Security for banks and financial services firms
Transformation programmes in financial services create a security paradox. The more rigorous the process, the more it slows the delivery the programme depends on. Breaking that pattern requires understanding what risk actually looks like across a complex cloud estate at scale.
What makes security in financial services different
The issues that come up again and again in our work in this sector.
Security that blocks delivery instead of enabling it
Last-minute security demands block services days before go-live. Engineers do extra work on risks that are not real. Product owners miss deadlines. The actual risks remain unaddressed.
Scale that standard processes cannot cover
Covering hundreds of AWS accounts with dozens of active development teams requires a different model. A single security team reviewing tickets is not security. It is a queue.
Shared infrastructure risk
Encryption services, data storage, and monitoring infrastructure underpin every product in the estate. A misconfiguration in shared infrastructure is not one team's problem.
Security overhead with no bearing on actual risk
In large banking transformation programmes, a significant portion of the security work teams perform addresses nothing real. That overhead costs delivery time and erodes confidence in the security function.
The systems we work with
Financial services infrastructure is typically a mix of legacy core systems and modern cloud platforms, often running side by side. Large transformation programmes span hundreds of cloud accounts simultaneously, with shared services underpinning dozens of product teams at once. Regulatory requirements shape everything from how data is stored to how access is granted. We have worked across this environment, including:
Cloud banking estates (AWS, multi-account)
Shared platform services
Core banking integrations
Digital and mobile banking APIs
Payment systems and processing infrastructure
Encryption and key management services
Compliance and reporting infrastructure
A featured engagement
We have worked with a number of organisations in this sector. This is one engagement we have selected to show how we approach this kind of work.
When Security Became the Brake on a Bank's Transformation
Security had become the thing blocking services from going live at a major UK bank. After 70+ threat models across the cloud estate, it became the thing that let teams move faster.
“The Threatplane threat model has given us a totally new level of insight into the security of our infrastructure and how it affects our business, something that thousands spent on other consultants never gave us.”
Head of Cloud Security, Major UK Banking Institution70+
threat models delivered across the cloud estate
3x
faster security assurance for development teams
50%
security overhead eliminated
Working in financial services?
Speak to us about your situation and whether we can help you.