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Banking, financial services & insurance

Cybersecurity for BFSI — meeting RBI, BNM, SEBI, and IRDAI obligations without slowing down operations

Financial institutions face the most sophisticated threat actors and the most prescriptive regulators of any sector. A SOC monitoring alert volume uncalibrated to financial system behaviour misses real threats. A GRC programme that maps only to ISO 27001 fails the RBI IT Framework inspection. Caveo designs security programmes for banks, NBFCs, insurers, and capital market firms — with compliance mapped to the specific regulatory framework applicable to your licence type and geography.

RBI — BNM RMiT — SEBI — IRDAI SOC + VAPT + GRC + vCISO ISO 27001:2022 certified India & Malaysia
BFSI COMPLIANCE POSTURE — INDIA & MALAYSIA COMPLIANT INDIA REGULATORS RBI IT Framework Banks — NBFCs — Payment systems MAPPED SEBI Cybersecurity Framework Market intermediaries — Brokers MAPPED IRDAI Information & Cyber Security Life — General — Health insurers MAPPED + CERT-In (6-hour incident reporting) MALAYSIA REGULATORS BNM Risk Management in Technology Banks — Insurance — Development FIs MAPPED SC Cybersecurity Framework Capital markets — Brokers — Fund managers MAPPED PDPA 2010 (Malaysia) Personal data — All financial entities MAPPED + NACSA licensed SOC (Malaysia) SOC PERFORMANCE — BFSI ENVIRONMENT MEAN DETECT <15 min MEAN RESPOND <30 min CERT-IN REPORTING 6-hr SLA COVERAGE 24/7365 India: RBI — SEBI — IRDAI — CERT-In mapped Malaysia: BNM RMiT — PDPA — NACSA licensed
Detect time
<15 min
CERT-In SLA
6-hour
Frameworks
RBI — BNM
Coverage
24/7365
The challenge

BFSI security fails when the programme is generic and the regulator is specific

Financial regulators do not accept generic cybersecurity programmes. They inspect against their specific frameworks — and they find gaps when the programme was designed against ISO 27001 alone, without mapping to RBI IT Framework, BNM RMiT, or SEBI cybersecurity requirements.

Multi-regulator compliance across overlapping frameworks

A bank licensed in India and operating in Malaysia faces RBI IT Framework, CERT-In obligations, DPDP Act, BNM RMiT, PDPA, and ISO 27001 simultaneously. These frameworks overlap significantly but not perfectly — each has distinct technical controls, reporting obligations, and inspection criteria. A compliance programme that maps to one framework generically will have gaps in another. BFSI GRC requires explicit, framework-by-framework control mapping and evidence generation.

Sophisticated, financially motivated adversaries targeting transaction systems

Financial institutions are the primary target of financially motivated threat actors — from nation-state groups conducting economic espionage to organised criminal groups running business email compromise, payment fraud, and account takeover campaigns. Standard SOC monitoring tuned for generic enterprise threats will miss the specific TTPs used against financial systems. BFSI SOC requires financial-sector threat intelligence, detection rules calibrated to banking application behaviour, and analysts experienced with SWIFT, payment system, and core banking attack patterns.

Third-party and fintech integration expanding the attack surface

Open banking, payment gateway integrations, fintech partnerships, and cloud-hosted core banking are expanding the BFSI attack surface beyond the organisation's direct control. Third-party risk management is a specific regulatory requirement under RBI IT Framework and BNM RMiT — and a practical security obligation. A compromise of an integrated fintech partner can provide direct access to customer financial data and payment systems. Third-party security assessments are required, not optional.

What we deliver

Six security outcomes for BFSI organisations

Regulatory-mapped GRC programme

Controls explicitly mapped to RBI IT Framework, SEBI cybersecurity framework, IRDAI guidelines, BNM RMiT, and PDPA — not a single framework applied generically. Each regulatory obligation assigned an owner, mapped to a control, and supported by continuously generated evidence. Inspection-ready posture maintained as an operational output, not assembled before each audit.

BFSI-calibrated SOC monitoring

SOC monitoring with detection rules tuned to financial system behaviour — core banking, SWIFT messaging, payment gateways, trading platforms — and financial-sector threat intelligence. Alerts calibrated to financial system traffic patterns, not generic enterprise baselines. CERT-In incident reporting capability built into the SOC response workflow.

Regulatory-compliant VAPT programme

Annual and on-demand VAPT covering internet-facing applications, internal networks, mobile banking platforms, and payment system interfaces — with reports formatted to meet RBI and BNM regulatory submission requirements. Retesting and closure evidence included for regulator verification.

vCISO for regulatory engagement

A fractional CISO who attends regulatory inspections, reviews examination findings, manages remediation commitments, and acts as the security leadership interface for board-level reporting — providing the seniority and regulatory experience that smaller institutions cannot maintain in-house.

Third-party risk management

A structured third-party security assessment programme covering fintech partners, payment gateway providers, cloud service providers, and core banking vendors — with risk-tiered assessment depth, contractual security requirements, and ongoing monitoring of critical third-party relationships as required by RBI IT Framework and BNM RMiT.

