Financial services and fintech · ISO and GRC consulting
ISO certification for financial services and fintech that answers banks, acquirers and regulators.
ISO certification for financial services and fintech, planned around what your bank partners, acquirers and regulators actually ask for: ISO/IEC 27001 first, then PCI DSS, SOC 2, ISO 22301 or frameworks such as DORA and SAMA CSF. Sterling's expert and experienced consultants build the system and the evidence with your team. We ensure successful certification for our clients.
- Expert and experienced consultants for ISO/IEC 27001, PCI DSS, SOC 2, ISO 22301 and ISO 37301, and for regulatory frameworks such as DORA, SAMA CSF and BSP circulars
- One all-inclusive proposal for a defined scope: consulting, Effivity software, Sterling Academy access and internal auditor training, as applicable to your standard, in one proposal
- The Sterling Promise: 100% on-time completion, 100% success, 8,100+ client engagements. Sterling does not certify; an accredited body audits and decides
- Due diligence answeredBank partners, enterprise clients and acquirers receive a certificate or report instead of another long questionnaire.
- One control set, many asksISO/IEC 27001 controls reused as evidence for PCI DSS, SOC 2 and the regulatory frameworks you answer to.
- Evidence a supervisor can followRegisters, test results and board decisions kept in one place, ready when the regulator asks.
- Resilience you have testedImpact analysis, recovery plans and exercises that show how critical services keep running.
What financial services and fintech is asked for
The standards banks, payment firms and fintechs are asked for.
Most financial firms start with ISO/IEC 27001, because bank partners, enterprise clients and regulators all recognise it. Card payments bring PCI DSS; selling services to other businesses brings SOC 2; EU financial entities answer to DORA, and Saudi banks, insurers and financing companies to SAMA CSF. Our lean pages cover MAS TRM, APRA CPS 234, BSP circulars, SWIFT CSP and AML / CFT programmes.
Why now
Why financial firms are asked for evidence now, not next year.
The pressure comes from six directions, and most firms feel several of them in the same quarter.
- Bank partners and enterprise clientsA bank onboarding a fintech, or a corporate client choosing a payments provider, sends a security questionnaire first. An ISO/IEC 27001 certificate or a SOC 2 report answers most of it before the first call.
- Card schemes and acquirersAnyone who stores, processes or transmits cardholder data validates against PCI DSS v4.0.1 every year, and the formerly future-dated requirements have been mandatory in every assessment since 31 March 2025.
- RegulatorsDORA has applied to EU financial entities since 17 January 2025. SAMA calls for at least the third maturity level of its Cyber Security Framework, and the BSP sets IT risk and continuity rules in its Manual of Regulations for Banks.
- ICT and outsourcing providersDORA keeps the financial entity fully responsible for outsourced ICT and requires a register of information on its ICT contracts, so providers serving EU financial entities are asked for evidence too, wherever they are based.
- Group companiesAPRA's CPS 234 asks the head of a group to apply its requirements throughout the group, and DORA's register is kept at entity, sub-consolidated and consolidated level. Subsidiaries inherit the parent's expectations.
- IncidentsAPRA-regulated entities must notify a material information security incident no later than 72 hours after becoming aware of it. A tested response plan, not a policy on a shelf, makes that deadline realistic.
Scope and evidence
What auditors, assessors and supervisors look at in a financial firm.
The same six areas come up whichever standard or framework you start with, so evidence built once serves several of them.
