Industries Cybersecurity for Financial Services
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Cybersecurity Services for Financial Services

Financial services remains the most cyber-targeted sector in the UK and globally. Banks, building societies, fintechs, payment service providers, and crypto-asset firms operate under intense regulatory scrutiny (FCA, PRA, Bank of England) while facing nation-state, organised-crime, and insider threats simultaneously. The cost of getting cybersecurity wrong in this sector is measured in regulatory fines, customer trust, and operational resilience.

RedSecLabs has built deep specialism in financial services security from the UK, with global delivery. Our team delivers CREST-certified penetration testing, SWIFT Customer Security Programme assessments, PCI DSS QSA work, FCA-aligned operational resilience testing, and ongoing security advisory through our Virtual CISO programme.

From challenger banks scaling through their first FCA permissions, to established institutions under CREST-accredited threat-led testing programmes, we work with financial services organisations at every stage of regulatory and security maturity.

CREST Certified Pen Test Provider ISO Certified OSCP Certified Industry Certification
The package
Financial Services Security Package

8 core services. One engagement. Single team. Evidence reuse across frameworks.

  • Regulatory & Threat Landscape Assessment
  • Compliance Foundation
  • Penetration Testing Programme
  • Threat-Led Testing
  • Operational Resilience Testing
  • Cloud Security Assessment
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CREST
Threat-led ready
SWIFT CSP
Global delivery
PCI DSS QSA
In-house qualified
CREST
Certified throughout

Financial services security challenges

Financial services organisations face a uniquely demanding security environment. They are systemically important to national infrastructure (which makes them attractive to nation-state actors), they handle directly-monetisable data and transactions (which attracts organised crime), and they operate under prescriptive regulation requiring evidenced controls (FCA, PRA, Bank of England operational resilience requirements, PSD2 SCA, AML/KYC requirements).

Beyond compliance, the operational resilience expectations introduced by the FCA, PRA, and Bank of England in 2022 require firms to identify important business services, set impact tolerances, and evidence ability to remain within those tolerances during severe but plausible disruption, including cyber attack scenarios. This has lifted security from a compliance function to a board-level resilience priority.

What our financial services security delivers:

FCA, PRA, and Bank of England regulatory alignment

CREST-accredited threat-led testing readiness and delivery

SWIFT Customer Security Programme attestation

PCI DSS compliance for card-handling operations

ISO 27001 certification underpinning operational resilience

Senior advisory through fractional Virtual CISO support

Financial services security cannot be delivered effectively by generalists. Every engagement we deliver in this sector is staffed with team members who have worked specifically in financial services security contexts.

Why financial security matters

UK financial services faced record cyber incident disclosures in 2024, with the FCA noting increasing reports of operational incidents linked to cyber. Major UK banks have publicly disclosed third-party supply chain incidents, ATM and payment infrastructure compromise attempts, and customer-facing fraud campaigns at scale. The threat is real, persistent, and well-resourced.

Regulatory consequences for security failures are severe: FCA enforcement actions, PRA notifications, mandatory customer remediation, and CEO accountability under SMCR. The 2024 update to operational resilience requirements means firms must now actively evidence, not just claim, they can remain within impact tolerances during cyber disruption.

Common pressures on financial services security teams:

FCA / PRA enforcement actions and senior manager accountability

Operational resilience evidence requirements under PS21/3

CREST-accredited / threat-led testing programmes

SWIFT CSP annual attestation obligations

PCI DSS scope creep across digital payment surfaces

Open banking API security under PSD2 SCA

Getting financial services security right is not optional and increasingly not delegable, it has become a board-level resilience matter under direct senior manager accountability.

Who we serve in financial services

Our financial services client base spans the full range of UK and international financial organisations:

Retail and commercial banks

Building societies

Payment service providers (PSPs)

E-money and challenger banks

Investment firms and wealth managers

Crypto-asset firms and exchanges

Insurance and reinsurance firms

Open banking and PSD2 platforms

Whether you are pre-authorisation building toward FCA permissions or an established institution under operational resilience requirements, our engagement model adapts to your regulatory stage and risk profile.

Package includes

What's in your Financial Services package

Eight services bundled into one financial services engagement. Single project lead, evidence reuse across SOC 2 / ISO 27001 / PCI DSS / SWIFT CSP / FCA operational resilience, and a clear annual rhythm rather than disconnected one-off projects.

01

Regulatory & Threat Landscape Assessment

We baseline your current regulatory exposure (FCA, PRA, BoE, SWIFT, PCI DSS) and the specific threat actors and vectors relevant to your business model, retail banking, payments, wealth, crypto, etc.

02

Compliance Foundation

Where needed, we deliver the foundational compliance frameworks: ISO 27001 implementation and certification support, PCI DSS QSA assessment, SWIFT CSP attestation.

03

Penetration Testing Programme

Annual or quarterly CREST-certified penetration testing covering external infrastructure, internal networks, web applications, APIs, mobile apps, and cloud environments.

