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Fractional CISO for FinTech companies

Security leadership built for lenders, payment processors, neobanks, and embedded finance platforms. Navigate SOC 2, PCI DSS, GLBA, and state money transmitter requirements with a CISO who understands regulated financial services.

20+ years in FinTech and payments, including SVP roles at a global ATM and payments operator and CISO leadership at a Nasdaq-listed crypto FinTech platform. Custody, stablecoin, and digital asset governance are core practice areas.

The FinTech compliance pressure is real

Your customers, partners, and regulators all want proof that your security program matches your risk.

"A top-10 bank just sent us a 250-question vendor assessment. We don't have the answers."

"Our PCI DSS scope is unclear, and our processor is asking for a QSA report we don't have."

"We need SOC 2 Type II to close enterprise deals, but we don't know where to start."

A fractional CISO for FinTech gives you an experienced operator who has built security programs inside regulated financial services companies — not a generic IT consultant.

FinTech frameworks we manage

SOC 2 Type I & II

Build the trust services criteria, controls, and evidence repository that enterprise customers and auditors expect.

PCI DSS

Scope reduction, Self-Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ) support, and QSA engagement management for cardholder data environments.

GLBA & Privacy

Align your information security program with GLBA Safeguards Rule requirements and customer data protection obligations.

State Money Transmitter

Map security requirements to MTL licensing exams and state regulatory expectations.

NYDFS Part 500

Meet New York's cybersecurity requirements even if you have just one customer in the state.

Vendor Assessments

Respond to bank and enterprise security questionnaires with credible, evidence-backed answers. Learn more.

Security challenges specific to FinTech

Generic vCISO playbooks don't cover what actually keeps FinTech security leaders up at night.

Crypto and digital assets

Key management and custody arrangements, exchange and blockchain vendor risk, travel-rule exposure, and the security narrative public-market investors expect from digital asset businesses. For the deep version of this, see our digital asset and stablecoin cybersecurity practice.

Payments and card data

Minimizing PCI scope through tokenization and processor architecture, managing acquirer and bank security requirements, and surviving processor security reviews.

Lending and credit

GLBA Safeguards programs, bureau and data-provider contracts, fraud-model governance, and the security sections of state licensing exams.

Banking-as-a-service

Partner bank oversight, third-party risk programs that satisfy OCC-style expectations, and data flows that regulators can trace end to end.

Embedded finance

API security, partner onboarding controls, and the awkward reality that your security posture is now embedded in someone else's audit.

AI in FinTech

Fraud models, underwriting algorithms, and customer-facing AI features need governance before a regulator or lead investor asks. See our AI governance advisory.

Stablecoins and digital assets in your payments stack

Stablecoins are moving from crypto-native products into mainstream fintech: settlement, payouts, and treasury integrations. That shift drags a new control surface into your security program.

Custody and key management

Hot, warm, and cold wallet models, qualified custodian oversight, MPC and HSM signing, and quorum policies around transaction approval — documented with a risk rationale an auditor can follow.

Wallet controls and treasury APIs

Exchange and custody API keys treated as privileged credentials: vaulted, scoped, rotated, and monitored, with withdrawal allowlists and limits enforced in policy and in code.

Stablecoin counterparty and vendor risk

Due diligence on issuers, custodians, exchanges, and liquidity partners; concentration risk tracking; and sanctions/OFAC screening governance your bank partners can inspect.

Digital asset incident response

Key-compromise and wallet-drain scenarios, counterparty-failure playbooks, and disclosure paths — tested in tabletops like your other incident scenarios, not left in a binder.

Regulatory evidence for crypto operations

The GENIUS Act created the first federal framework for payment stablecoins, and examiner-style questions about key management, monitoring, and sanctions controls are coming with its rulemaking. Build the evidence trail now.

Board reporting on digital asset risk

Key inventory, custody status, vendor concentrations, and incidents — reported in the same quarterly board pack as your other risk, in language directors can read in ten minutes.

This is enterprise security governance, not smart-contract auditing. For the full practice description, see digital asset and stablecoin cybersecurity consulting.

What an engagement delivers

Concrete outcomes, not a slide deck of recommendations.

SOC 2 report in hand

From gap assessment to Type I to Type II, with an evidence repository your team maintains without heroics.

PCI scope you control

Architecture and tokenization decisions that shrink the cardholder data environment, plus the SAQ or QSA path that fits your volumes.

Vendor assessments answered

Bank and enterprise questionnaires returned with evidence-backed answers that survive follow-up scrutiny.

Board and investor confidence

Risk reporting your board actually reads, diligence materials your investors can forward, and a security roadmap tied to business milestones.

Regulatory exams survived

MTL exam responses, NYDFS certifications, and GLBA program documentation built to withstand examiner follow-ups.

Incident readiness

A response plan with FinTech-specific scenarios — frozen settlements, exchange outages, key compromise — tested in tabletop exercises.

Why FinTech operators beat generic consultants

Regulated financial services security is a different discipline from generic IT security. The vocabulary, the stakes, and the review cycles are different. A consultant who has never lived through a bank partner's due diligence or a state MTL exam will learn on your dime.

NTD's principal served as SVP at a global ATM and payments operator and as CISO of a Nasdaq-listed crypto FinTech platform — through SPAC, IPO, and public-company cybersecurity disclosure. That background means bank partner assessments, PCI scoping debates, and exam questions are familiar territory, not research projects.

The About page has the details, including public-company disclosure experience and payments infrastructure leadership.

Typical FinTech client profile

  • 20-500 employees with limited or no dedicated security staff
  • Lending, payments, banking-as-a-service, or wealthtech business models
  • Active enterprise sales cycle requiring vendor security reviews
  • Upcoming SOC 2 or PCI DSS audit in the next 90-180 days
  • Leadership team that needs a credible security voice for customers and board
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Need help with a customer security questionnaire?

We respond to vendor assessments with answers that satisfy enterprise procurement teams and pass follow-up scrutiny. See our security audit response service.