Security Consulting & Compliance
NPCI / UPI Security Compliance Audit
UPI, IMPS and NPCI ecosystem security certification and risk assessment.
Every engagement includes manual validation, a two audience report and free re-testing.
Get a scoped quote+91 96682 00222What this actually is
If you touch UPI, IMPS, NACH or RuPay, NPCI has its own certification and audit requirements on top of whatever the RBI expects of you. They are specific, and the reviewers are technical.
The focus is transaction integrity end to end. How the mandate is captured, how the request is signed, what happens when a leg times out, and whether reconciliation can prove that what was debited matches what was credited.
We test the payment flows themselves rather than just reviewing documents, because the failures that matter here are logic and race conditions rather than missing policies.
What we go after
- NPCI circular applicability and certification requirements
- UPI, IMPS, NACH and RuPay transaction flow testing
- Mandate capture, signing and validation
- Timeout, reversal and reconciliation logic
- Race conditions and double-spend scenarios
- PSP, TPAP and bank integration security
- Key management and HSM usage
- Fraud detection and velocity controls
How we run it
- 01
Gap assessment
We measure you against the standard as it is actually audited, not as it reads on paper.
- 02
Remediation plan
Every gap gets an owner, an effort estimate and a date. You decide what lands this quarter.
- 03
Implement and evidence
We write the policy, build the control and collect the artefact that proves it is working.
- 04
Internal audit
A dry run under audit conditions, so nothing in the real one is a surprise.
- 05
Certify and maintain
We sit on your side of the table for the audit, then keep the evidence current between cycles.
What you receive
- Transaction flow security assessment
- NPCI compliance gap report
- Reconciliation integrity findings
- Certification support documentation
- Free re-test after remediation
Who needs this
Banks, payment service providers, third-party application providers and fintechs operating on NPCI rails.
How long it takes
Four to ten weeks depending on the number of rails in scope.
Standards this satisfies
- NPCI circulars
- RBI
- PCI DSS
- CERT-In
Why it matters
Almost nobody starts a certification because they want one. It starts because a customer will not sign without it, a regulator has asked, or a deal is sitting still while procurement waits for evidence. The commercial driver is real and it is worth being honest that it, rather than security, is usually what pays for the programme.
The security benefit is real too, but it comes from a specific place: the discipline of having to evidence that a control operated over a period, rather than that it was configured once. That is the part that changes behaviour, and it is also the part organisations consistently underestimate.
Choose how you want this delivered
Most of the price difference between quotes comes down to this one choice, and it is rarely explained. Pick one to see what it covers, what it suits and what it costs you.
Gap assessment, then we work alongside your team through remediation, internal audit and the certification audit itself. Your people do the work and own the outcome, which is what makes the management system survive after we leave. This is what most organisations should choose.
Choose this when
- You have a team who can absorb the work alongside their day job
- You want the capability to remain in-house afterwards
- First certification where documentation is the main gap
Effort and cost
Moderate. The calendar is longer than a managed programme because the work competes with everyone's existing responsibilities.
Scope it yourself, before you call anyone
Answer a few questions and you get an indicative number, the working behind it and what your answers tell us. It runs in your browser, so nothing you type reaches us.
Which framework are you going for?
What we look for, and keep finding
These are the classes of problem this work exists to surface. Not every engagement finds all of them, but these are the ones that turn up often enough to be worth naming.
Controls that exist on paper only
The policy says quarterly access reviews. The evidence shows one, eighteen months ago, and it was not completed. This is the single most common audit finding across every framework.
Scope drawn too narrowly
A certificate covering a subset of the business that customers assume covers all of it. Auditors check the boundary; buyers rarely do. Getting scope right is the most consequential early decision.
Evidence that cannot be reproduced
A screenshot proves a control was configured on the day someone took it. A framework wants proof it operated throughout the period. Those are very different, and the gap only appears at the audit.
Exceptions with no expiry
Risk accepted once, recorded, and never revisited. Over a few years these accumulate into an undocumented second control framework nobody is managing.
Third parties outside the boundary
Processing carried out by a supplier who was assessed at onboarding and never since, while your obligation for their handling of your data continues regardless.
Who runs your engagement
A lead assessor who has sat on the other side of the table
Compliance work is led by an assessor who has taken organisations through certification, not by a consultant reading the standard for the first time with you. They know which findings a certification body will actually raise, which is a different list from what the standard technically says.
Questions we get asked
Do you test against production UPI?
No. We work in your UAT or sandbox environment with test credentials on the NPCI test rails. Production testing of live payment rails is neither necessary nor permitted.
Often scoped alongside
- CERT-In Cyber Security AuditCERT-In empanelled audit and certification for government and regulated entities.Read more
- ISO 27001 Audit & CertificationISMS design, implementation, internal audit and certification support end to end.Read more
- ISO 27017 Compliance AuditCloud-specific security controls for providers and customers.Read more
- ISO 27018 Compliance AuditProtection of personally identifiable information in public clouds.Read more
Ready to scope your npci / upi security compliance audit?
Thirty minutes with a senior engineer, and you leave with a written scope and indicative effort.