Johannesburg
Financial services and insurance under South African regulation. Compliance-first from the infrastructure up.
POPIAFSCAFAISNCA
About The Fourths
An engineering firm, not an agency.
We are a software engineering team based in Johannesburg and London. We build production-grade platforms for regulated businesses, and we stay.
Origin
Built in South Africa. Proven in the UK.
The Fourths started in Johannesburg building software for fintech and insurance companies navigating POPIA, FSCA, and South African infrastructure realities, learning that compliance-first architecture is the foundation, not a constraint.
The London practice extends that to FCA-regulated firms in mortgage, insurance, and financial services, the same standard, applied to MCOB and Consumer Duty.
12
service lines
10
case studies in production
2
markets
12mo
minimum retainer
Principles
Four things we don't compromise on.
01
Ownership over delivery
We don't hand off codebases, we run them. No knowledge-transfer taxes, no team that disappears at handoff.
02
Compliance from the schema up
Designed in at the start, not wrapped on at the end. The right decisions happen at table level, before the first line of app code.
03
Real numbers, real accountability
Measurable goals set before work starts. Commitments backed with evidence, not summaries of summaries.
04
No lock-in
You own the IP, the repo, and the infrastructure. Built on open standards, if you leave, you take everything.
Markets
Two markets, one standard.
London
FCA-regulated mortgage, insurance, and financial services. The same engineering standard, applied to UK obligations.
FCAMCOBConsumer DutyAML