Fintech · Counterparty & Vendor Risk
A 40-person fintech de-risks its vendor exposure before a Series A
How a growth-stage fintech mapped its payment-processor and banking counterparty risk in time for institutional diligence — and turned a red flag in the data room into a differentiator.
Industry
Fintech · payments
Team size
40 employees
Frameworks
SOC 2 Type II · MSB · state MTL
Trigger
Series A diligence
The problem
A lead investor's diligence firm asked for a written treatment of counterparty risk — processor concentration, sponsor-bank exposure, and regulatory positioning.
The finance team had spreadsheets but no defensible framework. The CISO had SOC 2 evidence but nothing that spoke to counterparty or macro risk.
A repeat delay in the data room was starting to affect deal momentum.
How Scarlet Risk fit in
- 1
Pulled a Scarlet Intel risk profile covering processor concentration, sponsor-bank counterparty scoring, and regulatory posture across state money-transmitter regimes.
- 2
Layered vendor risk data for their processors, KYC providers, and core banking partners into a single third-party risk table.
- 3
Delivered a board-ready summary that mapped each exposure to a mitigation and a residual risk rating.
Outcome
9 days
From diligence request to signed board pack
3 → 1
Concentrated counterparties reduced to acceptable range
0
Diligence follow-up rounds on counterparty risk
"The investor's diligence firm told us it was the first time they'd seen a Series A stage company hand them a counterparty risk memo they didn't have to write themselves."
— Illustrative — composite of common fintech Series A diligence
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