Project Name
How Ksolves Built a Secure and Scalable File Transfer Platform for a Large US Banking Institution
In banking, a file that arrives late is a regulatory risk. A file sent without proper encryption is a security breach. A file with no audit trail is a compliance failure.
A large US banking institution was processing more than 50,000 file transfers every day. These included interbank payment files, regulatory submissions, partner bank exchanges, and internal financial reports. But the infrastructure behind these transfers was fragmented and inconsistent. Different teams managed their own SFTP connections in different ways. Encryption was applied unevenly. There was no central record of what was moving, where it was going, or whether it had arrived safely.
Ksolves was brought in to move fast. Using an AI-first delivery approach, the team designed and delivered a centralised, policy-driven Managed File Transfer platform that secured every transfer, met all regulatory requirements, and gave the bank’s operations and compliance teams full visibility for the first time.
The bank came to Ksolves with six problems that were creating security exposure and regulatory risk:
- No Central Control Over File Transfers: Dozens of separate SFTP connections were managed by individual teams across the bank, each with different authentication methods and security practices. No one had a single view of what files were moving or whether they were arriving successfully.
- Encryption Was Inconsistent: Some transfers used proper encryption. Others relied only on basic transport security. A few legacy transfers were sending files in cleartext over internal networks. This created direct gaps in PCI-DSS cardholder data protection and SWIFT security controls, both of which had been flagged in an internal audit.
- No Audit Trail for Regulators: SOX compliance required a clear, tamper-proof record of every financial data file transfer. Who sent it, what it contained, when it moved, and where it went. The existing infrastructure kept none of this in a structured or reliable way.
- Certificates and Keys Were Managed Manually: TLS certificates and encryption keys were tracked manually by different teams with no central process. There were no expiry alerts. In the previous year, expired certificates had caused two transfer failures that required emergency fixes and delayed regulatory submissions.
- No Alerting When Transfers Failed: The bank had no real-time view of transfer success or failure. Problems were usually discovered after a downstream system reported missing data or after a regulatory deadline had already been missed.
- No Backup If a Server Failed: The existing infrastructure ran on single servers with no redundancy and no tested recovery plan. A single failure would have stopped all transfers, including time-critical payment files and compliance submissions.
Ksolves designed a centralized file transfer platform built on Apache NiFi as the core engine, deployed on Kubernetes for high availability, and governed by compliance controls that enforced PCI-DSS, SOX, and SWIFT requirements automatically. The platform was delivered in three phases over 12 weeks.
- Centralised Transfer Orchestration on Apache NiFi: Apache NiFi replaced all point-to-point SFTP connections with a single, policy-driven platform. Every transfer type, every routing rule, every retry, and scheduling configuration was managed centrally. All 50,000+ daily transfers were onboarded with individual flow configurations reviewed against the bank's security standards.
- Unified Protocol Gateway: The platform supports SFTP and FTPS with TLS 1.3 and key-based authentication, AS2 with delivery receipts for partner bank exchanges, and HTTPS for API-triggered transfers. Every channel operates within the same central security and key management framework.
- End-to-End Encryption with Automated Key Management: AES-256 encryption protects all files at rest. PGP encryption covers files in transit beyond the bank's network perimeter. TLS 1.3 secures all transfer channels. A centralised key management service rotates certificates and keys automatically on a defined schedule and sends alerts 30 days before expiry. The manual key management risk that had caused previous outages is gone.
- Platform-Level Compliance Controls: PCI-DSS, SOX, and SWIFT CSP controls are built into the platform as rules that cannot be bypassed by any business unit. SOX-compliant immutable audit logs capture every transfer event with full metadata. RBAC with multi-factor authentication enforces least-privilege access for all users and administrators.
- Real-Time Monitoring and Automated Alerting: A live monitoring dashboard gives the operations and compliance teams a single view of all transfer activity, SLA status, failure rates, and latency. Automated alerts fire immediately on SLA breaches, delivery failures, integrity issues, and authentication anomalies. The audit log is available on demand for internal and external regulatory reviews.
- Active-Active High Availability on Kubernetes: The platform runs across two availability zones in an active-active configuration. A single node or zone failure causes zero transfer interruption. A tested disaster recovery procedure confirmed full platform recovery in under 15 minutes from a complete primary-zone failure.
Technology Stack
| Category | Technology | Role |
|---|---|---|
| MFT Platform | Apache NiFi | Central orchestration engine for all file routing, scheduling, retry, and policy enforcement |
| Protocol Layer | SFTP, FTPS, AS2, HTTPS | Multi-protocol secure ingestion and delivery with TLS 1.3 and key-based authentication |
| Security | PGP, AES-256, PKI, TLS 1.3 | End-to-end encryption at the file and channel levels with automated certificate and key rotation |
| Compliance | PCI-DSS, SOX, SWIFT CSP | Platform-level regulatory controls with immutable audit logging and RBAC with MFA |
| Infrastructure | Kubernetes, Docker | Active-active HA deployment with auto-scaling and zero-downtime rolling upgrades |
| Monitoring | Real-Time Dashboard, Alerts | Live transfer visibility, SLA tracking, failure alerting, and regulatory audit reporting |
The platform delivered measurable improvements across security, compliance, operations, and availability:
- 50,000+ Daily Transfers Fully Automated: Every file transfer across the bank now runs through a single, centrally managed platform with consistent security controls, automated retry, and real-time monitoring. Manual transfer management has been eliminated entirely.
- Zero Security Incidents Post Go-Live: Platform-level enforcement of AES-256 encryption, TLS 1.3, automated key rotation, and MFA-protected access eliminated all identified security gaps. No security incidents or compliance violations have been attributed to the MFT platform since go-live.
- Full PCI-DSS, SOX, and SWIFT CSP Compliance Achieved: All three regulatory frameworks are enforced at the platform level with no exceptions possible. The bank passed its compliance review with no findings against MFT infrastructure for the first time in three examination cycles.
- 80% Reduction in Manual Operations Effort: Automated alerting, self-service retry, and automated key and certificate rotation removed more than 80% of the manual effort that operations and security teams previously spent on file transfer management each week.
- 99.99% Uptime with RTO Under 15 Minutes: Active-active Kubernetes deployment and a tested disaster recovery procedure achieved 99.99% platform uptime. Full recovery from a primary-zone failure was confirmed in under 15 minutes in DR testing.
“We went into our regulatory examination with a platform we could actually defend. Every transfer logged, every key managed, every control enforced. That level of confidence was simply not possible with what we had before.”
– Chief Information Security Officer, Large US Banking Institution
Before this project, the bank’s file transfer infrastructure was fragmented, inconsistently encrypted, and impossible to audit. Security gaps had been flagged. Regulatory risk was growing. And a single server failure could have stopped all transfers with no recovery plan in place.
Today, the bank runs a single, centralised MFT platform that handles 50,000+ daily transfers with end-to-end encryption, automated compliance controls, real-time monitoring, and active-active high availability. Every transfer is logged. Every key is managed automatically. Every regulatory requirement is enforced by the platform itself.
For banks and financial institutions dealing with fragmented file transfer infrastructure, compliance gaps, or operational risk, explore our Big Data Services. As a trusted Apache NiFi development company, Ksolves brings deep expertise in building governed, compliant file transfer platforms for regulated industries. Find out what we can deliver for your organisation.
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