SOC 2 for fintech. Audit-ready in 45 days.
A done-for-you SOC 2 Type I package built for payments, lending, BaaS, neobanks, treasury platforms, and money-movement infrastructure. Scoped for ACH and wire rails, KYC and AML data flows, dual-control change management, and the rigor that bank, NYDFS, OCC, and FDIC partners expect alongside the Trust Services Criteria.
Banks, sponsor banks, and enterprise treasury teams will not move money through a vendor without SOC 2.
Fintech sells a different kind of trust. Your customer is sending real funds through your platform: payroll, accounts payable, loan disbursements, brokerage transfers, customer refunds. The buyer is not just asking whether your software is reliable, they are asking whether their controllers, their auditors, and their regulators will accept your system in their financial reporting and operational risk frameworks. SOC 2 is the document that answers that question. For a fintech selling into mid-market and enterprise, SOC 2 Type II is typically the floor, with PCI DSS, a SOC 1 SSAE 18, or both stacked on top depending on whether you touch cards or sit in the customer's books.
For a fintech selling into a sponsor bank or money-transmitter relationship, the bar is higher. The bank's third-party risk team will ask for SOC 2 plus a written information security program, dual-control change management, key management documentation, BSA/AML data handling controls, and evidence that customer fund movement creates an audit trail no one inside or outside the company can quietly modify. ComplianceArmor builds the SOC 2 Type I package that opens the conversation, scoped for the rails and the data your fintech actually moves, with the bank-partner language a third-party risk team expects to see.
This page is for fintech founders, CTOs, heads of compliance, and risk officers facing one of three pressures: a bank-partner due diligence cycle that has stalled on the security review, an enterprise customer whose audit firm will not sign off on your system without a SOC 2, or a regulator (NYDFS, OCC, FDIC, state DFI) request that names SOC 2 as part of the response. The path through every one is the same: SOC 2 Type I in 45 days, with the controls scoped so the Type II window starts the day Type I is issued.
For fintech, Processing Integrity and Availability carry weight that pure SaaS rarely scopes.
Security is required. For fintech, Processing Integrity is the criterion most commonly added because the data has to be right end-to-end: input validation, monitoring, error handling, and reconciliation across the full processing lifecycle. Availability is added when the platform has an SLA on funds movement or settlement timing. Confidentiality matters because customer data includes account numbers, routing numbers, balances, and tax IDs. Privacy covers KYC and AML data, customer PII, and the sub-processor chain (processors, ledgers, identity verification, fraud detection).
Security
Governance, RBAC for production and money movement, change management with dual-control evidence, BSA/AML access controls, and incident response.
Availability
Uptime SLAs, capacity planning, ACH and wire cutoff handling, settlement-window reliability, backup and recovery, disaster-recovery testing.
Processing Integrity
Input validation, ledger reconciliation, idempotency, error handling, monitoring, and the audit trail across origination, settlement, return, and reversal.
Confidentiality
Account numbers, routing numbers, balances, tax IDs, and any non-public business or customer information your platform stores or transmits.
Privacy
KYC, AML, GLBA-relevant data, customer PII handling, and the sub-processor list (processors, ledgers, KYC vendors, identity verification, fraud detection).
The control narratives that make a fintech SOC 2 different from a SaaS SOC 2.
A fintech SOC 2 covers the same Common Criteria as any SaaS, then adds the controls that exist because money is moving through your system. Bank partners, enterprise treasury teams, and state and federal regulators look for specific evidence. ComplianceArmor writes a control narrative for each one.
- SOC 2 plus PCI DSS overlap. If cards are in scope, the controls overlap heavily. The SOC 2 narrative cross-walks to PCI DSS v4.0 requirements so one program covers both. We pre-build the mapping for tokenization, scope reduction, and the SAQ-D or ROC posture appropriate to your acquirer level. See the PCI DSS Software page for the parallel program.
- ACH and wire infrastructure. Origination, settlement, return, reversal, and the cutoff windows for each rail are documented, with NACHA compliance touchpoints called out. The narrative covers same-day ACH, standard ACH, wire originations, the controls that prevent unauthorized origination, and the monitoring that catches anomalies before settlement.
- KYC and AML data handling. CIP records, ID verification artifacts, sanctions-screening results, suspicious-activity-monitoring data, and BSA records are documented with retention windows, access controls, and the audit trail required to satisfy a regulator request without exposing the underlying customer PII broadly.
- Customer fund movement audit trail. Every origination, every authorization, every approval, every override, and every reversal is captured in an immutable log. The narrative documents the log generation, the storage (write-once or append-only), the access path for legal and regulator requests, and the retention required for the longest applicable customer dispute or regulatory examination cycle.
