Best Penetration Testing Companies for Fintech in 2026
Quick answer. PCI DSS requires a yearly pentest and retested fixes; fintechs also need mobile and API depth.
For PCI DSS, Coalfire; for PTaaS, Cobalt, NetSPI with Synack, or Software Secured; for depth, Bishop Fox, NCC Group or Trail of Bits; for crypto rails, Guardian.
Video transcript
A fintech pentest has more than one reader. Card brands, sponsor banks, auditors and supervisors each want their own evidence.
PCI DSS, the FTC Safeguards Rule and NYDFS call for yearly pentests, with exemptions and alternatives. Sponsor banks may review results, and DORA reaches EU payment firms.
PCI DSS is the most specific. Test from inside and outside, fix exploitable findings, retest them, and test segmentation controls yearly.
Scope should follow the money and the data. That means mobile apps, partner APIs, onboarding and KYC, ledgers, third-party scripts, and cloud.
Guardian publishes this guide and lists itself first. It fits fintechs that touch the chain. Bishop Fox suits large fintechs with mobile apps, NCC Group brings scale, and Trail of Bits reviews code.
NetSPI and Synack, which say they are now one, suit year-round programs. Cobalt offers free retests, Software Secured suits SOC 2 prep, and Coalfire pairs PCI assessment with testing.
Pentesting as a service starts fast and suits frequent releases. A consultancy suits the yearly test a sponsor bank or QSA reads. You can run both.
No agency template says what a sponsor bank wants. But due diligence can weigh how you fix what testing finds, so send retest results with your findings.
Read the full guide for every rule and firm, or talk to Guardian about a pentest your bank partners can read.
Disclosure: Guardian publishes this guide, and we list ourselves first. Every claim about other firms is limited to what they or reputable reporting state publicly, with sources at the end.
A fintech pentest has more than one reader. Card brands, sponsor banks, SOC 2 auditors and supervisors each want the evidence in their own form.
This guide compares penetration testing companies for payments, neobanks, lenders, wealth and trading apps, embedded finance and BaaS.
A crypto or web3 company? Read the best web3 pentesting firms instead. Banks should read our guide to pentest companies for financial institutions.
Where this article discusses regulation, it covers the technical and security side only. It is not legal advice; confirm how the rules apply to you with counsel.
What a Fintech Pentest Must Show
Start with the rules and partners that ask for a test.
| Rule | Who it reaches | What it asks | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCI DSS 11.4 | Entities in scope for PCI DSS | Internal and external pentests yearly and after significant change | Standard, v4.0.1 (June 2024) |
| FTC Safeguards Rule | Non-bank financial institutions under the FTC | Annual pentest, unless continuous monitoring is effective | Final rule, amended 2021 and 2023 |
| NYDFS 500.5 | NY Banking Law licensees, including money transmitters | Pentests from inside and outside, at least annually | Regulation; small-firm exemption |
| Interagency guidance | Banks under the Fed, FDIC and OCC | Due diligence may assess “results of vulnerability and penetration tests” | Final June 2023; replacement proposed September 2026 |
| SOC 2 | Firms that choose one | None required; a CC4.1 point of focus names pentesting | AICPA criteria |
| DORA Arts. 24 to 26 | EU payment and e-money institutions | Yearly tests of critical systems, except microenterprises; TLPT if identified | Applies since January 17, 2025 |
| PSD2 RTS, Art. 3 | EU payment service providers | Security measures for SCA and secure communication, periodically tested and audited | Applies since September 14, 2019 |
| FCA operational resilience | UK payment and e-money firms | Mapping and scenario testing; pentesting not named | In force 2022; tolerances by March 31, 2025 |
PCI DSS in detail
PCI DSS is the most specific. Requirement 11.4 asks for:
- The whole cardholder data environment perimeter and critical systems, tested from inside and outside, at application and network layers (11.4.1).
- Exploitable findings fixed, then retested (11.4.4).
- Segmentation controls tested yearly and after changes, where they shrink scope (11.4.5).
Since March 31, 2025, 11.4.7 has also required multi-tenant service providers to support customers’ external pentests.
The other rules
- Safeguards Rule: firms holding data on fewer than 5,000 consumers are exempt from its testing paragraph.
- Sponsor banks: the agencies apply the guidance to fintech relationships. It sets no testing cadence, so check your bank agreement.
- Pending change: a September 2026 proposal would replace this guidance, and its draft does not name pentests. Comments are due November 16, 2026.
- SOC 2: points of focus need not each be addressed, the AICPA says. See does SOC 2 require penetration testing.
Our pentest requirements by regulation matrix adds MAS TRM, ISO 27001 and more.
What the Test Should Cover
A fintech scope follows the money and the data. Check that the proposal names each surface:
- Mobile apps: OWASP MASVS 2.1.0 controls, from on-device storage and authentication to resilience and privacy.
