DevSecOps for banking and finance: How to build secure development pipelines

In banking and finance, speed is important—but trust is paramount. As financial institutions race to deliver digital experiences through apps, APIs, and online platforms, they also face growing pressure to secure sensitive data, maintain compliance, and mitigate rising cybersecurity threats.

This makes DevSecOps not just a buzzword but a business-critical transformation. By embedding security into every stage of software development and delivery, DevSecOps empowers teams to release quickly and securely. But in financial environments, often constrained by legacy systems, siloed teams, and strict regulations, building secure pipelines isn’t easy.

With Invicti’s DAST-first platform, financial institutions can operationalize security across modern and legacy environments in a tech-agnostic way, aligning DevSecOps with risk, compliance, and developer velocity.

Why DevSecOps matters for financial institutions

Digital banking, fintech innovation, and mobile-first experiences have dramatically accelerated release cycles. Teams now push updates weekly or even daily. But every new release introduces potential vulnerabilities.

For financial institutions managing transactions, user data, and regulated services, security can’t wait for a quarterly audit. DevSecOps bridges the gap, making continuous security a default part of delivery.

The rising cost of security gaps in production

From data breaches to compliance violations, the cost of unpatched vulnerabilities in the financial sector is skyrocketing. According to IBM’s Cost of a Data Breach report, the average cost of dealing with a data breach in finance is over $6 million, and that’s 22% more than the average cost across all industries. 

But beyond remediation costs, fines, and lawsuits, financial brands risk losing the one thing customers value most: trust. Effective DevSecOps can reduce this risk by helping teams catch and fix security issues before they reach production, when remediation is faster, cheaper, and more effective.

Challenges of embedding security into CI/CD for financial apps

Moving fast and breaking things might not be an option when financial transactions are at stake, yet finance and banking apps often need to innovate as rapidly as in any other industry. Making them secure without slowing down releases runs into several challenges.

LEARN MORE: Seamless DevSecOps: Integrating security without slowing down development

Fragmented tools and workflows

Security tools often operate outside the core development toolchain. Without integration into CI/CD pipelines, testing becomes inconsistent and disconnected from delivery workflows.

Developer resistance to friction-heavy security checks

If security tools slow down builds, flood issue queues, or generate false positives, developers quickly lose trust. Effective DevSecOps requires security that’s fast, accurate, and developer-friendly.

Legacy systems are complicating automation

Many financial institutions still rely on monolithic systems or outdated codebases that weren’t built for agile or CI/CD practices. Integrating modern security tools into these environments takes careful planning.

Building a secure DevSecOps pipeline: Best practices

Shift-left testing with integrated tools that look beyond the source code

Embed security testing early, on every pull request, merge, or build. Use tools like Invicti that integrate directly into CI/CD systems such as Jenkins, Azure DevOps, GitLab, and GitHub Actions to catch vulnerabilities as code is written and committed.

Role-based access control and secrets management

Ensure only the right people can access critical environments and code repositories. Centralize secrets management and enforce least privilege access to reduce insider risk.

Automating secure coding and validation processes

Combine dynamic testing (DAST) with static analysis (SAST) and software composition analysis (SCA) to automate security checks at every stage. The goal: detect issues early and verify them automatically to minimize manual triage.

How Invicti enables scalable, developer-friendly DevSecOps

The Invicti AppSec platform was specifically designed with scalable automation in mind to make security a routine part of software quality.

Seamless integration with Jenkins, Azure DevOps, GitLab, and more

Invicti offers native plugins and REST APIs that fit directly into your CI/CD pipelines, so you can trigger scans automatically without slowing down delivery.

Automated DAST scans triggered by code pushes or builds

Invicti performs dynamic scanning on running applications and APIs, catching real-world vulnerabilities that SAST can’t see. These scans can be tied to specific pipeline stages—before merge, after deploy, or on demand.

Proof-based findings to reduce triage time and streamline remediation

Unlike traditional scanners, Invicti automatically confirms many common vulnerabilities with proof-based scanning. Every confirmed finding includes a proof of exploit, eliminating false positives and accelerating developer remediation.

Aligning DevSecOps with risk and compliance

As some of the most regulated sectors, banking and finance need to take a risk-based approach to application security and cannot afford to check testing boxes for compliance alone.

Policy enforcement through security gates

Set up policy-based rules in your CI/CD pipeline to prevent releases when critical vulnerabilities are detected. With Invicti, you can define severity thresholds and enforce governance without constant manual reviews.

Continuous documentation for audits and stakeholders

Security doesn’t stop with testing. Invicti’s platform generates detailed, auditable reports for PCI-DSS, SOX, GDPR, and other financial compliance frameworks, making it easier to demonstrate continuous security to regulators and stakeholders.

Build DevSecOps pipelines that balance speed and security with Invicti

Financial institutions can’t afford to choose between fast delivery and robust security. With Invicti, you don’t have to.

Our DAST-first approach ensures every application and API is tested in real time, every vulnerability is validated, and every team can fix issues faster, without slowing down the business. Schedule a demo to see how Invicti helps financial organizations embed scalable security into every stage of software development.

FAQ: DevSecOps for banking and finance