8 Ways Credit Unions Gain Security, Compliance & Efficiency with MFT

When it comes to cybercrime, credit unions are no less targeted than large, multi-national banking institutions. After all, if money talks, cybercrime targeting financial institutions screams. According to Security Magazine, 64% of surveyed financial institutions experienced a cyberattack in 2024. And according to an American Banking Journal article, the average cost of a financial sector data breach topped $6 million in 2024. These costs include lost business, as well as extra staffing and potentially substantial regulatory fines.

Credit unions of course face other issues that a robust MFT (Managed File Transfer) solution can help alleviate, such as compliance, automation, centralization, and more. Here’s a few suggestions.

1. Credit Unions Can Boost Lean IT Teams with MFT

“Credit unions, unlike larger banking conglomerates, can often run a bit lean in terms of staffing,” noted Chris Bailey, Principal Product Manager, Fortra’s GoAnywhere MFT. “Yet our credit union customers still need to efficiently address the same data security challenges of much larger banking enterprises —some with entire  IT departments dedicated to challenges such as preventing cyber threats, ensuring compliance requirements are met, boosting efficiency, and maintaining the trust of their members to keep their personal information secure.”

Valuable credit union account numbers paired with PII ((Personally Identifiable Information), which can include home addresses, tax ID numbers, email and phone numbers can have the biggest negative impact on customers.

Robust, automated, and secure MFT solutions can help banking organizations address these challenges — no matter how large or small the financial branch’s staff may be. Beyond bolstering available resources, MFT can help automate processes, integrate with other business systems, and provide business continuity and invaluable up time.

2. MFT Can Secures Sensitive Member Data in Transit and at Rest

As noted, PII, banking account numbers, loan documents, etc., are among the most sensitive information exchanged. As such, it needs protection not only while it’s sitting on a server, but also on its way to its destination.

Robust file transfer solutions, such as Fortra’s GoAnywhere MFT locks down data both during transfer and while it’s in storage via strong encryption protocols such as AES-256, TLS, and SSL.

Secure file transfer protocols such as HTTPS, SFTP, and FTPS encrypt data in transit and also prevent unauthorized users from accessing data or tampering with it.

Third-Party and Partner File Exchanges are also Secured with MFT

Credit unions need to exchange sensitive financial data such as auto or mortgage loan applications, auditors, regulators, vendors and other processors so strong file transfer protocols such as SFTP, AS2, and FTPS are essential. Secure file transfer solutions help ensure that this data is tracked and encrypted when sharing necessary data with external partners.

Related Reading: SFT Threat Protection Helps Credit Card Company Securely Transfer Files

3. MFT Helps FinServe Organizations Meet Compliance Requirements

Comprehensive MFT solutions can help FinServ organizations meet stringent compliance requirements such as SOC 2, GLBA, National Credit Union Administration guidelines, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, and PCI DSS requirements for card holder data.

These requirements can be met via MFT through strong encryption, secure file transfer protocols, and robust auditing and reporting functionality to show all file movement activities. The time-consuming reports needed for the finance industry’s compliance requirements can be more efficiently created with MFT, with reports detailing file transfer activities, failed and successful transfers, as well as any outliers that occurred.

Plus, by incorporating a singular MFT solution versus stringing together multiple, disparate solutions, busy banking entities can lessen their risks of human error around compliance mandates, as many of the requirements can be aided by built-in automation.

Data sheet: Meeting PCI DSS Requirements

4. MFT Automation Helps Reduce Human Errors

Transferring sensitive financial data manually poses several risks, including data exposure, missed deadlines, or even sending files to the wrong email recipient. Plus, the often-cumbersome process can be an inefficient use of resources. In smaller credit unions, this task can even be the responsibility of just one person, with file transfers grinding to a halt with a simple day or two away from the office.

MFT solutions with automation functionality such as triggers, schedules, and workflows can both streamline file transfers, reduce the risks of manual intervention, and help enforce established cybersecurity policies. In addition, by automating compliance requirements for audit trails and reporting, credit unions can avoid the prospect of stiff fines and sanctions.

And automation triggers and  workflows that automatically process files can help stretch resources and provide consistency around critical data exchanges.

Read More: Automating Project Workflows

5. MFT Can Streamline and Centralize Credit Union Business Processes

Multi-step, advanced workflows can be established to follow a preset sequence as well as adhere to business rules. These steps, when used to fully process a mortgage application for example, can include processes such as data transformation, encryption, file conversion, as well as delivery to specific folders or other destinations, all on an automated basis, freeing staff up to work  on higher priority initiatives.

On-Demand Webinar: 10 Ways to Improve Processes

System admins also get a bit of relief, as MFT can provide alerts and notifications about critical events such as failed transfers, policy violations or even security breaches all in real time.

And if centralization is an issue, robust MFT can provide enhanced visibility, management,  and control in how users are authorized and authenticated all from a single, browser-based dashboard for all file transfers across multiple branches of a credit union. Protocols, security best practices and consistent policies can all be put into place no matter where a branch is located.

6. GoAnywhere Can  Integrate with Other Financial Systems

The banking industry, like so many others, typically operate with IT infrastructures made up of a host of systems, platforms, and applications that often operate in silos, creating inefficiencies. MFT, like GoAnywhere, which offers integration capabilities can help connect a variety of systems used by credit unions, including ERP (enterprise resource planning) systems, treasure management, core banking systems and more. The ability to integrate helps ensure that business-critical data exchanges happen seamlessly and more importantly, securely between the systems that make financial operations run.

7. MFT Helps Ensure Critical Up Time

Downtime is dreaded for good reason. It can cost customers, and it can cost substantial dollars to mitigate.  Being able to keep the doors open following a disaster is critical for credit unions hoping to maintain financial and reputation status quo. MFT solutions that can deliver disaster recovery and ensure business continues as expected do so via data replication, back up options, and failover mechanisms. 

GoAnywhere can keep credit union business running, no matter if there’s a natural disaster or a data breach via clustering and load balancing. By clustering MFT installations credit unions can create a distributed environment to use across shared databases and file systems for greater high availability and load balancing. This results in greater high availability with true active-active support and load balancing, which allows workloads to be distributed across multiple systems.

Read More: Ransomware and Disaster Recovery: Create a Plan for Your Data

8. Unauthorized Data Access Can be Controlled

With managed file transfer in place, credit union admins can enforce least-privilege access to sensitive data through granular user permissions. Only those personnel who are authorized can initiate a file transfer or receive one.

MFT: A Strategic Investment for Data Security

Credit unions face mounting challenges to secure sensitive member data while maintaining operational efficiency, given the increasing reliance on digital data exchanges and mounting compliance pressures. By centralizing and automating secure file transfers, reducing the risk of manual interventions, GoAnywhere helps credit unions scale up as needed and customize their solution to include  secure email, encrypted file sharing, and automated workflows—all while meeting regulatory requirements.

Financial organizations can strengthen their cybersecurity posture without compromising on streamlined collaboration with vendors, regulators, and internal teams. GoAnywhere’s ease of use, audit-ready reporting, and integration capabilities make it a strategic asset for institutions looking to modernize their IT infrastructure.