Releasing a new FinTech feature isn’t just about functionality — it’s about legal exposure. Whether you’re launching payments, onboarding, reporting, or document flows, these often touch regulated data or business logic.
This guide shows how to build a reliable, repeatable QA checklist for regulatory-heavy FinTech features — helping your team ship fast and stay audit-ready.
🎯 When to Use This Type of Checklist
Use it for any feature that involves:
Personal or financial data (PII, card details, tax IDs)
Identity or account verification (KYC, AML, OAuth)
Fund movement, fee calculation, refunds, or batch processing
Regulatory exports or audit logs
Role-based permissions or fraud prevention
✅ What Your QA Checklist Should Cover
1. Data Privacy & Compliance
✅
Check
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Is all personal data masked in UI, logs, and exports?
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Is consent captured and logged (if applicable)?
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Can data be exported in a GDPR/CCPA-compliant format?
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Is all PII encrypted in transit (TLS enforced)?
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Can users request erasure or data download?
2. Access Control & Roles
✅
Check
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Are only authorized roles able to access this feature or data?
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Is the access enforced both in UI and backend/API?
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Are audit logs created for sensitive access or changes?
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Does role downgrade instantly remove elevated permissions?
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Is cross-tenant or cross-user data access blocked?
3. Payment & Transaction Logic
✅
Check
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Are transactions idempotent (no duplicate processing)?
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Are payment amounts and currencies validated for limits and precision?
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Are failed transactions logged with reason codes?
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Is rollback behavior consistent on failure?
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Are refunds, discounts, and chargebacks protected from abuse?
4. KYC, AML, and Regulatory Workflows
✅
Check
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Are document types, sizes, and formats validated properly?
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Are uploads secure and not executable files or scripts?
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Can identity checks be bypassed via API or timing issues?
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Are country/jurisdiction restrictions enforced correctly?
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Are KYC results traceable and audit-friendly (timestamp + reviewer)?
5. Security & Audit Readiness
✅
Check
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Are logs immutable or protected from modification?
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Is every action involving regulated data logged with who/what/when?
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Is log access role-restricted and monitored?
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Are secrets, tokens, or credentials never exposed in logs or errors?
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Are all error states user-safe (no stack traces or internal info)?
6. Exports, Reports, and Filing
✅
Check
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Are exported reports audit-compliant (e.g., tax, KYC, ledger)?
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Are file exports role-protected and access-logged?
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Is PII masked unless user has access permission?
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Are reports timestamped and labeled clearly by source/scope?
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Can report downloads be tracked back to user and session?
🧠 Best Practices
Build your checklist per module or feature (e.g., “Refund API”, “KYC Upload”)
Use tagging in your test management system: @regulatory, @audit, @secure-data
Share checklists with compliance or legal teams early
Include checklist verification in your Definition of Done
Maintain a versioned checklist template for reuse across projects
Final Thoughts
In FinTech, releasing features that interact with sensitive data or money means QA must think like compliance officers. A strong checklist helps QA teams ship faster, reduce risk, and support legal and audit efforts without manual overhead.