Third-party risk in both directions
Payment processors, core-banking and card-processing providers, BaaS platforms and fintechs sit in the middle of the chain. You oversee the clouds, networks and processors you depend on, and your bank and enterprise clients oversee you. VendRisk360 runs your program and produces the evidence your partners ask for.
You are someone’s critical vendor
For a processor or core provider, a weak vendor program is not only a risk. It is a finding in your clients’ examinations, and a delay in every sales cycle.
Sponsor-bank scrutiny
Regulators have sharpened their focus on bank-fintech arrangements. Your sponsor bank has to show its examiners that it understands and oversees your vendors too.
PCI DSS both ways
You manage your own third-party service providers under 12.8, and as a service provider under 12.9 you must support your customers’ requests about your compliance.
Your clients rely on your SOC 1
Banks and credit unions read your SOC reports, carve-outs and CUECs. The subservice organizations behind your report need oversight you can describe.
Concentration on a few providers
Clouds, card networks, fraud and KYC providers and data centers are shared across the industry. One outage can reach every client at once.
Many regulators, indirectly
Even when you are not directly supervised, your clients’ regulators (OCC, FDIC, NCUA, EU authorities under DORA) shape what you must evidence.
Due diligence on repeat
Every bank partner and enterprise client runs its own due diligence on you, on its own timeline. Answering from organized evidence saves weeks each time.
Manage your vendors. Pass your partners’ due diligence.
The same records do both jobs: the program you run over your own third parties is the evidence your bank partners and clients ask for.
Oversee the providers you depend on
- One directory of clouds, processors, networks, KYC and fraud providers and software vendors
- Criticality tiering, with evidence depth, reassessment cadence and sign-off set by your policy and enforced by the platform
- Artifact-based assessments across 30+ control domains, with expert SOC Report Review available
- Outside-in monitoring of attack surface, shadow infrastructure, breaches, adverse news, sanctions and enforcement actions
- Fourth-party mapping and concentration analysis
Show them a program they can rely on
- Examiner package export: inventory, tiering, assessments, findings, sign-offs and monitoring history
- Evidence of how you oversee subcontractors that support your clients’ critical activities
- Concentration risk and incident briefing decks for partner governance meetings
- A full audit trail showing who reviewed and approved each decision
- Consistent answers across every bank partner, from the same records
Assurance reports, read properly
Processors and core providers live on SOC reports: the ones you receive from your own providers and the ones your clients receive from you. Each report is reviewed for what matters, by your analyst or by VendRisk360 assessors through SOC Report Review, and the complementary user entity controls stay in view.
- Report type, opinion and audit period checked; exceptions recorded as findings
- Carve-outs and subservice organizations flagged and added to your fourth-party map
- CUECs mapped to your own controls, with owners and gaps tracked
- Bridge letters and report currency checked, and a named reviewer signs off
Third-party service provider management, requirement by requirement
TPSP inventory
A list of all TPSPs with which account data is shared or that could affect its security, with the services provided.
Written agreements
Agreement evidence held on the vendor record, including the TPSP’s acknowledgement of responsibility for the data it handles.
Due diligence before engagement
Tiered assessment completed and signed off before the relationship goes live.
Annual compliance monitoring
AOC and report dates tracked, with a reassessment cadence you can set to meet the 12-month requirement.
Responsibility matrix
Each TPSP’s responsibility matrix held as evidence on the vendor record, with the requirements it covers mapped to your controls.
When you are the TPSP
Your own vendor oversight, organized so you can answer your customers’ requests about your compliance.
PCI DSS compliance is assessed by your QSA or through your self-assessment. VendRisk360 organizes the evidence; it does not certify compliance.
See how much of the industry runs on the same providers
Your vendors, and your clients’ other vendors, often depend on the same clouds, networks and data centers. Nth-party intelligence shows where your services concentrate and what an outage would reach.
- Relationship mapping across vendors, fourth parties and subservice organizations
- Concentration by provider, service and region
- Blast-radius analysis for incidents, outages and breaches
- Concentration risk and incident briefing decks for your board and your partners
Mapped to the rules around payments
What each regime expects, and how the platform supports it. Whether a rule applies to you directly or reaches you through your clients depends on your licenses and contracts.