- Fraud detection PII. Models that score a transaction often retain the input features, the score, and the disposition. The narrative covers the retention, the access controls, the disclosure to the customer, and the deletion path when the data is no longer required for monitoring or model training.
- Regulator (NYDFS, OCC, FDIC) expectations. The narrative aligns SOC 2 controls to the cyber-security and operational-risk expectations the regulator most relevant to your charter or partnership has published. NYDFS Part 500 control families, OCC heightened-standards guidance, and FDIC information-security guidance get mapped explicitly so the bank partner can hand the same package to their examiner without rewriting it.
- Dual-controls documentation. Production changes, key rotations, money-movement approvals, and privileged access activations are documented as dual-control where required by your bank partner or charter. The narrative covers the policy, the technical enforcement (separation of duties in the change pipeline, two-person sign-off in the money-movement workflow), and the evidence sample the auditor will request.
- Key management for cryptographic operations. HSM or KMS posture, key generation, rotation, custody, and the dual-control over signing keys used for ACH, wire, or settlement messages. The narrative covers FIPS 140-2 or 140-3 posture if your bank or processor requires it, and the procedure for key compromise.
- Type II expectations from enterprise and banking customers. Sponsor banks and enterprise treasury counterparties typically require Type II within twelve months of go-live. The narrative is built so the Type II observation window starts the day Type I is issued, with the continuous monitoring plan and evidence cadence sized for a 6 or 12-month window.
- Change management rigor. Fintech changes often touch the ledger or money-movement code path. The narrative covers the test coverage required for a ledger or rails change, the staged rollout, the rollback plan, the post-change reconciliation, and the segregation between the engineer who writes a change and the engineer who deploys it.
Petronella Technology Group has reviewed dozens of fintech architectures and writes control narratives that match the way bank partners, regulators, and enterprise auditors ask the question. The package ships with the ten narratives above pre-drafted, then scoped to your specific stack during the readiness phase. Learn more about our PCI DSS readiness.
A SOC 2 Type I package with the fintech-specific narratives baked in.
Branded. Editable. Yours forever. No subscription. Every artifact is scoped to your fintech architecture and named the way a SOC 2 auditor, a sponsor bank's third-party risk team, and an enterprise treasury auditor expect to see it.
System Description (rails-aware)
Section 3 description that names the rails (ACH, wire, RTP, card), the processors, the ledger, and the trust boundary in regulator-ready language.
SOC 2 + PCI DSS Cross-Map
Every SOC 2 control mapped to PCI DSS v4.0 requirements so one program covers both attestation tracks where cards are in scope.
Information Security Policy Set
Access control, change management with dual-control, incident response, vendor management, BC/DR, plus a KYC/AML data-handling policy.
Money-Movement Control Narrative
Origination, authorization, approval, override, reversal, and the immutable audit trail for every funds-moving transaction.
Key Management Documentation
HSM/KMS posture, generation, rotation, custody, dual-control over signing keys, and the procedure for compromise.
Regulator Mapping Pack
SOC 2 controls cross-walked to NYDFS Part 500, OCC heightened standards, and FDIC information-security guidance.
Reconciliation Control Set
Daily, end-of-month, and rail-level reconciliation procedures, with the controls that detect and remediate breaks.
CPA Evidence Index
Per-control list of artifacts your auditor will request, with rails, ledger, and key-management evidence called out.
System Boundary Diagram
Architecture, data flows, and the trust boundary, with rails, ledger, and key-management drawn as named systems.
Vendor Risk Register
Processors, KYC vendors, ledgers, identity verification, fraud-detection partners, with their SOC reports and CUECs.
BC/DR Plan with RTO/RPO
The BC/DR plan, last test results, and the rail-specific recovery procedures for ACH, wire, and card processing.
Bank-Partner Summary
The one-page summary your bank-partner sponsorship team or enterprise treasury buyer can ship under NDA before the full report lands.
SOC 2 Type I from $14,997 in 45 days, scoped for fintech.
One fixed price covers the readiness program, the fintech-aware documentation package, evidence collection support, and walkthrough prep. The independent CPA audit is a separate engagement with your auditor of choice.
- System description with rails, ledger, and trust boundary called out
- SOC 2 to PCI DSS v4.0 cross-map where cards are in scope
- Money-movement, key-management, and reconciliation control narratives
- NYDFS, OCC, FDIC regulator mapping pack included
- Audit-Ready Promise: 50% fee refund if a clean Type I cannot be issued because of our work
If we missed something, we fix it free.