| Requirement area | What it looks like in financial services and fintech | Evidence auditors ask for |
|---|---|---|
| Governance and accountability | The board owns information security and ICT risk; the roles of security, risk, compliance and internal audit are written down and acted on | Board minutes approving policy and risk appetite, a role matrix, management review records with decisions |
| Information security controls | Access to core banking, payment and customer-data systems, privileged accounts, encryption, logging and vulnerability management | The Statement of Applicability, access reviews, patch and scan reports, penetration test results with remediation |
| Cardholder data | Card payments flow through a defined cardholder data environment, reduced by segmentation, tokenisation or a hosted payment page where possible | Data-flow diagrams, the confirmed scope, quarterly ASV scans where they apply, retention and purge evidence |
| Third-party and ICT provider risk | Cloud, core banking, card processing and outsourced operations assessed before contract and monitored afterwards | A register of ICT contracts, due-diligence files, security and audit clauses, exit plans for critical or important functions |
| Continuity and operational resilience | Critical services identified, recovery times agreed and tested against severe but plausible scenarios | The business impact analysis, continuity and recovery plans, exercise reports with actions closed |
| Compliance obligations | Licence conditions, regulatory circulars, AML / CFT duties and contract terms tracked, each with an owner | An obligations register, a compliance risk assessment, customer due diligence records, compliance reports to the board |
Which areas apply, and at what depth, depends on your licence, your jurisdictions and the standards in scope; the gap analysis settles that in the first weeks.
The engagement
What happens between the first call and the certificate.
Shown for ISO/IEC 27001, the standard most financial firms certify first. For PCI DSS, SOC 2 and regulatory frameworks the steps are the same, with the QSA, the service auditor (a CPA firm) or your supervisor in place of the certification body.
- 01Define what the certificate needs to cover.Confirm activities, sites, headcount, customer expectations and the intended certification scope.
- 02Gap analysis: review the current system against the requirements.The gap analysis identifies what is missing, preserves effective practice and agrees actions, owners, dates and resources.
- 03Implement and collect meaningful evidence.Put controls into use, train the relevant people and keep the records that show how the system operates.
- 04Audit, review and address the findings.Internal audit and management review evaluate implementation; findings are raised by us first and closed with evidence.
- 05Complete the independent assessment.The certification body's Stage 1 readiness review, then the Stage 2 audit; respond to any findings and await its decision.
- 06Maintain the system after certification.Monitoring, internal audits, reviews and improvement continue, alongside the body's surveillance audits and three-yearly recertification.
What you receive
Everything a working, certifiable system needs. Nothing sold separately.
- Scope and gap analysis reportThe scope of the certificate and every shortfall against the standard, with an owner and a date.
- Implementation planMilestones, responsibilities, the weekly session calendar and the target audit window.
- The documented management systemPolicies, processes, procedures, forms and records on Sterling's template sets, tailored to your operation.
- Effivity workspace, configuredDocuments, registers, audits, actions, training records and management review in one place, included at no additional cost.
- Trained peopleAwareness e-learning for everyone, practitioner courses for the people who run the system, internal auditor training for your audit team, as applicable to your standard, with Certificates of Completion.
- Internal audit and management reviewProgramme, checklists, report, corrective actions closed with evidence, and a management review record with decisions.
- Certification readinessCertification bodies compared and their accreditation checked, Stage 1 and Stage 2 preparation, and support until the certificate is issued.
- The Sustain™ calendarThe year after certification planned: surveillance dates, internal audits, refreshers, new-hire training and any transition to a revised edition.
Effivity · included with the engagement
Your system runs in software from the first workshop.
Effivity is the ISO and GRC automation platform built by the Sterling group and used in 50+ countries. Your consultant configures it within the agreed scope, so evidence accumulates as people do their work and the certification auditor reviews a live system rather than a binder. Sterling consulting clients get their subscription included with the engagement, at no additional cost.
ISO & GRC softwareSterling Academy · included with the engagement
Your people learn the standard, not just the forms.
E-learning with practice checkpoints, a final exam and a numbered Certificate of Completion for each learner, verifiable online, with progress by department for the certification audit. Sterling consulting clients get preferential course access and special pricing, including complimentary awareness training for their people as part of the engagement.
Contact us about Academy accessStandards
Standards for Financial services and fintech
- ISO/IEC 27001ISO/IEC 27001 certification consulting: an ISMS built with your people, evidence prepared, and support through Stage 1, Stage 2 and surveillance audits.
- PCI DSSPCI DSS compliance consulting for merchants and service providers: scope, the twelve requirements and evidence prepared for your annual validation by a QSA.
- SOC 2SOC 2 Readiness and compliance consulting: controls mapped to the Trust Services Criteria and evidence prepared for the CPA firm's SOC 2 attestation report.