Cyber resilience and business continuity

Business continuity and disaster recovery capability designed for the BFSI availability requirements mandated by regulators — covering core banking system recovery, payment system continuity, and communication protocols for regulator notification during a cyber incident. Tested against regulatory RTO and RPO requirements, not just internal targets.

Relevant services

Services deployed for BFSI organisations

Regulatory coverage

BFSI regulatory frameworks we map to

RBI IT Framework

Reserve Bank of India

IT Framework for NBFCs, Master Directions on IT for banks, Cyber Security Framework — the primary regulatory baseline for Indian banking and financial institutions.

BNM RMiT

Bank Negara Malaysia

Risk Management in Technology (RMiT) policy document — the primary technology and cybersecurity regulatory framework for Malaysian-licensed banks and insurers.

SEBI / IRDAI

Capital markets & insurance

SEBI Cybersecurity and Cyber Resilience Framework for market intermediaries; IRDAI Information and Cyber Security Guidelines for insurers. Both require annual VAPT and SOC coverage.

DPDP / PDPA

Data protection — India & Malaysia

Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023 (India) and Personal Data Protection Act 2010 (Malaysia) — both apply to customer financial data held by BFSI organisations in each jurisdiction.

Why Caveo

Regulatory depth across India and Malaysia — not generic BFSI claims

Framework-specific control mapping — not ISO 27001 applied uniformly

We design compliance programmes with explicit control-to-regulation mapping for RBI, BNM RMiT, SEBI, and IRDAI. When a regulator asks for evidence against a specific requirement, we produce evidence from the specific control, not a generic ISO 27001 clause mapped loosely across all frameworks.

SOC analysts trained on BFSI threat patterns and payment system behaviour

Detecting threats in a BFSI environment requires understanding what normal looks like — SWIFT message flows, core banking transaction patterns, payment gateway traffic. Our SOC team is trained on financial-sector environments and applies threat intelligence specific to the adversaries targeting banks and insurers, not generic enterprise threat feeds.

NACSA-licensed in Malaysia — for regulatory-grade VAPT and SOC

Malaysian financial regulators require VAPT to be conducted by licensed providers. Caveo's NACSA Penetration Testing Service Licence and Managed Security Operations Centre Monitoring Service Licence mean our VAPT reports and SOC services meet the regulatory sourcing requirements under BNM RMiT without requiring additional vendor qualification.

ISO 27001:2022 certified — the ISMS baseline regulators expect

Financial regulators in India and Malaysia expect service providers to operate under a certified ISMS. Our ISO 27001:2022 certification covers the operations delivering services to BFSI clients — providing the assurance that security controls in our own operations meet the standard we recommend to clients.

Common questions

BFSI cybersecurity — what CISOs and compliance heads ask

Does Caveo's VAPT meet RBI's requirement for annual penetration testing?

Yes. Our VAPT service covers the scope required by RBI IT Framework for banks and NBFCs — internet-facing applications, internal networks, mobile banking, and payment system interfaces. Our reports are structured to include the scope, methodology, findings, risk ratings, and remediation guidance required for regulatory submission. We also provide retest reports confirming closure of findings, which regulators frequently request as follow-up evidence.

How does Caveo help us meet the CERT-In 6-hour incident reporting requirement?

Our SOC service includes a CERT-In reporting workflow as a standard component for Indian financial institution clients. When a SOC analyst confirms an incident that meets CERT-In notification criteria, the workflow initiates: an incident ticket is raised with regulatory reporting flags, a draft notification is prepared using CERT-In's required format, and the client's designated contact is alerted to review and submit within the 6-hour window. We maintain notification templates for all CERT-In reportable incident categories relevant to BFSI operations.

We are a smaller NBFC — do we need the full enterprise security programme?

No. RBI's IT Framework for NBFCs is scaled to the risk profile and size of the institution — a smaller NBFC has different requirements than a systemically important NBFC or a bank. Caveo designs programmes proportionate to the regulatory tier, risk profile, and budget of the institution. For smaller NBFCs, a managed security programme combining quarterly VAPT, SOC monitoring for critical systems, and a GRC baseline mapped to the applicable RBI directions is often sufficient to meet examination requirements and genuine security needs simultaneously.

Can Caveo support us through a BNM RMiT technology risk examination?

Yes. We support clients through BNM RMiT examination preparation — reviewing the examination scope with the client, assessing current posture against BNM requirements, identifying and remediating gaps before examination, preparing evidence packs for each examination domain, and providing a vCISO to attend examination sessions and respond to examiner queries. Our NACSA licensing means our SOC and VAPT services are already compliant with BNM's vendor licensing requirements — reducing examination risk on those components.

How does Caveo handle third-party risk management for our fintech integrations?

We design a risk-tiered third-party assessment programme covering your fintech partners and critical vendors. High-risk third parties — those with direct access to customer data or payment systems — receive a full security assessment including questionnaire, evidence review, and where contractually possible, a technical assessment of their security controls. Medium-risk third parties receive questionnaire-based assessment with evidence sampling. All assessments produce a risk rating and remediation commitments tracked to closure. The programme is documented to meet RBI and BNM third-party risk management requirements.

BFSI security specialist

Security and compliance built for regulated financial institutions

Talk to our BFSI security team. We will map your regulatory obligations, identify gaps, and propose a programme proportionate to your institution's risk profile and licence type.