Get ready for Secure File Delivery

Documentation, files, and reports containing general internal or confidential information may be shared via systems and tools such as email and Google Drive.

Background

In any instance when more sensitive information, including customer data, including non-public personal information (NPPI) or personal identifiable information (PII) must be shared, this should be done in more secure methods such as SFTP using encryption.  

This standard does not apply to Fedwire file transfer. Fedwire is a real-time gross settlement system of central bank money used by Federal Reserve (Fed) banks to transfer funds electronically between member institutions. Fedwire file transfer standards are administered and managed via Fedwire.  

Synctera’s Secure File Delivery architecture provides reliable, secure daily delivery of files of interest to our Sponsor Banks and FinTech partners. 

How to request establishment of Secure File Delivery connections

This is a two step process. You must contact your Operations contact at Synctera and agree to:

• Share your ssh key to get access to the designated  Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) folder directories via an email to [e-mail]
• Share your Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) Public Keyvia an email to [e-mail]

How to access secure files

1. Use your preferred SFTP client to connect to your folder and download the associated files.
2. All Synctera PGP-encrypted files end with the suffix .pgp.
3. Once the files are downloaded, decrypt the files using your associated encryption key.

Recommended SFTP clients

Without endorsement or offer of support, there are several SFTP clients that can be deployed. If your organization does not already have an approved SFTP, native SFTP options within your cloud service providers may also be a good option, such as:

• Google Cloud Platform (GCP) - Supports individual file sizes up to four gigabytes
• Amazon Web Services (AWS) via Transfer Family

Recommended encryption tools

Without endorsement or offer of support, there are several encryption tools that can be deployed. If your organization does not already have an approved encryption too, native encryption options within your cloud service providers may also be a good option, such as:

• GCP Cloud Key Management Service (Cloud KMS)
• AWS Key Management Service

What to do if you face problems

Please contact [e-mail]. We endeavor to reply to emails within one business day.

About Secure File Delivery

Security, accuracy and privacy are fundamental in Synctera’s product design. Synctera achieves this through the following ways:

File Encryption

1. Synctera PGP-encrypts all files created through this process. Synctera uses our partner’s public key for this part of the process, guaranteeing that only the holders of the private key can decrypt the file.
2. Synctera places the created files in our secure file transfer protocol (SFTP) folder, for partner access and download. This folder can be accessed only by holders of the requisite credentials.

Taken together, these two measures provide a two-step assurance that the data is accessible only by those people who are duly-authorized by both Synctera and theirs (SFTP credentials, SFTP folder access & PGP key).

Employees of Synctera cannot view the contents of these files since Synctera does not possess access to the partner’s private key.

All PII data is tokenized and placed in-vault at rest. Synctera de-tokenizes this information in-memory during the file delivery process.  

Examples Files

Master Transaction File

The Master Transaction File aggregates all payments across rails and FinTechs into one daily file. This file will be sent from Synctera to the Sponsor Bank on a daily basis so that the Bank has visibility into all transactions that occurring on the platform. The information contained in the file is sensitive and must be transferred via SFTP with enhanced encryption. 

Secure File Delivery Transactions File Format.xlsx

secure-file-delivery-transactions-sample - results-20220812-145731.csv