When partnering with a Payment Service Provider (PSP), it's essential to ensure complete trust, transparency and compliance. particularly when opening up third parties to your customers' financial data.
The loss of data via breaches can have serious ramifications for your business and customers. Industry insights demonstrate that the average cost for a data breach in the UK was approximately £3.58 million in 2024, with financial service organisations experiencing more expensive breaches.
The challenge is to find a payment provider you know will be able to deliver high-quality services with stringent security measures to protect your data while efficiently processing customer payments. But how do you know your payment provider's data security services are effective and powerful enough to reduce the possibility of data breach incidents?
In this article, we share 7 signs your payment provider's data security is up to scratch, so you can make an informed decision about which payment provider you trust with your own and your customers’ data.
Contents
- What is payment provider data security?
- 7 signs your payment provider takes data security seriously
- Discover secure payment processing with Interbacs.
What is payment provider data security?
Payment provider data security is defined as the means by which a payment service company ensures sensitive data, such as customer bank details, are protected against fraud or breach by using strong technical controls. This is often reflected by the standards, regulations and compliance frameworks they work to.
In the UK, Bacs payment processing and relevant data security are managed through strict protocols and regulations by Pay.UK and the PSR (Payment Systems Regulator). Inherent is a multi-layered payment security framework that ensures data is kept safe during processing and information storage.
7 signs your payment provider takes data security seriously
When searching for the right payment provider to organise and oversee your Bacs payments, look out for the following signs to ensure you work with a trusted, well-established and professional payment services company.
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Strict access controls
An experienced payment service provider will only allow employees to access information when it is necessary. This is also known as the ‘least privilege’ access principle, ensuring that there is as little impact as possible if data is potentially compromised.
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Robust authentication procedures
It is well worth noting what authentication methods your payment processing company uses. This should be a multiple authentication process, including systems such as PKI digital certificates and multi-factor authentication.
Check if your processing provider also uses Bacstel-IP, a secure web portal, which advances protection standards. Fortunately, Interbacs integrates all of these technologies into payment processing for maximum security.
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Strong encryption protocols
Encryption protocols should be well embedded into payment processing, particularly to safeguard data during transmission. Tokenisation is also a signifier of a trusted payment provider, as sensitive information is replaced with unique identifiers to reduce the risk of a data breach.
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Advanced fraud detection
Fraud detection is a practice that is constantly evolving due to the rapidly changing nature of fraudulent threats. If your payment partner is up to date with fraud prevention, they will be implementing behavioural analysis and risk scoring alongside other insight tools for real-time fraud detection.
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Regular audit completion
Systematic vulnerability assessments and penetration tests should be taking place within your payment process to ensure that any weaknesses are identified and then fixed to strengthen the entire system. Audits carried out by regulatory and governing bodies, such as Bacs, should also be regularly carried out.
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Transparent security policies
Your payment processing provider should share accessible and easy-to-follow security policies with you so that you can check what protocols are being used to heighten the protection along your payment process from start to finish. You should have access to a privacy policy and data breach response action plan from your provider.
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Clear regulatory alignment
An experienced and established payment processing company will have a secure knowledge of industry regulations and should be able to explain how their systems and processes align with regulatory requirements in order to keep your data and customer information safe.
Explore secure payment processing with Interbacs
With decades of experience in robust payment processing systems and Bacs-related solutions, Interbacs effectively supports your business with precision tools for efficient and secure payment processing.
As one of the UK’s first and leading Bacs-approved facilities management providers and Bacs-approved bureaus, we have the deep knowledge and understanding around industry standards, compliance regulations and advanced security technologies to ensure your payments are kept safe.
Some payment processing providers have a ‘one size fits all’ approach. At Interbacs, we work with you to ensure you gain a flexible and reasonably priced payment solution with excellent customer service support.
Find out more about our security standards in our Bacs compliance and security explained: the complete business guide.
Get in touch with our expert team for a friendly chat or discover more about payment processing by browsing our payment services page.