- Open banking, payment and partner APIs: broken object level authorization tops OWASP’s API Top 10 (2023); unrestricted access to sensitive business flows ranks sixth.
- Onboarding, KYC and fraud: server-side verification status, document access by ID, forged vendor callbacks, fraud rules a direct API call skips.
- Card issuing and ledgers: parallel requests on one balance, events applied twice, limits enforced only in the app.
- Third-party scripts and SDKs: PCI DSS 6.4.3 and 11.6.1 cover payment page scripts: authorized, integrity-checked and monitored for tampering.
- Cloud and pipelines: what one stolen credential or pipeline can reach in production.
Our web application pentesting guide lists test cases for each flow.
How We Chose the Firms
We read each firm’s pages and public reports on November 10, 2026, and compared five things:
- Fintech evidence: financial or payments work the firm publishes.
- Mobile and API: named testing, and the standard used.
- Model: consultancy, PTaaS or a vetted crowd.
- Compliance: PCI DSS or SOC 2 named for reports.
- Retest: whether fixes are retested.
“Not stated” means the pages we read did not say, so ask. There is no score; after Guardian, firms are grouped by model.
Fintech Pentest Firms Compared
| Firm | Model | Fintech work published | Mobile and API | PCI, SOC 2 and retest |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Guardian | Crypto-native consultancy | Fintech service page; offchain backend reports | API pentest; no standalone mobile pentest | Mapped to rules in scope, PCI not named; retest included |
| Bishop Fox | Consultancy plus Cosmos platform | Banking and trading platforms | iOS, Android and APIs | PCI DSS, FFIEC, GLBA; retest not stated |
| NCC Group | Global consultancy | Banking and payments sector | Web, mobile and APIs | PCI DSS named; retest not stated |
| Trail of Bits | Code-first consultancy | Public stablecoin and wallet reports | Back end, APIs and SDKs | None named; patches retested |
| NetSPI and Synack | PTaaS plus vetted crowd | Jack Henry case (Synack) | Web, API and mobile | PCI, SOC 2 testing; remediation testing listed |
| Cobalt | PTaaS, sold in credits | Santa Cruz County Bank | Web, API, iOS and Android | PCI DSS, SOC 2 reports; free retests |
| Software Secured | PTaaS or fixed packages | Finance industry page | Web, mobile and API | SOC 2, PCI DSS mapping; retests included |
| Coalfire | PCI assessor with pentesting | Payment providers and merchants | Not stated | PCI QSA company; SOC 2; retest not stated |
Penetration Testing Companies, Firm by Firm
Guardian
- Best for: fintechs whose platforms also touch the chain, such as wallets, tokenized assets or settlement contracts
- Tests: web apps, APIs, cloud, SDKs and browser extensions, by researchers who also audit smart contracts
Its fintech pentests attack login, authorization and withdrawal flows function by function. A trust center gives bank partners one page: what was reviewed, and what is open.
A ledger bug from its public reports: a redelivered deposit event could be applied again, inflating a user’s collateral (Medium, Synthetix Withdrawal Flow).
Bishop Fox
- Best for: large fintechs with a broad external surface and mobile apps
- Mobile: iOS and Android, with or without source code, mapped to OWASP MASVS
- Platform: Cosmos adds continuous testing of the attack surface
NCC Group
- Best for: fintechs that want a large firm with UK accreditations
- Shown: over 2,000 colleagues; CREST and NCSC CHECK on its pentest page
Trail of Bits
- Best for: code-level review of payment, wallet or SDK code
- Method: manual review with CodeQL, Semgrep and fuzzing
- Public work: Paxos PayPal PYUSD (December 2022) and Gemini Smart Wallet (August 2025)
NetSPI and Synack
- Best for: fintechs running a year-round testing program
- Combined: “NetSPI & Synack Are Now One,” both sites say; 350+ NetSPI experts and 1,500+ Synack researchers
- Case: Jack Henry, which serves banks and credit unions, ran a planned year of tests in three months
Cobalt
- Best for: fast-launch PTaaS with audit-ready reports
- Model: 500+ vetted testers, eight-hour credits, launch within 24 hours and a seven-day retest SLA
Software Secured
- Best for: early-stage fintechs preparing for a SOC 2
- Shown: published starting prices, Vanta and Drata integrations, and 350+ clients
Coalfire
- Best for: PCI DSS-led programs that want assessment and testing from one firm
- Scale: says it is “one of the largest PCI QSAC” organizations, with 1,000+ PCI DSS assessments a year
Its PCI page ties its pentests to Requirement 11.4 but does not describe the method. Ask for a sample report.
PTaaS or Consultancy
PTaaS sells testing in units on a platform: fast starts, live findings, retests on request. It suits frequent releases.
