PARIS LA DEFENSE-- November 04, 2021 -- In partnership with First Tech, global technology company Thales today announced it has helped venture capital-backed financial service provider SWAP launch its modern digital payment infrastructure. With Thales’s cloud-based payment transaction security solution, SWAP will deliver financial infrastructure technologies faster and more effectively to its banking-as-a-service customers.

Banking-as-a-Service
SWAP, a venture capital-backed financial service provider, was founded in 2018 to support fintech and service providers in the adoption of financial technology in response to demand across all sectors - from marketplaces to ride sharing - for more reliable transaction processing and expanded financial and payment services.

However, company expansion and customer satisfaction relied on in-built compliance with Payment Card Industry Data Standards (PCI DSS). As a start-up, SWAP wasn’t able to implement the entire technological infrastructure needed: a secure room would have slowed and complicated the launch process, and ultimately, SWAP needed to be able to provide accelerated, scalable, certified access to the market. First Tech and Thales’ solution grants SWAP the scalability and PCI certification it needs to grow as its customers do.

“Our solution, delivered collaboratively with First Tech, has proved instrumental in helping SWAP rapidly launch its product to market. SWAP’s lack of legacy systems meant that the team could leapfrog to providing the secure digital services their customers needed in a short amount of time, and this has translated to success for both SWAP and their customers. Thales has a rich heritage in being a trusted provider of solutions that protect the data and services businesses and end-users rely on. We look forward to continuing to support SWAP and its customers in their impressive growth,” said Todd Moore, VP Encryption Products at Thales.

Driving growth
First Tech’s hosted payShield Hardware Security Module (HSM) offers SWAP a cloud-based service with HSM off premises. Thales’ market-leading HSMs are highly scalable, providing the flexibility and agility needed to support SWAP in its future growth. The environment includes a secure room for insertion of keys, the support of trained professionals, team training, consultancy, and services.

Bruno Napolitano, CISO Security, Risk, and Fraud at SWAP explained, “Thales payShield 10K is considered the benchmark for payment HSMs, with an excellent performance and several global certifications that prove the reliability of the solution for PCI compliance. In fact, our credit card partner has confirmed this was the fastest implementation of card issuance they’ve undertaken in the past 15 years, which is testament to the solution at hand. This speed to market has already made a huge impact on our growth, and since launch, we’ve seen a four-fold increase in our customer portfolio. Looking ahead, we expect to accelerate our growth by 30% to 40% per year, always counting on the support from First Tech and Thales.”

Edmar Siqueira, Head of innovation, Digital Payments at First Tech added: “By working in tandem with Thales, we’ve been able to provide SWAP with a remote HSM management system which enables their business and their customers to benefit from operational cost savings, greater agility, and on-demand key management. Importantly, the success of this solution has been driven by both the strength of the product and the commitment from all parties to ensuring that the implementation process delivered a full-rounded understanding which will continue to serve SWAP well as it grows.