- ISO 22301ISO 22301 certification consulting to keep delivering through disruption: impact analysis, continuity plans and exercises, prepared for an accredited audit.
- DORADORA compliance consulting for EU financial entities and ICT providers: ICT risk, incident reporting, resilience testing and third-party risk, evidenced.
- ISO 37301ISO 37301 certification consulting: one compliance management system for your obligations and commitments, with evidence ready for an accredited audit.
Financial services and fintech client experience
On the record: what financial services and fintech clients say about working with Sterling.
The managing director writes, on behalf of the whole organisation, that the guidance and support provided during its journey to ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certification were invaluable, and that the certificate is a direct result of that support.
Each account is drawn from a signed letter or e-mail on file and reported in our words, with the signatory's role and organisation attached; the original letters are available on request. Ask for references in your sector before you decide.
- 60+countries where Sterling has delivered certification
- 21countries with a Sterling office, eight regions, one coordinated team
- 2003the year the group began implementing ISO management systems; the same method, refined, since
- 8,100+client engagements across the group, from single-site SMEs to multinationals
FAQs
Questions financial services and fintech clients ask before they engage us.
The specific answers for your organisation come from the discovery call. These are the general ones.
Which ISO certification do financial services and fintech firms need first?
For most firms it is ISO/IEC 27001, the information security standard that bank partners, enterprise clients and regulators recognise; the current edition is ISO/IEC 27001:2022 with Amendment 1:2024. Firms that take card payments add PCI DSS, firms selling services to other businesses often add a SOC 2 report, and ISO 22301 follows where continuity is a client or licence expectation. The gap analysis confirms the order for your licence and markets.
Is there a DORA certification?
No. DORA is an EU regulation supervised by your competent authority, usually the national supervisor and the ECB for significant banks, and it contains no certification of compliance. ISO/IEC 27001 and ISO 22301 certificates evidence parts of it, never the whole. We build the ICT risk framework, the register of information and the evidence with your team, so the authority's review finds a working system.
Should a fintech choose SOC 2 or ISO/IEC 27001?
It depends on who is asking. ISO/IEC 27001 is a certificate decided by an accredited certification body and recognised internationally; SOC 2 is a restricted-use report in which the service auditor, a CPA firm, gives an opinion on your controls, as at a date for Type 1 or over a period for Type 2. Many fintechs are asked for both, and one well-built control set serves both.
Does ISO/IEC 27001 cover SAMA CSF, MAS TRM or BSP requirements?
It helps, but it does not replace them. SAMA's Cyber Security Framework has no certificate, and ISO/IEC 27001 or PCI DSS evidence supports parts of it, never the whole; MAS and the BSP set their own technology risk expectations. We map your ISMS to the regulator's framework, show the gaps that remain and close them, so one system answers both the certification body and the supervisor.
How long does it take?
Typically four to eight months for ISO/IEC 27001 and three to nine months for PCI DSS, depending on the maturity of your processes, the scope, locations and number of employees. A SOC 2 Type 1 report usually takes three to six months and a first Type 2 report nine to fifteen, because controls must operate over a period. A DORA programme typically takes four to nine months.
Does Sterling certify us or sign off our compliance?
No. Sterling does not certify, accredit or attest. An independent, accredited certification body decides on ISO certificates; a QSA or, where allowed, your own self-assessment questionnaire validates PCI DSS; a CPA firm gives the SOC 2 opinion; and your supervisor judges regulatory compliance. Our expert and experienced consultants build the system and the evidence with your team and prepare you for each of those reviews.
We provide ICT or outsourcing services to banks. What will they ask of us?
Expect due-diligence questionnaires, contract clauses on security, audit and exit, and requests for certificates or reports. DORA holds EU financial entities fully responsible for the ICT services they outsource, and APRA's CPS 234 asks regulated entities to assess the information security capability of third parties. An ISO/IEC 27001 certificate, a SOC 2 report or PCI DSS validation, as the client requires, answers most of those questions.
Keep exploring
More industries
Watch a video on ISO standards for financial services and fintech here.
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