Apps like Stable Money are putting real pressure on traditional banks by turning fixed deposits and conservative investments into a fast, comparison‑driven, mobile‑first experience with higher visible returns. By aggregating FDs and fixed‑income products from dozens of banks and NBFCs, these platforms sit on top of the legacy system and compete aggressively for the customer relationship, even when the underlying issuer is still a regulated bank.
What “stable money” apps actually do?
Platforms such as Stable Money act as digital marketplaces for fixed deposits and other low‑risk products rather than as deposit‑taking entities themselves. They partner with multiple RBI‑regulated banks and NBFCs, allowing users to compare interest rates across 200+ issuers and book FDs online in a few taps without opening a savings account with each bank.
This aggregator model means a user sees the best available FD rates in one screen instead of manually hunting across bank websites or branches. The app then routes the money into the partner bank’s FD, provides digital receipts and dashboards, and often handles renewal and premature closure from within the same interface.
Why they are winning mindshare over banks?
Traditional banks still dominate in absolute deposit volume, but they lag in user experience and rate transparency. Many bank apps are functional but not optimised for discovery: FDs, RDs, bonds and other options are buried in menus, and customers rarely see competing rates side by side.
FD platforms flip this dynamic by:
- Highlighting the highest‑yield FDs prominently, including from smaller and small finance banks that offer 8–9%+ rates.
- Letting users open FDs without shifting their primary savings account.
- Offering real‑time interest tracking, maturity reminders and consolidated views of all FDs in one app.
For rate‑sensitive savers and first‑time investors, this feels more like a curated investment experience than a traditional banking transaction.
How they change the fixed‑income market?
Because these apps can send large volumes of digital customers to partner banks, they strengthen the bargaining power of smaller institutions that are willing to pay slightly higher rates or distribution commissions to attract deposits. Small finance banks and select NBFCs, which already tend to offer higher FD yields, gain national reach without building a huge physical network.
This, in turn, forces bigger banks to respond with:
- Promotional FD schemes and higher special‑tenor interest rates.
- API‑based tie‑ups with fintechs so their FDs also appear in comparison apps.
- More flexible products (like FDs without linked savings accounts, or easy overdrafts against FDs) to keep deposits sticky.
The result is an FD and conservative‑investment market that behaves more like an e‑commerce price‑comparison engine than a locked‑in bank relationship.
Risk, regulation and customer trust
The key safety layer is that the underlying FDs are still with regulated banks and NBFCs, not with the app itself. In India, that means deposit insurance norms and RBI oversight apply to the issuing institutions, while the platform focuses on onboarding, comparisons and servicing.
However, apps must manage:
- Data security and consent (KYC, account access, transaction data).
- Clear disclosure of who actually holds the deposit.
- Operational risk if the platform goes down or the partnership changes mid‑tenor.
Where platforms are transparent about issuer risk, insurance limits and documentation, reviews suggest that many users increasingly trust them as a convenient front‑door to conservative products that they previously accessed only through branch staff.
The competitive response from regular banks
Banks are already adapting by deepening fintech tie‑ups and upgrading their own digital channels. Some now push “API FDs” that can be sold entirely via partner apps, while others build in‑house marketplaces for FDs, debt funds and bonds inside their mobile apps to mimic the aggregator experience.
Over time, the competition is likely to shift from raw interest rates to:
- UX quality (few‑tap booking, instant confirmation, unified dashboard).
- Smart recommendations and goal‑based planning around fixed‑income.
- Integrated offerings (FDs plus credit cards/loans against those FDs).
In this new landscape, stable‑money‑style apps have forced banks to treat fixed deposits and low‑risk investments not as passive products, but as aggressively priced, digitally distributed offerings where customer loyalty can no longer be taken for granted.