Financial services are the economic services provided by the finance industry. They concern a broad range of businesses that manage money, including banks, insurance companies, payment processors, and credit bureaus.

Financial technology (fintech) is an emerging industry that applies technology to improve financial activities. Fintech includes new applications, processes, products, or business models in the financial services industry, provided as an end-to-end process via the Internet. The interconnection is enabled through open banking APIs and supported by regulations such as the European Payment Services Directive (PSD2). Fintech is used to automate investments, insurance, trading, banking services, and risk management.

Security assessments can be conducted on all types of financial platforms, from traditional mainframes to modern fintech applications, including:

• Internet banking
• Mobile banking
• Open banking APIs
• Credit bureau applications
• Mainframes
• ATM devices
• Cryptocurrency

By mapping the attack surface of fintech platforms, security assessments allow to identify vulnerabilities and exposures and ensure integration of best practice security controls for the protection of financial services.