Operator-led security
for financial services that pick on merit
MENA banking experience (SAMA, CBUAE, QCB), fintech and insurtech advisory and readiness work, and framework-aligned VAPT and red team across global financial-services regulators. The technical work is the same operator-led VAPT and red team an AxVeil engagement always delivers, with every finding mapped to whichever framework governs the buyer.
Direct contracting, framework-mapped reporting
AxVeil contracts directly with banks, fintechs, insurers and Web3 buyers and signs the technical report. Every finding is mapped to whichever framework governs the engagement — SAMA, CBUAE, QCB, RBI, SEBI, IRDAI, NPCI, SOC 2 or the buyer’s own security questionnaire — so a single testing programme satisfies multiple submissions.
For RBI cyber security framework, SEBI CSCRF, IRDAI annual cyber audit and NPCI scheme work, AxVeil delivers the operator-led technical depth — application VAPT, API testing, internal AD, cloud control-plane review and adversary simulation — with every finding referenced to the governing clause so the buyer’s regulator submission is clean.
For MENA banking, GCC tech, foreign-headquartered firms, fintech / insurtech advisory and readiness work, crypto / Web3 buyers, and any private engagement, AxVeil contracts directly. Buyers who choose vendor on technical merit get full operator-led delivery, jurisdiction-appropriate MSAs, and INR / USD / AED / EUR invoicing.
MENA banking — the strongest part of the practice
AxVeil’s senior operators (OSCP, CEH v12) have led offensive security engagements across Gulf banking customers for several years — including 1000+ server enterprise estates and 100+ application portfolios for tier-one MENA banks. The GCC supervisory stack sets technical depth and audit cadence directly: the SAMA Cyber Security Framework (Saudi Arabia), CBUAE information-assurance regulations (UAE), QCB cyber-risk circulars (Qatar), CMA cybersecurity regulation (Oman) and the Bahrain Open Banking Framework, with regional auditor-acceptance criteria that recognise operator credentials and methodology.
For MENA banks, GCC fintechs and Gulf insurance carriers AxVeil contracts directly. SWIFT CSP attestation support, payment-rail VAPT, mobile and internet-banking testing, internal AD and segmentation review, adversary simulation against the threat actors that target Gulf financial services (FIN7, FIN11, MuddyWater, OilRig, APT34) and the regional ransomware crews. Engagements run remote-first across IST / GST hours; onsite kick-offs are arranged for sensitive internal-AD or treasury scopes.
Where AxVeil fits in BFSI
MENA banks & GCC fintech
Tier-one and tier-two GCC banks, payment processors, neobanks and Islamic finance entities operating under SAMA / CBUAE / QCB / CMA / CBB. SWIFT CSP attestation, payment-rail VAPT, internal AD red team, adversary simulation. AxVeil signs the contract; AxVeil signs the report.
Fintech & insurtech advisory & readiness
Series-A / B / C fintech, insurtech, lending-tech and wealth-tech buyers preparing for RBI / SEBI / IRDAI and equivalent regulator thresholds, responding to enterprise-buyer security questionnaires (vendor onboarding, partner-program audits) and chasing investor diligence. Pre-regulator readiness, ongoing offensive security, evidence pack design.
Foreign banks with offshore engineering
Banks running engineering, data or operations from offshore delivery centres under parent-jurisdiction policy. Engagement bar is set by the parent regulator (FCA, OCC, MAS, FINMA, ECB) plus the local data-protection law over resident data. AxVeil contracts directly.
Regulator-mandated financial audits
RBI cyber security framework, SEBI CSCRF, IRDAI annual cyber audit and NPCI scheme work. AxVeil delivers the operator-led technical depth with every finding referenced to the governing framework clause so the buyer’s regulator submission is clean.
Crypto / Web3 buyers
VDA exchanges, Web3 product teams and DeFi infrastructure. Smart-contract review, key-management red team, internal infrastructure VAPT, mapped to the applicable AML and data-protection obligations. AxVeil contracts directly.
Public-sector & payment-scheme participants
Public-sector financial buyers and payment-scheme participants with government-procurement-track paperwork. AxVeil delivers the technical engagement and supports the buyer’s compliance submission; we are upfront on scope before the RFP closes.
Threats that actually hit financial services
Generic test plans miss the attacks that empty BFSI accounts. AxVeil scopes against the threat archetypes that have caused real financial loss across Gulf and Indian institutions in the public record — then maps each finding to the regulator clause it threatens.
Business email compromise & vendor-payment fraud
Treasury and AP teams are the highest-value social-engineering target in any bank. We test the controls around payment-instruction changes, dual-authorisation enforcement, out-of-band verification on vendor bank-detail edits, and the email-authentication posture (SPF / DKIM / DMARC enforcement, look-alike-domain monitoring) that BEC crews exploit.
Payment-rail & instant-transfer fraud
Card-issuance, UPI / IMPS / NEFT, SWIFT and wallet rails carry direct monetisable risk. We test 3-D Secure step-up logic, transaction-limit and velocity controls, beneficiary-add re-authentication, OTP-replay and SIM-swap-assisted takeover, and the SWIFT CSP control set on the messaging interface.
API & open-banking abuse
Mobile, partner and aggregator APIs are the dominant modern attack surface. OWASP API Top 10 (2023) across REST and GraphQL — BOLA / BFLA across tenant and customer boundaries, mass-assignment on account objects, unrestricted resource consumption against balance / statement endpoints, and broken function-level authorisation on admin and reconciliation APIs.