| Regime | What it expects of your third-party program | How VendRisk360 supports it |
|---|---|---|
| Card dataPCI DSS v4.0, Requirement 12.8 (and 12.9 for service providers) | ExpectsA TPSP inventory, written agreements, pre-engagement due diligence, annual monitoring of each TPSP’s compliance status and a responsibility matrix. Service providers must also support their customers’ requests (12.9). | Platform supportData-type scoping that identifies providers touching account data, agreement evidence, dated AOCs and reports, reassessment cadence and responsibility evidence mapped to your controls. |
| AssuranceAICPA SOC 1 and SOC 2 reports | ExpectsReview of vendor reports for scope, opinion, exceptions, subservice organizations and the complementary user entity controls you must operate. | Platform supportSOC report review on the platform or as an expert SOC Report Review, carve-out and subservice identification, and CUEC tracking mapped to your controls. |
| United StatesInteragency Guidance on Third-Party Relationships (2023) | ExpectsBanks oversee fintech partners across the lifecycle; for arrangements supporting critical activities, oversight extends to the partner’s own subcontractors. | Platform supportYour vendor program on one record per vendor, with the evidence and audit trail a sponsor bank asks to see. |
| United StatesFTC Safeguards Rule (GLBA); NYDFS 23 NYCRR 500.11 | ExpectsOversight of service providers that access customer information; third-party service provider security policies for NYDFS-licensed entities. | Platform supportData-type scoping at intake, security control domains, periodic reassessment and breach and attack-surface monitoring. |
| European UnionDORA, Regulation (EU) 2022/2554; EBA Guidelines on outsourcing arrangements | ExpectsFor payment and e-money institutions: ICT third-party risk strategy, register of information, contractual provisions, concentration assessment and exit strategies for critical or important functions. | Platform supportICT third-party inventory with functions and criticality, concentration analysis, contract evidence and exit records. |
| IndiaRBI framework for outsourcing of payment and settlement-related activities by payment system operators | ExpectsBoard-approved outsourcing policy, due diligence, confidentiality of customer data, monitoring and business continuity for outsourced payment activities. | Platform supportTiered due diligence, data-type scoping, monitoring between assessments and board reporting. |
| SingaporeMAS Guidelines on Outsourcing; MAS Technology Risk Management Guidelines | ExpectsDue diligence and ongoing monitoring of service providers, with more rigorous oversight of material arrangements, for MAS-regulated financial institutions. | Platform supportMateriality tiering, evidence-based assessments and confirmed-only monitoring alerts. |
VendRisk360 is aligned to and maps to the regulations and standards named on this page. It does not certify compliance, and it is not legal advice. Your organization remains responsible for its own regulatory obligations and for confirming how they apply to it.
- Third-party service providers (TPSPs)
- Sponsor bank
- BaaS partner oversight
- Bank-fintech arrangements
- Subservice organizations
- Complementary user entity controls (CUECs)
- ICT third-party service providers
- Critical or important functions
- Register of information
- Concentration risk
- Fourth parties
- Exit strategy
Run it yourself, have us assess, or add a review
Fast-growing fintechs often need a mature vendor program before they have the team for it. Run it yourself on the platform, or have VendRisk360 assess your vendors, with certified assessors including practitioners with PCI DSS implementation experience.
Run it on the platform
Your team manages its vendors, sends due diligence and evidence requests through the vendor portal, performs the review, records it and signs off. Every step is tracked with a full audit trail.
- Intake, tiering, assessments and sign-off under your own policy
- Monitoring signals and nth-party intelligence on the same record
- Board decks, dashboards and examiner package export
Have VendRisk360 assess your vendors
You onboard the vendor. Our certified assessors do the rest, and you see near real-time progress for every vendor on the platform and keep final approval.
- Evidence collection and vendor follow-up
- Assessment scaled to the vendor’s tier, with a second-expert quality review
- Findings and remediation follow-up, with Continuous Monitoring Services available between assessments
- Assessors holding CISSP, CISA, CISM, CRISC and ISO/IEC 27001 Lead Auditor and Lead Implementer, with PCI DSS implementation experience
Add report-specific reviews
Targeted expert reviews, each with a written review report for the vendor, available standalone or alongside the platform and services.
- SOC Report Review, with optional AI assistance
- Information Security Program Review
- Business Continuity Program Review
Frequently asked questions
We are a fintech with a sponsor bank. How does VendRisk360 help with our bank partner’s due diligence?
Your sponsor bank is accountable to its regulators for your third-party risk as well as its own, so it asks how you oversee your vendors. Running your program on VendRisk360 gives you the inventory, tiering rationale, assessments, findings, sign-offs and monitoring history in one place, and the examiner package export turns it into a file you can share with the bank.
How does the platform support PCI DSS v4.0 Requirement 12.8?
Requirement 12.8 asks you to maintain a list of third-party service providers (TPSPs) that can affect cardholder data, have written agreements, perform due diligence before engagement, monitor each TPSP’s PCI DSS compliance status at least once every 12 months and record which requirements each TPSP manages. VendRisk360 holds each of those on the vendor record, and continuous monitoring and reassessment keep them current. Your QSA remains the judge of compliance.
We issue our own SOC 1 report. Does VendRisk360 help with that side?
VendRisk360 manages the vendors you rely on, including the subservice organizations that appear in your own SOC reports. Knowing their assurance status, exceptions and CUECs helps you describe carve-outs accurately and respond to your clients’ questions. The platform does not prepare your SOC report.
Do DORA requirements apply to us?
DORA applies to EU financial entities, including payment institutions and electronic money institutions, and it shapes the contracts EU financial entities sign with their ICT third-party service providers. If you operate in the EU as a financial entity, VendRisk360 supports the register of information, concentration assessment and exit planning. If you are an ICT provider to EU financial entities, it helps you evidence oversight of your own subcontractors. Confirm scope with your counsel.
We do not have a TPRM team yet. Can VendRisk360 run the program for us?
Yes. With Comprehensive Vendor Risk Assessment Services, you onboard your vendors and VendRisk360’s certified assessors do the rest: evidence collection and vendor follow-up, completeness and validity checks, risk assessments with a second-expert quality review, findings and remediation follow-up and reassessments on your cadence. Progress for every vendor is visible in near real time on the platform, so you can show your sponsor bank the program is running. Final approval and risk acceptance remain yours.
How does it handle concentration on cloud providers and card networks?
Nth-party intelligence maps the clouds, data centers, processors and networks your vendors rely on, and shows which of your services concentrate on the same provider. When a provider has an outage or breach, blast-radius analysis shows the affected vendors and services.
See VendRisk360 on your processor and partner stack
A tailored walkthrough with a third-party risk specialist, built around your program, your regulators and your vendors.