Yes, You Can ‘Vibe Code’ for Your Bank. How to Get Started
By Ben Udell, Contributor at The Financial Brand
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“Vibe coding” is one of the hottest topics in technology right now and if you’re a banker, there’s a good chance you’ve seen the term and kept scrolling.
That’s understandable. Banking has a long and well-earned tradition of being thoughtful about adopting new technology. We move deliberately. We weigh risk. And when something feels “cutting edge”, most of us are happy to sit on the sidelines. But banking is changing fast.
Vibe coding is the practice of building functional software tools like calculators, trackers, dashboards, and websites using conversational language instead of traditional programming. You describe what you want, and AI builds it, and you refine it through feedback until it does exactly what you need. If you can tell a human being what you want to build, you can vibe code. No coding classes. No technical background.
I know this because I’m a classic banker. I can use a financial calculator, but I can’t tell you the difference between HTML and java script. And yet I can now create functional tools in an afternoon. Easily and cheaply. That’s not an exaggeration. That’s what vibe coding makes possible right now.
Prompt: “I want to learn more about vibe coding and how it can be applied in banking. Act as my vibe coding mentor to help me learn. I don’t know anything about coding.”
A common question is, “What can I create?” I’m finding that it’s hard for bankers to answer when they first learn about vibe coding. They’ve never thought about it. If you have workflows, spreadsheets, websites, job aids, or anything else you wish you had, consider creating it yourself.
Kevin Farley, a banking and fintech advisor, is an early adopter of vibe coding. “I’ve built tools as a non-coder that would have required months of traditional development. An M&A evaluation system, a competitive intelligence platform, and a website readiness tool that runs a technical audit, SEO analysis, ADA compliance check, and sentiment analysis all in one pass. None of them required a developer. None of it required a large budget. That’s what makes vibe coding genuinely different: it puts the ability to build in the hands of the people who actually understand the problem.”
Like other GenAI skills, this one is quietly transforming how people work. If you’re committed to staying ahead of how banking is changing, this is exactly the kind of foundational skill worth developing. Getting started is easier than you think, and doing it responsibly is straightforward once you know the guardrails.
In this first article of two articles, we’re going to lay the groundwork:
- what vibe coding is
- how it works, and
- what you need to know before you start.
In the next article, we’re going to build something together, a real tool, with real prompts, that you could put in front of your team in a couple of hours.
How Vibe Coding Works
The best way to understand vibe coding is to stop thinking about software development and start thinking about a conversation. Traditional coding requires a programmer to write precise instructions in a language a computer understands. Vibe coding flips that entirely. You speak in plain English. AI translates. If you can describe what you want to create, you can vibe code.
In practice, it works like this: you open a vibe coding tool, describe what you want to build, and the AI generates a working version. You react to what you see, give feedback the same way you would to a developer, and the tool improves with each exchange. Want to add a new feature? Describe it. Something looks wrong? Give directions to improve it. Need it to match your brand colors? Give it your brand’s color codes.
Farley notes: “You describe what you want and AI builds it. No development queue. No budget approval process. That shift from ‘I need a developer’ to ‘I can just describe this’ is the real game changer.”
A Quick Start to Available Tools
A handful of platforms have emerged as the go-to options for vibe coding, and you don’t need all of them. Options include: Replit, Cursor, Google Antigravity, and many more options depending on need and experience. A couple I’m using:
- Lovable: A great beginner platform that’s easy to use. The interface is very close to how you interact with GenAI tools today.
- Claude Code (Anthropic): A good next step after Lovable. It’s easy to use but the interface and set up take a few more steps.
When you get stuck and need help or guidance you can ask the tool or your favorite GenAI tool for help and guidance. The best answer for where to start: pick one and use it.
Prompt: “I’m going to start vibe coding. Walk me through the five most popular vibe coding software solutions and give me a table of what their strengths and weaknesses are and why I would choose one over the other. I do not have any coding experience.”
Your software can be shared privately, embedded in your network, or embedded in SharePoint. Or, you can publish them publicly. Just like any software, you decide who gets access and how.
What You Need to Know Before You Start
A few guardrails and practical insights will make your first builds go much smoother. While it goes without saying, don’t put PII or private info into a model unless your bank or credit union has approved it.
Start small. Your first project should not be your most ambitious idea. Build a simple calculator or a one-page reference tool. Get comfortable with the back-and-forth before you tackle something complex. The confidence you build on a small win makes the bigger builds much easier, and generates new ideas.