04

Threat-Led Testing

For institutions under CREST-accredited testing mandate, we deliver intelligence-led red team engagements with formal threat intelligence integration and regulator-ready reporting.

05

Operational Resilience Testing

Severe-but-plausible scenario testing aligned to FCA/PRA/BoE operational resilience requirements, evidencing tolerance for cyber-driven disruption.

06

Cloud Security Assessment

Specialist AWS, Azure, and GCP testing for cloud-native and hybrid environments. IAM analysis, configuration review, attack-path testing.

07

Virtual CISO Advisory

Ongoing senior security leadership through our vCISO programme, board reporting, regulator interaction, control programme governance.

08

Incident Response Readiness

Tabletop exercises, runbook development, and incident response support, preparing for the day something does go wrong.

Most financial services clients run all eight as a coordinated annual programme. Fixed-fee, single contract, single quarterly invoice if preferred. Package is sized to your firm.

Services we deliver for financial services

Our financial services clients typically use some combination of:

  • CREST-certified penetration testing across infrastructure, applications, and cloud
  • SWIFT Customer Security Programme assessment and attestation
  • PCI DSS QSA assessments, gap analysis, and remediation
  • ISO 27001 implementation, internal audit, and certification support
  • Red team and CREST-accredited-style threat-led testing
  • Virtual CISO advisory with board and regulator interaction
  • Vulnerability assessment programmes for continuous coverage
  • Secure code review for fintech development teams

Industries We Serve

We deliver this service across these industries:

Financial Services
Healthcare
E-commerce & Retail
SaaS & Technology
Hospitality
Manufacturing & Industrial

Why RedSecLabs for financial services

Financial services security is not a vertical add-on to a generalist testing practice. Every senior member of our financial services team has worked specifically with banks, PSPs, or insurance firms; we understand FCA expectations, PRA correspondence, BoE supervisory dialogue, and the operational reality of evidencing controls to a regulator. Our reports are written for the audiences who actually read them, risk committees, regulators, and audit functions, not for general technical readers.

CREST member with senior-only delivery
Financial services specialist practice
PCI DSS QSA in-house qualified
UK + Middle East SWIFT delivery
CREST-accredited eligible
Virtual CISO programme available

Book a package scoping call

30 minutes. We'll map the package to your industry context and quote a fixed annual fee within 48 hours.

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Where to next

Related services and industry packages worth exploring.

SWIFT CSP Assessment

Penetration Testing UK

ISO 27001 Certification

Virtual CISO

Frequently Asked Questions

Yes. RedSecLabs holds QSA company qualification and our PCI DSS team includes individual QSAs delivering Reports on Compliance, gap analyses, and remediation programmes for Level 1 through Level 4 merchants and service providers.

Yes. SWIFT CSP attestation is one of our specialist areas. We deliver under SWIFT's Customer Security Programme from the UK, with global delivery (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait), including independent assessment and remediation support before the SWIFT KYC-SA submission deadline.

For firms under FCA / PRA / BoE operational resilience requirements (PS21/3), we deliver scenario-based testing covering cyber disruption to important business services. This typically combines threat-led testing, tabletop exercises, and runbook validation, producing the evidence to underpin your impact tolerance attestation.

Yes, we work with FCA-registered crypto-asset firms across security and operational resilience requirements. Our crypto-sector work includes infrastructure pentesting, smart contract review (selectively, where in scope), exchange security assessment, and AML/KYC-adjacent control testing.

Yes, our team delivers SWIFT CSP across the GCC region with dedicated focus on Saudi Arabia (SAMA-aligned), UAE (CBUAE-aligned), Qatar, Bahrain, and Kuwait. We work with banks, exchange houses, and money service businesses across the region.
Sector-specific risks

The threats Financial Services firms actually face

⚠

API & payment infrastructure exposure

Open banking APIs, payment rails, and core banking integrations are high-value targets. Authentication flaws, BOLA, and broken authorization in financial APIs lead to direct fraud loss.

⚠

Regulator-watched incident response

PRA, FCA, ECB, and ICO expect rapid containment and structured disclosure. A clumsy response amplifies regulatory exposure beyond the incident itself.

⚠

Third-party / vendor risk

Critical ICT providers under DORA scope expose firms to supply chain risk. Vendor assurance has become a board-level concern.

Common buying triggers

When firms in your sector engage us

  • › Regulator-mandated threat-led testing under DORA Article 26 or equivalent
  • › PCI DSS QSA assessment required for new payment products
  • › Customer security questionnaire failures during partner due diligence
  • › Post-incident assurance after a near-miss or competitor breach
Compliance drivers

Frameworks that apply

DORAPCI DSSSWIFT CSPISO 27001PRA SS1/21NCA / FCA expectations
Services for this sector

What we typically deliver

› DORA TLPT › SWIFT CSP Assessment › PCI DSS Compliance › Red Team Assessment › Incident Response Retainer › CREST Penetration Testing
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