our own.

Thankfully it does not happen very often and quite frankly it should not happen at all.

Banks and financial institutions are and have been spending vast sums of money on making their apps and banking platforms resilient and robust to ensure failures and loss of service become a thing of the past. This blog post explains a little about the consequences of a failure and explains how the features of CockroachDB are helping these institutions firm up their systems and keep their customers smiling.

A branch in your hand - Its all about the app

Banking apps are critical components of the financial system and our everyday lives. We all need to know the current state of our finances at any time of the day, any day of the year and any failure of the app can have serious repercussions.

These are just a few examples of the things that can actually happen when a banking app or payment service fails.

1. Loss of customer trust: If a banking app fails, customers may lose trust in the bank's ability to manage their money and keep their data secure. This can lead to customer attrition and reputational damage.
   
2. Financial losses: Banking app failures can result in financial losses for both the bank and its customers. For example, if a customer is unable to access their account to make a payment or transfer funds, they may incur fees or penalties.
   
3. Regulatory compliance issues: Banks are subject to a wide range of regulatory requirements, and a banking app failure can lead to compliance issues. For example, if a customer is unable to access their account to view or dispute a transaction, the bank may be in violation of regulatory requirements around customer protections.
   
4. Operational disruptions: A banking app failure can also cause operational disruptions within the bank. For example, if the failure is caused by a cyber attack, the bank may need to shut down its systems to prevent further damage, which can lead to significant downtime and lost productivity.
   
5. Legal liability: In some cases, a banking app failure can lead to legal liability for the bank. For example, if a customer is unable to access their account due to the app's failure and suffers financial losses as a result, they may file a lawsuit against the bank.

As you can see the repercussions of a banking app failure can be severe and can have long-lasting effects on the bank's reputation, finances, and operations. It is crucial for banks to invest in robust technology and security measures to prevent such failures from occurring.

How does CockroachDB help?

CockroachDB is a distributed SQL database that is designed to be highly available, scalable, and resilient. These characteristics make it a great choice for financial services, which have demanding requirements for data consistency, reliability, and performance.

Why CockroachDB is proving a great fit for financial services:

1. High availability: CockroachDB is designed to be highly available, meaning that it can withstand node failures without losing data. This is critical for financial services, which require 24/7 access to their data and cannot afford any downtime.
   
2. Scalability: CockroachDB is also highly scalable, meaning that it can handle large amounts of data and traffic as the needs of financial services grow over time. This allows financial services to easily expand their data infrastructure without needing to switch to a new database.
   
3. Resilience: CockroachDB is designed to be resilient, meaning that it can recover quickly from hardware failures or other issues. This ensures that financial services can maintain their data integrity even in the face of unexpected disruptions.
   
4. ACID compliance: CockroachDB is ACID-compliant, meaning that it ensures the accuracy and consistency of financial transactions. This is crucial for financial services, which rely on accurate data to make decisions and ensure regulatory compliance.
   
5. Security: CockroachDB offers strong security features, including end-to-end encryption and support for role-based access control. This helps financial services protect their sensitive data and comply with data privacy regulations.

The high availability, scalability, resilience, ACID compliance, and security features of CockroachDB make it a great fit for banking and financial services.

For more information of how we have helped so many of our customers including customers in the banking and fintech space please discover the customer case studies listed here.