In payments, risk does not disappear—it migrates. New products, partners and regulations shift exposure across processes and systems, often beyond the line of sight of day-to-day operations. Our risk audits provide an independent, evidence-based assessment of your payment controls, giving executives, boards and regulators confidence that risks are identified, prioritised and managed effectively.
PSPs, acquirers and processors requiring network-wide visibility of merchant risk, onboarding, monitoring and dispute processes.
Marketplaces and platforms managing multi-party flows, seller integrity, disbursements, wallet balances and cross-border exposure
Enterprise merchants operating across channels and geographies who need assurance on fraud controls, refund policies, reconciliation accuracy and third-party dependencies.
High-growth fintechs preparing for licensing, supervisory reviews, investor diligence or rapid scale with controlled risk.
We review the end-to-end payment lifecycle and the governance that supports it. Typical scope includes:
Articulation, KRIs/KPIs, thresholds and escalation criteria.
KYB/KYC onboarding, ongoing due diligence, sanctions/PEP screening, adverse media and periodic reviews.
Authorisation rules, fraud detection, SCA/3DS orchestration, stepup logic, allow/deny lists and device binding.
Monitoring scenarios, typology coverage, case management, SAR processes, quality assurance and tuning.
Underwriting, exposure limits, rolling reserves, monitoring, early warning indicators and termination playbooks.
Representment quality, evidence standards, win/loss analysis, scheme compliance and operational SLAs
Data completeness, exception handling, fee assurance, break management and financial integrity.
Feature stores, model risk management, explainability, performance monitoring and change control.
Architecture, API security, logging, idempotency, resiliency, access controls and data minimisation.
Clarity, consistency, effectiveness and adherence in practice.
Our audits are pragmatic and deeply technical. We combine document review, stakeholder interviews and operational walkthroughs with quantitative testing. Where appropriate, we execute data-driven checks to validate control effectiveness under realistic conditions.
Our teams bring experience from banks, processors and regulators. We are vendor-neutral and evidence-driven, focusing on measurable effectiveness rather than presentation.
A phased approach provides early insight on high-materiality risks, followed by deeper analysis. You gain quick wins without waiting for a monolithic report.
We audit configurations, data flows and model artefacts—not just policies. Our engineers and data scientists work alongside risk practitioners to validate how controls behave in production.
We convert findings into numbers—expected lift in fraud capture, reduction in false positives, improvement in time-to-decision, reconciliation accuracy and chargeback recovery rates.
We align with FCA guidance, JMLSG, PSD2/SCA, PCI DSS, AML/CTF frameworks and card scheme mandates. We prepare you for supervisory questions with defensible artefacts and clear lines of accountability.
Recommendations consider analyst workload, customer experience and commercial constraints, avoiding theoretical solutions that fail in practice.
Audits are delivered as one-off engagements or as part of an assurance programme with periodic reviews. For clients seeking ongoing support, we offer co-sourced remediation, control tuning, model recalibration and readiness testing.We operate globally, integrating with your document repositories, ticketing and case systems to minimise disruption.
A robust audit replaces assumptions with evidence, aligning protection with strategy and regulation. If you need clear answers on where risk resides, whether controls work and how to improve them, we can help.
Speak to our team to discuss an audit tailored to your payment flows, regulatory context and risk appetite. Request a scoping call to learn more.