How to compare proposals fairly
Ask each provider to price the same banking apps, payment APIs and privileged access and explain assumptions about roles, access, environments and test windows. Request relevant delivery-team evidence and a report sample. Compare the proposed testing and retesting work before comparing day rates; the lowest number may describe a different engagement.
Evaluate the proposed work and team
Request named delivery roles, relevant experience, availability and evidence supporting any professional claims. Confirm whether subcontractors are involved and how independence or conflicts are managed. This website makes no unverified certification or accreditation claim.
Payment integrity needs more than a successful API call. We distinguish a changed draft, an accepted approval and a denied release, and record the controls that remain effective.
Make the proposal specific
- Objectives, systems, roles, scenarios and explicit exclusions.
- Operating windows, safety controls, test data and supplier permissions.
- Named responsibilities for incident escalation and stop decisions.
- Secure evidence transfer, retention, confidentiality and data processing.
- Reporting, remediation discussions, included retests and change control.
Review a sample for substance
Look for actual observations and verifiable acceptance criteria. A scan finding without validation or an attack narrative without scope limits is hard to use. Compare the sample’s technical detail with what the proposal commits to deliver.
Our Megabank AG sample is clearly fictional and available for this evaluation.
Understand the basis for duration and fees
Systems, roles, business logic, third parties and operational windows determine the work. There is no public fixed-price package or guaranteed completion time. The agreed statement of work should show assumptions, inclusions, retest allowance and how changes affect the schedule.
Confirm the operational plan
Use seeded payments and synthetic customers with settlement disabled. Agree independent stop authority, transaction reconciliation, named system owners and permission for third-party services. Separate demonstrated draft changes from unperformed fund transfers.
Prepare a brief before the scoping call
Describe the banking operation you need to protect and the boundary the test should prove. A useful brief separates channel access, payment approval and actual release authority.
Use the free bank penetration testing brief builder to record objectives, assessment areas, constraints and NDA preferences. Review the proposed scope, then send it directly to Atlant Security through the contact form.