Describe your idea like you’re talking to a friend: The quality of what gets built is directly tied to the clarity of what you ask for. More details and strong direction improve the performance, just like engaging with a human being. The more specific you are upfront, the less back-and-forth you’ll need.
Using GenAI to describe, refine, and create your idea will strengthen your build before you get started and allow you to work more quickly. A Product Requirement Document (PRD) can be created to help provide as many details as possible.
Prompt: “I’m creating a website to do XXX and need to create a Product Requirement Document to give to my coding software to create it. Ask me questions so we can build this together and help me troubleshoot ideas early.”
Build one thing at a time: This is the mistake most beginners make. Stacking five requests into one prompt increases the chance something breaks or gets missed. Ask for one feature, confirm it works the way you want, then move to the next. It’s slower in theory and faster in practice.
For instance, if you’re going to build a five-page website to promote financial literacy to different age groups, start with one page. When that page is done, you can use it as a template.
Create or use a reference point: You will need to quality check your work closely. If you’re creating calculators, create that calculator in Excel so you can check your work. If you’re referencing products or solutions, ensure you have documents to compare to your creation.
Someone you work with is already doing this: Vibe coding has spread fast, and there’s a reasonable chance a colleague you work with has already been experimenting. Finding that person is worth the conversation and can give you a head start.
“Vibe coding is amazing for proving an idea before you invest time or money,” says Farley. You visualize and validate ideas in near real time. Build a prototype in the morning and get feedback from your team in the afternoon. Proving the concept actually solves the problem. Then, if it’s worth investing in, send it through your institution’s formal development process with evidence already in hand. You’ve de-risked the idea before a single developer touches it.”
What Can You Actually Build?
This is where it gets fun. The range of tools a banker can build with vibe coding is broader than most people expect, often limited by your creativity. Here are some examples across three categories to get your thinking started.
Calculators and financial tools: Loan pricing calculators. Deposit growth projectors. Marketing ROI models. Break-even analysis. Net interest margin calculators. Branch profitability tools. Lifetime value calculators for new account relationships. If you’re building something in Excel today, it’s a great candidate to build into a website.
Vibe coding lets you build a cleaner, easier-to-use version that anyone can access without a spreadsheet. You can build in export features to email or a PDF, create the ability to compare outputs, add AI generated commentary, and more. You can easily add more features while making the tool more accessible.
Prompt: “I want to convert this Excel doc into a vibe coded website in Lovable. Review it and ask me questions and then help me build a product requirement document I can give to Lovable to build a first draft.”
Internal productivity tools: Meeting agenda generators. Regulatory deadline trackers. Compliance checklists. Training trackers. Board report templates. Policy explainers. Cross-sell reminder tools. The kind of lightweight operational tools that make a team run better but never make it onto anyone’s development roadmap.
If you’re tracking work in Excel or Word, or need to create a tool that better tracks activities or engagement, you can try vibe coding a custom solution. Adding an AI layer to analysis, assess, or report is an added bonus.
Shared team environments: Campaign dashboards. Product launch hubs. Onboarding workflow trackers. Internal FAQ boards. Document libraries. Approval and review workflows. Tools that bring a team together around a process instead of managing it through email chains and shared drives.
Prompt: “I want to create an onboarding plan for new bankers to ensure they’re getting all the training. Review my notes and current plan and then help me design requirements for a vibe coded website my team can use to track each banker and each training module and the completion of the module.”
None of these are complicated. None of them require sensitive customer data. And any of them could be built in an afternoon with the right prompt and a little patience.
This Is Just the Beginning
Vibe coding for bankers is not about building the next mobile banking app or replacing expensive software solutions (at least today). The tools you can build are lightweight, internal, and practical. Simple low risk workflow improvements, or solutions that improve the user experience.
Farley encourages bankers to try vibe coding. “”I spent 12 years inside financial institutions before moving to the advisory side, where I now work with fintechs, credit unions, and startups. I had no technical background when I first tried vibe coding—none. Within weeks I had built tools from scratch that would have taken months to commission the traditional way. The learning curve for bankers is a fraction of what they imagine.”
These are tools your team will actually use, built in a way your compliance officer can actually understand, deployed in environments your institution already controls. The goal is not to push boundaries, it’s to solve real problems quickly and responsibly.
In the next article, we’ll build something together to help you jumpstart your learning.
