Case studyBanking & Financial Services
Empowering the FinTech Sector with Cutting-Edge Solutions
FinTech teams have to ship quickly and stay secure and compliant. A look at the engineering practices that make both possible.
Industry
Banking & Financial Services
Core and payments modernization, fraud analytics and audit-ready delivery, with the talent to run it.
MBE certified (Minority Business Enterprise)
Overview
Technology in Banking & Financial Services
Banks, lenders, payment companies and FinTech teams run on systems that must be accurate, available and provable to an examiner. A slow release or a weak control costs money and trust.
Desmata combines product engineering, data and security work with IT staffing. One firm can design the change and supply the engineers and analysts who carry it through.
Our focus is core and payments modernization, fraud and risk analytics, and cloud migration with controls built in. FinTech product teams get the same discipline at a faster pace, and we work inside your change management, model risk and vendor review processes rather than around them.
Start with a conversation
Tell us what you are working on. A member of the Desmata team will reply by email or phone.
Call us on +1 (214) 407-8089Challenges
What technology leaders here are dealing with
Challenge 1: Aging cores that slow every release
Core banking platforms are costly to change and hard to staff. Most institutions cannot afford a big-bang replacement, so they wrap, extend and retire pieces of the core in stages while the bank keeps running.
Challenge 2: Payments standards and real-time rails
ISO 20022 brings richer message data, and FedNow and RTP bring instant settlement. Payment engines, reconciliation and reporting all need updates, and exceptions have to be resolved in minutes, not days.
Challenge 3: Fraud that moves faster than rules
Account takeover, scams and synthetic identities slip past static rules, and rules alone create false positives that frustrate customers. Teams need real-time data pipelines and models that compliance can explain.
Challenge 4: Evidence for examiners, auditors and card brands
PCI DSS v4.0.1, SOX, GLBA safeguards and FFIEC expectations all ask for proof that controls work, including at your vendors. Gathering that proof by hand drains engineering time.
Challenge 5: Scarce specialists and slow hiring
Mainframe, payments and Java talent is hard to find, and delays push programs past their regulatory or business dates. Banks need people who can start fast and pass a thorough screening.
How we help
Where Desmata fits in
Modernize core and payments applications
We design and build APIs, microservices and integration layers that extend a legacy core without replacing it in one move. Releases get faster and risk stays contained.
Build fraud, risk and regulatory data platforms
We put transaction, customer and case data on one governed platform, then build the scoring, monitoring and reporting on top. Your analysts get answers sooner and your reports trace back to source data.
Move to cloud with controls built in
Infrastructure as code, identity controls, logging and encryption are part of the design from day one. That shortens the path to audit evidence.
Assess and strengthen security posture
We review identity and access, endpoints, monitoring and incident response against the frameworks your examiners use, and give you a prioritized fix list.
Staff banking and payments roles
We recruit Java and .NET engineers, data engineers, payments analysts and QA specialists on contract, contract-to-hire or direct hire.
Run a program with a managed team
When you need an outcome instead of individual hires, a managed team takes on a defined scope with named leads and agreed delivery measures.
Use cases
What we deliver in this sector
ISO 20022 message migration
Update payment initiation, routing and reconciliation to handle structured ISO 20022 messages, with test automation covering the exception paths.
Real-time fraud scoring pipeline
Stream card, ACH and digital banking events into a scoring service, alert analysts in seconds, and keep model decisions explainable for review.
Regulatory and risk reporting mart
Consolidate finance and risk data into a governed reporting layer with lineage, so month-end and exam requests stop depending on spreadsheets.
API layer in front of the core
Expose account, customer and payment functions through secured APIs so digital channels and partners can ship without touching the core.
Onboarding and KYC document processing
Use NLP-based document understanding to capture and check onboarding documents, route exceptions to people, and keep a clear audit trail.
Talent
Roles we staff
- Java developer
- .NET developer
- Payments business analyst
- Core banking systems analyst
- Data engineer
- Fraud analytics specialist
- Risk and compliance data analyst
- QA and test automation engineer
- Cloud and DevOps engineer
- Cybersecurity analyst
- IAM engineer
- Technical project manager
Regulations and standards
Standards we design for
The rules that shape technology work in this sector, and that we build and staff around.
ISO 20022
The global financial messaging standard now used by major payment systems. We design payment changes around structured message data and staff people experienced in it.
PCI DSS v4.0.1
The card industry security standard. We design cardholder data environments with scoping, MFA, logging and payment page script controls in mind.
SOX
Sarbanes-Oxley expects reliable IT general controls over financial reporting systems. We build change control and access evidence into delivery work.
GLBA
The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and the federal safeguards guidelines require an information security program for customer data. We work within these requirements when designing systems.
FFIEC IT Examination Handbook
The guidance examiners use to review IT, security and operations. We structure documentation and controls so they are easy to show.
Interagency third-party risk guidance
Banks must manage the risk of technology vendors across the relationship. We expect and support that review, from onboarding through offboarding.
These are the regulations and standards that shape work in this sector. We design and staff for them. They are not certifications held by Desmata.
Technology
Platforms and technologies in this sector
- Java and Spring
- .NET
- COBOL and mainframe integration
- Fiserv, FIS and Jack Henry cores
- Temenos
- nCino
- FedNow and RTP
- ISO 20022 messaging
- Apache Kafka
- Snowflake and Databricks
- AWS and Azure
- Splunk
- Power BI and Tableau
- Okta and Microsoft Entra ID
Services
Services that support this work
Technology
Digital Product Engineering
Custom software architecture, full-stack and mobile development, API-first microservices and legacy modernization. Home of RetailGeo Insights.
Technology
AI & Advanced Analytics
Predictive modeling, NLP and machine learning, and real-time stream processing with Kafka, Spark and Flink.
Technology
Cloud & Infrastructure Modernization
Cloud-native design, infrastructure as code, DevSecOps and CI/CD, secure data platforms and cost-optimized hybrid and multi-cloud architecture.
Technology
Cybersecurity & Risk Mitigation
Security assessments and posture audits, identity and access management, endpoint detection, threat monitoring and incident response.
Talent
IT Staffing & Strategic Resourcing
Specialized recruitment for IT, data, cybersecurity and product roles, with proprietary candidate-matching intelligence and recruiters who have focused on IT since 2012.
Insights
Our thinking in this sector
Questions
Frequently asked questions
Do you replace our core banking system?
Usually not in one move. We start with an assessment, then extend the core with APIs and integration layers, and retire components in stages when the case is clear. If a replacement is the right call, we can staff or manage the program.
Can you work with FinTech product teams as well as banks?
Yes. FinTech teams need speed and still have to meet card, privacy and partner-bank requirements. We build for that, and we can add engineers to a team quickly through contract staffing.
How do you handle sensitive customer and cardholder data?
We work inside your environment, access rules and review process. Scope, access and data handling are agreed before work starts, and we design to the standards that apply to your data.
Can we hire engineers from you permanently?
Yes. Most roles can be filled on contract, contract-to-hire or direct hire. Contract-to-hire is popular for banks that want to confirm fit before an offer.
Do you hold PCI, SOX or other certifications?
No. Those frameworks apply to your systems and processes. We design and staff work to fit them, and the only certification Desmata holds is MBE (Minority Business Enterprise).
Plan your next release with fewer surprises
Tell us about your core, payments or fraud priorities. We will respond with a practical view of scope, risks and the team you would need.
MBE certified (Minority Business Enterprise)