Ransomware & destructive intrusion
Ransomware against core banking, treasury or trading is the board's top-of-mind scenario. We exercise the initial-access-to-impact chain — phishing / vendor pivot, AD attack paths (Kerberoasting, ADCS, NTLM relay), segmentation breaks between corporate and CBS / treasury zones, backup-tampering resistance, and the detection / response coverage that decides whether an intrusion becomes an outage.
Insider & privileged-access abuse
Core-banking operators, DBAs and DevOps hold the keys. We test privileged-access workflow enforcement, just-in-time and break-glass controls, session recording integrity, segregation-of-duties on payment-release paths, and the cloud control-plane IAM privilege graph that lets a single role escalate to data exfiltration.
Mobile & third-party SDK risk
Banking and insurer apps ship dozens of third-party SDKs. We test client-side secret storage, certificate pinning and bypass, root / jailbreak detection robustness, deep-link and intent abuse, and the data leakage and tracking introduced by analytics / attribution / payment SDKs in the app bundle.
Regulator references
AxVeil maps technical findings directly to the regulator's framework — MENA, India or the buyer's home jurisdiction — so the report drops straight into the compliance submission.
SAMA Cyber Security Framework (Saudi Arabia)
www.sama.gov.sa ↗Saudi Central Bank cyber-security framework v1.0 covering cyber governance, risk management, defence-in-depth controls, third-party risk, incident response and business continuity for member organisations (banks, insurance, payment-system operators). Annual independent assessment expected against the framework's 4-domain control catalogue.
CBUAE Information Assurance Regulation (UAE)
www.centralbank.ae ↗Central Bank of UAE information-assurance and cyber-resilience regulations for licensed financial institutions. Covers governance, technical controls, third-party risk and incident reporting timelines. Aligned to NESA / SIA national-level guidance.
Reserve Bank of India
www.rbi.org.in ↗2016 Cyber Security Framework master direction for SCBs, the 2023 IT Governance master direction across all RBI-regulated entities including NBFCs and PSOs, and the 2024 cyber-resilience and digital-payment-security controls direction. AxVeil maps every finding to the relevant clause for the buyer's regulator submission.
SEBI CSCRF
www.sebi.gov.in ↗2024 Cybersecurity and Cyber Resilience Framework with graded tiers (MII, Qualified RE, Mid-size RE, Small-size RE). AxVeil delivers gap assessment, evidence-pack design, retest closure on prior findings and framework-mapped VAPT for the submission.
IRDAI Information and Cyber Security Guidelines
www.irdai.gov.in ↗2017 baseline (with amendments) prescribing CISO appointment, board-approved cyber policy, annual VAPT, cyber crisis management plan and incident reporting for insurers and intermediaries. AxVeil delivers the annual VAPT and readiness work mapped to the guideline.
DPDP Act 2023
www.meity.gov.in ↗Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023 obligations for Data Fiduciaries — consent architecture, purpose limitation, retention, breach notification to the Data Protection Board, and (if classified) Significant Data Fiduciary obligations including DPIA and DPO appointment. AxVeil delivers the security-control review behind the compliance posture.
AxVeil BFSI engagement model
A typical MENA banking engagement runs 8-12 weeks; a fintech advisory engagement runs 4-6 weeks; a full regulator-audit VAPT runs 10-14 weeks.
Sample artefacts handed back
Related work
Frequently asked questions
What financial-services security work does AxVeil deliver?+
Operator-led VAPT, red team and adversary simulation for banks, payment processors, fintechs, insurers and Web3 firms. Application and API testing, internal Active Directory and network testing, cloud control-plane review, SWIFT CSP attestation support and payment-rail VAPT — with every finding mapped to whichever regulator or buyer framework governs the engagement. AxVeil contracts directly and signs the technical report.
What MENA banking experience does AxVeil bring?+
AxVeil's senior operators (OSCP, CEH v12) have led offensive security engagements across Gulf banking customers including 1000+ server enterprise estates and 100+ application portfolios for tier-one MENA banks — work governed by the SAMA Cyber Security Framework (Saudi Central Bank), CBUAE information assurance regulations, QCB cyber-risk circulars and the broader GCC supervisory stack. MENA banking is the strongest part of the BFSI offering today: SWIFT CSP attestation support, payment-rail VAPT, internal AD red teaming and adversary simulation against the threat actors that target Gulf financial services.
How does AxVeil help a fintech that isn't ready for a formal regulator audit yet?+
Pre-regulator readiness, buyer-facing security questionnaire response, and ongoing offensive security on the production stack. A typical Series-A / Series-B fintech does not yet trigger a formal regulator VAPT obligation in its own right but does trigger enterprise-buyer security reviews and investor diligence. Those reviews care about the technical work and the operator profile. AxVeil contracts directly for that work and prepares the artefact set so the readiness gap closes ahead of the regulator milestone.
Can a single engagement satisfy MENA banking, a fintech buyer review and a SOC 2 driver at once?+
Yes for the technical work — most controls overlap (governance, vulnerability management, identity, encryption, logging, incident response, third-party risk). We map every test case to the source control across all applicable regimes — SAMA / CBUAE / QCB section reference for the MENA arm, RBI / DPDP references for the fintech arm, AICPA Trust Services Criteria for the SOC 2 arm — so a single evidence pack drops cleanly into multiple submissions. The testing programme runs once.
Scope a BFSI engagement
Send the entity type (bank, fintech, insurer, foreign bank with offshore ops, Web3 firm), the regulator(s) you report to, and the next milestone. We respond with a fixed-fee proposal, a clear scope-to-framework mapping, and a redacted MENA banking sample report under NDA.
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