Why financial services organisations rely on Managed File Transfer solutions

Few sectors rely on secure data transfers quite as much as the financial services sector. 

That’s why so many banks, insurers, financiers and those who support them leverage the security and reliability of Managed File Transfer (MFT) solutions. MFT enables organisations to securely and reliably exchange electronic data between systems while complying with regulatory requirements.

With MFT solutions, organisations can confidently facilitate internal and external enterprise data transfers, including sensitive, compliance-protected, and high-volume data. 

This is particularly important in the financial sector, among the most heavily regulated industries in the world. The sheer quantity of sensitive personal information financial institutions handle makes them a near-irresistible target for cybercriminals.

MFT solutions play a critical role in helping financial institutions protect this priceless data in transit and at rest in five ways.

1. Secure Data Transfer

Financial institutions handle and transfer highly sensitive financial and customer data. This data needs to be secured, especially when in transit. MFT solutions automate file transfer processes, enforcing policies which mitigate the risk of human error and subsequent cyber security incidents resulting from manual processes. 

Similarly, MFT’s automation capabilities continuously monitor file transfer activities and generate logs and audit trails, as well as process files through automated workflows. By providing system administrators with real-time alerts to critical events such as failed transfers, security breaches and policy violations, MFT solutions empower security teams to identify and respond to security threats as and when they occur. 

MFT solutions also support security protocols such as HTTPS, SFTP, and FTPS to encrypt data in transit and prevent unauthorised users from accessing or tampering with it. 

2. Regulatory Compliance

MFT helps enable financial institutions to meet their stringent industry regulatory requirements. This includes international Standards such as the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, and the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

MFT solutions ensure data integrity through checksums and cryptographic hashing algorithms to verify file integrity and ensure that data received matches data sent. Most regulatory standards require that data remains unaltered during transit - MFT makes sure that happens.

There’s a productivity bonus, too.  Compliance reporting can be highly time-consuming.  However, MFT solutions streamline the task, enabling organisations to demonstrate regulatory compliance quickly and efficiently via detailed reports on file transfer activities.

3. Streamline Business Processes 

Beyond compliance, MFT solutions help streamline business processes in other useful ways. Through workflow orchestration, MFT solutions ensure file transfers follow a predefined sequence and adhere to business rules. Workflows typically involve multiple steps, including file conversion, data transformation, encryption, validation, and delivery to specific destinations. MFT solutions ensure this process runs smoothly and securely. 

The complex network infrastructures of modern organisations can make file transfers challenging to track and maintain.  Through centralised management and control capabilities, MFT solutions enable security teams to define transfer settings, security policies, and user access controls from a single, browser-based interface.

Centralised management and control allow for enhanced visibility and governance of file transfers and eradicate the need for security teams to trawl through disparate data siloes to track and secure data transfers. 

4. Integrate with Financial Systems

Financial institutions typically have very complex IT infrastructures comprising multiple disparate systems, applications, and platforms. The best MFT solutions offer integration capabilities that connect financial systems such as core banking, enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, treasury management systems, and trading platforms.

These integrations ensure smooth, secure, and efficient data exchange between systems and facilitate financial operations and decision-making. 

5. Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery

Business continuity and disaster recovery are crucial for financial institutions, where significant downtime can result in huge financial and reputational impacts.

Via features such as data replication, failover mechanisms, and backup options, MFT enables organisations to respond to and mitigate the effects of cyber incidents, preventing data loss and ensuring business continuity. 

The Leading MFT

GoAnywhere MFT, independently assessed to be the world’s leading MFT, helps the finance industry securely exchange data, comply with regulatory requirements, streamline business processes, integrate with financial systems, and ensure business continuity.  

Many financial institutions around the world use GoAnywhere as a foundational file transfer platform, helping them address and resolve their unique data security and compliance challenges. 

Australia’s and NZ’s Local MFT Experts

Generic Systems Australia has decades of experience helping Australian and New Zealand financial organisations leverage the power of the world’s leading MFT solution. Our Migration Service makes the transition even easier for organisations who prefer to use their resources building their businesses rather than improving their IT plumbing.

If you’d like a no-cost, no-obligation discussion about how we could help you simply and affordably adopt an advanced MFT solution, please feel welcome to get in touch with us.

At Generic Systems Australia, we’re your local experts in Secure Managed File Transfer.