Every SOC 2 engagement carries the Petronella Technology Group Audit-Ready Promise. If your CPA flags a gap that should have been in the package, we close it at no charge within 30 days. If a clean SOC 2 Type I cannot be issued because of our work, we refund 50% of our fee. The package is yours forever, in editable native formats, with no subscription and no DRM.
SOC 2 questions fintech buyers ask before they sign.
Do fintech buyers want Type I or Type II?
Bank partners and enterprise treasury counterparties almost always want Type II within twelve months of go-live. Most will accept Type I to unblock the relationship, then expect Type II at the next anniversary. We scope your Type I so the same controls flow into a 6 or 12-month Type II observation window the day Type I is issued, with the continuous monitoring plan sized to the window. See the SOC 2 software hub for the full Type I to Type II pathway.
How does SOC 2 overlap with PCI DSS for a fintech that touches cards?
Heavily. Encryption, key management, access control, change management, vulnerability management, logging, and incident response are required by both. The package ships with a SOC 2 to PCI DSS v4.0 cross-map so one control set covers both attestation tracks. If you are a Level 4 merchant on SAQ-D or a service provider, the cross-map shows exactly which SOC 2 controls satisfy each PCI requirement. See the PCI DSS Software page for the parallel program, or the PCI DSS readiness service for the full implementation.
What does a sponsor bank ask beyond SOC 2?
A sponsor bank's third-party risk team will ask for SOC 2 plus several items SOC 2 does not require by default: a written information security program, dual-control change management evidence, key management documentation including HSM or KMS posture, BSA/AML access controls and retention, an immutable audit trail for funds movement, a BC/DR plan with last test report, and your regulator-mapping pack (typically NYDFS Part 500, OCC, or FDIC, depending on the charter).
The package includes all of the above as separate documents, scoped so the bank's diligence team can read each in isolation without rebuilding the question from your full SOC 2 report.
How do regulators (NYDFS, OCC, FDIC) factor into SOC 2 scope?
Regulators do not certify SOC 2, the licensed CPA does. But the regulator most relevant to your charter or your bank partner has published expectations that your control set has to satisfy alongside SOC 2: NYDFS Part 500 covers governance, access, encryption, third-party risk, and incident notification. OCC heightened standards cover the same ground for OCC-supervised institutions. FDIC information-security guidance applies to FDIC-insured banks and the fintechs that serve them. We map SOC 2 controls to whichever framework applies, so the bank partner can hand the same package to their examiner without rewriting it.
How do you document dual control over money movement?
The narrative covers the policy (which transactions require two-person approval and at what threshold), the technical enforcement (separation of duties in the money-movement workflow, two-factor approval), and the evidence the auditor will sample (approval logs, override logs, exception reports). Where dual control is required by your bank partner contract or by NACHA rules, the narrative cites the source so the auditor and the bank partner agree on the basis.
What does the SOC 2 audit fee actually cost for a fintech?
The independent CPA audit fee for a SOC 2 Type I in fintech runs $5,000 to $50,000, depending on the firm, your system complexity, and the number of TSC in scope. Fintech audits typically land in the middle to upper end because Processing Integrity, key management, and money-movement controls add scope. The fee is paid directly to your auditor, not to Petronella Technology Group. We can introduce firms whose pricing and timeline match your stage, or you can bring your own.
Do we need a SOC 1 in addition to SOC 2?
SOC 1 covers controls relevant to financial reporting at your customer. If your platform sits inside the customer's books (a payments processor that posts to their general ledger, a treasury platform that affects their cash position), the customer's audit firm may ask for a SOC 1. Many fintechs eventually run both. The SOC 2 package we deliver is structured so adding SOC 1 later does not require rebuilding the system description or the control narratives, only adding the financial-reporting risks and CUECs specific to SOC 1.
How is this different from Vanta or Drata for a fintech?
Vanta and Drata are evidence-collection platforms. Your team still writes the system description, the policies, and the fintech-specific narratives (rails, ledger, key management, dual control, regulator mapping). ComplianceArmor is done-for-you: Petronella Technology Group writes the documentation for you, scoped to your fintech architecture, with the fintech-specific narratives pre-drafted. If you already use Vanta or Drata for ongoing evidence, the package drops cleanly into them. See the vs Vanta and vs Drata comparisons.
More from the SOC 2 program.
Stop blocking on the bank-partner review. Ship the SOC 2.
Schedule a 30-minute SOC 2 demo. We walk through your fintech architecture, scope your TSC live, and show you the deliverables your CPA, your bank partner, and your enterprise customer will see on day one.