A consultancy scopes one engagement with a fixed team, often with source code. It suits the yearly test a sponsor bank or QSA reads.
You can run both. For more platforms, see our Cobalt.io alternatives.
Frequently Asked Questions
How often should a fintech run a penetration test?
At least yearly under PCI DSS and NYDFS; some checks run faster. PCI service providers that use segmentation test those controls every six months. Safeguards Rule firms without effective continuous monitoring assess vulnerabilities every six months and after material changes.
Does our pentester need to be a QSA?
No. PCI DSS accepts a qualified internal or external tester with organizational independence, who need not be a QSA or ASV. PSD2's RTS requires auditors with IT security and payments expertise, operationally independent within or from the provider.
What will a sponsor bank want from our pentest?
The banking agencies give no template. Their guidance says due diligence can evaluate how a third party corrects deficiencies discovered during testing. So send retest results with the findings, and ask for the bank's questionnaire before you scope.
Sources
- PCI Security Standards Council: Now Is the Time for Organizations to Adopt the Future-Dated Requirements of PCI DSS v4.x (August 20, 2024)
- PCI Security Standards Council: New Information Supplement, Payment Page Security and Preventing E-Skimming (March 10, 2025)
- Cloudaware: PCI DSS v4.0.1 requirement 11.4.1, penetration testing methodology, as reproduced (accessed November 10, 2026)
- Cloudaware: PCI DSS v4.0.1 requirement 11.4.2, internal penetration testing, as reproduced (accessed November 10, 2026)
- Cloudaware: PCI DSS v4.0.1 requirement 11.4.4, correcting and retesting, as reproduced (accessed November 10, 2026)
- Cloudaware: PCI DSS v4.0.1 requirement 11.4.5, segmentation testing, as reproduced (accessed November 10, 2026)
- Cloudaware: PCI DSS v4.0.1 requirement 11.4.6, service provider segmentation testing, as reproduced (accessed November 10, 2026)
- Cloudaware: PCI DSS v4.0.1 requirement 11.4.7, multi-tenant service providers, as reproduced (accessed November 10, 2026)
- Schellman: What Service Providers Should Know About PCI DSS v4.0 (April 6, 2022, updated September 1, 2026)
- Cornell LII: 16 CFR 314.4, Elements of an information security program (accessed November 10, 2026)
- Cornell LII: 16 CFR 314.6, Exceptions (accessed November 10, 2026)
- Cornell LII: 16 CFR 314.1, Purpose and scope (accessed November 10, 2026)
- FTC: FTC Safeguards Rule, What Your Business Needs to Know (December 2024)
- New York DFS: 23 NYCRR Part 500 as amended by the Second Amendment, DFS unofficial text (November 2023)
- New York DFS: Money Transmitters (accessed November 10, 2026)
- Federal Register (GovInfo): Interagency Guidance on Third-Party Relationships: Risk Management, 88 FR 37920 (June 9, 2023)
- Federal Register (OCC): Proposed Third-Party Risk Management Guidance, 91 FR 58536 (September 15, 2026)
- AICPA: TSP Section 100, 2017 Trust Services Criteria (March 2020 edition, copy hosted by Arpio)
- Official Journal of the EU: Regulation (EU) 2022/2554 on digital operational resilience for the financial sector (DORA) (December 14, 2022)
- Official Journal of the EU: Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2018/389, RTS on strong customer authentication and secure communication (November 27, 2017)
- FCA: PS21/3, Building operational resilience (March 29, 2021)
- FCA: Operational resilience (updated September 15, 2026)
- OWASP: MASVS releases, v2.1.0 (January 18, 2024)
- OWASP: API Security Top 10 (2023)
- Bishop Fox: Financial Services and Mobile Application Assessment (accessed November 10, 2026)
- NCC Group: Homepage, Penetration Testing Services and Financial Services Sector (accessed November 10, 2026)
- Trail of Bits: Application Security (accessed November 10, 2026)
- Trail of Bits: Publications repository (accessed November 10, 2026)
- NetSPI: Homepage and PTaaS (accessed November 10, 2026)
- Synack: Homepage and Pentesting for Financial Services (accessed November 10, 2026)
- Cobalt: Homepage, Financial Services and Pricing (accessed November 10, 2026)
- Software Secured: Homepage and Pricing (accessed November 10, 2026)
- Coalfire: Assessment Services and PCI DSS (accessed November 10, 2026)
- Guardian: Fintechs
- Guardian: Penetration Testing
- Guardian: Institutional
- Guardian: Synthetix Withdrawal Flow (December 15, 2025)
A pentest your bank partners can read
Guardian attacks login, transfer and withdrawal flows function by function, then reviews and retests the fixes, in one report for your board and partners.