What Is HiTrust Compliance and How Can Banks Achieve It?

What Does a HiTrust Certification Mean?

HiTrust compliance helps banks streamline their approach to multiple regulations by providing a single framework to map and align their security controls against a wide range of standards.

With HiTrust, teams can simplify internal audits with regulators and business partners because the certification serves as proof of compliance across several domains.

“It signals the organization is serious about protecting sensitive data and following rigorous, industry-recognized standards,” says Danielle VanZandt, research manager for security at Frost & Sullivan. “In a market where data breaches and privacy concerns are top of mind, that assurance goes a long way.”

By achieving HiTrust certification, banks can proactively address those concerns, reduce risk, and build long-term credibility with both customers and partners.

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What Are the Benefits of HiTrust Compliance?

Naydenov explains HiTrust offers key benefits from more common security frameworks (NIST, PCI-DSS) that can guide security architecture and privacy policies and validate protection standards.

“HiTrust can go further to combine elements of other major security regulations, ensuring banks can properly secure all types of sensitive data that is subject to regulatory compliance,” he says.

In addition to simplifying regulatory compliance under a unified framework, the certification also provides third-party security partners with added assurance.

“HiTrust also offers a scalable, risk-based approach to security policy that keeps an organization’s size, risk tolerance and complexity in-mind,” Naydenov adds.

For VanZandt, it signifies a more proactive, risk-based approach overall. “This is being reflected in the regulatory landscape with continuous monitoring requirements now inherent to most security frameworks, including HiTrust,” she says.

This proactive security stance also fosters a more risk-conscious security posture. 

What Are Some Challenges to HiTrust Implementation?

The certification process is time-consuming and can tie up internal teams, especially if they need to update infrastructure, improve audit trails or implement new risk management processes. Banks may also find it tricky to align existing security controls to this detailed framework.

“Smaller or midsize banks may also struggle with the cost, since preparing for and maintaining certification often involves external assessors and ongoing updates,” VanZandt explains.

She says these hurdles can make the path to certification feel long without strong leadership buy-in and clear planning.

Justin Lam, research analyst at S&P Global Market Intelligence, says one of the main challenges to HiTrust implementation lies in the shift from traditional “point-in-time” compliance checks to a more dynamic model of continuous monitoring and risk management.

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“Compliance itself is changing from point-in-time controls,” Lam says. “What is your posture over time? That’s a much more difficult thing to check because people’s technology environment is changing frequently.”

Getting stakeholder buy-in is also critical because in large enterprises, cloud-based CRM tools, for instance, may be controlled by departments outside of central IT.

“Sometimes, the people who have to actually affect that change, they have to buy in as well,” Lam explains.

There’s also the notion that compliance equals total security. But organizations that have had big breaches may have actually been compliant with all regulations. It’s all just a symptom of how virulent the threats are right now.

“Compliance does not guarantee security, though it enables better resourcing for security teams,” Lam says.

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How Organizations Can Achieve HiTrust

To align with the HiTrust CSF and get ready for a third-party audit, banks must first perform a thorough gap assessment to see how their current security and compliance controls measure up again HiTrust requirements, VanZandt says.

“This means reviewing policies, procedures and technical safeguards across areas such as access control, encryption, vendor management and incident response,” she says.

Next, teams should work on closing any gaps by updating documentation, improving internal processes, and possibly investing in tools that support better risk management or audit logging.

Once ready, the bank completes a self-assessment using the HiTrust MyCSF platform, which helps structure the certification process and prepare for validation.

Finally, it engages a HiTrust-approved assessor firm to perform the validated assessment, which includes evidence collection, interviews and control testing.

“Staying organized, involving cross-functional teams early and maintaining detailed records throughout are key to a smoother audit experience,” VanZandt says.

Lam says organizations must treat compliance as an ongoing, collaborative effort that aligns with their specific operational risks and environments.

Ultimately, success requires that teams integrate HiTrust requirements into day-to-day processes. It also helps to support continuous monitoring and real-time visibility tools.

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