About the Customer

A leading microfinance bank in Nigeria has revolutionized traditional banking through innovative chat-integrated financial services and digital-first customer experiences. Serving over 20,000 customers across urban and rural communities, this institution is at the forefront of Nigeria's financial inclusion movement, combining the stability of traditional banking with cutting-edge digital innovation.

The bank operates digital platforms that seamlessly integrate conversational banking with secure transactions, enabling customers to manage finances through intuitive chat interfaces. Their infrastructure spans multiple AWS environments supporting mobile applications, agent banking networks, AI-powered customer service, and risk management platforms. With a vision of making banking as simple as having a conversation, the bank processes thousands of transactions daily while maintaining strict compliance and data protection standards.

Customer Challenge

Between late 2024 and early 2025, the bank grew rapidly from 12,000 to over 20,000 customers. This growth scaled their AWS infrastructure dramatically, exposing critical challenges in privileged access management.

They operated multiple AWS accounts for mobile apps, chat-based systems, AI/ML platforms, agent banking, and compliance databases. Each required different access levels for developers, operations, security, and compliance staff.

In early 2025, during a Central Bank of Nigeria examination, regulators raised concerns about privileged access governance. Developers often retained elevated access to production customer data longer than necessary, and the bank lacked comprehensive audit trails linking system changes to individuals.

Their innovative chat-banking model further complicated access management, involving integrations with AI services, NLP platforms, and real-time transaction systems. Ensuring secure access without disrupting customer experience became a major challenge.

Key issues included:

• Development Environment Complexity — Rapid feature development slowed by manual access provisioning
• Third-Party Integration Security — Complex API integrations required strict external access governance
• Customer Data Protection — Sensitive chat data demanded comprehensive access controls and audits
• Regulatory Compliance Gaps — CBN required full audit trails, which were lacking
• Incident Response Delays — Outages required faster access provisioning for quick recovery
• Agent Banking Network Security — Remote terminals needed secure, isolated access

Partner Solution

In August 2024, the bank partnered with Qucoon, an AWS Advanced Consulting Partner, to implement QTEAM (Qucoon’s Temporary Elevated Access Manager) across their digital banking infrastructure.

The solution was tailored to the bank’s chat-driven operational model while ensuring strong security and compliance.

Innovation-Focused QTEAM Implementation

Request workflows enabled temporary access tailored to roles: developers for feature testing, and customer service for limited chat history reviews. All requests required approvals and enforced role-based restrictions.

Automated Credential Management

QTEAM issued time-bound IAM credentials scoped to specific banking functions (chat system maintenance, AI data access, agent management). Permissions were minimal and expired automatically.

Customer Data Protection Integration

Sensitive data was masked in development environments while retaining functional relationships for testing. Access to production data required explicit justification and was always time-limited.

Comprehensive Audit and Compliance

QTEAM integrated with AWS CloudTrail to log all access, storing activity in DynamoDB with encrypted, tamper-proof records. Compliance reports automatically correlated access with business cases and maintenance activities.

Real-Time Monitoring

Managers accessed a Fargate-hosted dashboard for real-time visibility. SES notifications flagged unusual activity or potential security issues.

Agent Banking Network Security

Agent terminals used time-limited credentials with strict isolation. Emergency protocols enabled rapid deployment of new agents while maintaining audit integrity.

The serverless architecture (Lambda, DynamoDB, Fargate, KMS) ensured scalable, secure, and resilient access management.

Primary AWS Services Used

• AWS Lambda — Serverless execution of workflows
• Amazon DynamoDB — Audit logs and compliance storage
• AWS Fargate — Oversight dashboards
• AWS IAM — Dynamic role creation
• AWS EventBridge — Automated credential cleanup
• AWS SES — Notifications and alerts
• AWS CloudTrail — Comprehensive logging
• AWS KMS — Data encryption
• Amazon API Gateway — Secure integrations
• AWS Secrets Manager — API key and credential storage
• Amazon CloudWatch — Monitoring and alerts

Results and Benefits

The QTEAM implementation, completed in January 2025, delivered measurable improvements.

Security and Compliance Excellence

• 100% Data Traceability — Every access fully auditable and justified
• 70% Faster Incident Response — Reduced outage recovery times
• Zero Standing Privileges — Eliminated unnecessary developer access

Operational Innovation

• 90% Less Manual Overhead — Automated workflows replaced manual approvals
• Real-Time Oversight — Dashboards ensured continuous monitoring
• Customer Trust Strengthened — Data protection reinforced confidence

Business Growth Enablement

• 50% Faster Feature Development — Accelerated chat-banking innovation
• Regulatory Confidence — Full compliance with CBN requirements
• Agent Network Expansion — Secure scaling across rural communities

The solution scaled to handle 200+ access requests weekly with millisecond audit queries and 99.98% availability. By September 2025, the bank launched new AI-powered financial advisory services with complete audit integrity.

About the Partner

Qucoon is an AWS Advanced Consulting Partner specializing in financial services security and digital banking innovation. With expertise in microfinance operations and compliance, Qucoon helps institutions implement robust access management while enabling rapid innovation and customer-focused growth.

Through solutions like QTEAM, Qucoon empowers banks to embrace digital transformation while maintaining top standards of security, compliance, and customer data protection.