Centrico Spa (Sella Group) and Veracode Collaborate to Help Secure the Application Development Life Cycle

The Companies Will Collaborate to Enhance the Analysis and Development of Secure Code

Milan, March 18, 2024 — Centrico Spa, part of Sella Group and a specialist in providing open banking systems for innovation-oriented financial institutions, has entered a collaboration with Veracode, a global leader in application security risk management. The deal will enhance the analysis, detection, and prioritization of flaws to expedite software fixes at every stage of Centrico’s application development life cycle.

Modern banking and finance are exposed to a stringent and evolving landscape, not least as a result of the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) and an increase in frequent and sophisticated cyberattacks. As revealed in Veracode’s State of Software Security Report 2023, during code-checking activities Veracode identified and reported potential vulnerabilities in 72 percent of its financial sector clients' applications—the lowest percentage of all sectors analyzed and an improvement from the previous year. Even so, financial organizations would benefit from increased automation and secure coding techniques to help them prevent, detect, and respond to vulnerabilities faster than ever before.

Centrico's goal is to minimize risk at the application development level and avoid dangerous flaws that could significantly impact the entire supply chain. After a careful selection process, Veracode was chosen to strengthen the security of Centrico’s application development through the integration of testing and analysis tools that detect and eliminate vulnerabilities.

Veracode’s high level of reliability and accuracy in flaw analysis, its effective and rapid resolution capabilities, and its innovative vision highlighted the company’s ability to respond in the best possible way to the demands of the numerous companies operating in this sector. Centrico is composed of an international team of experts with deep knowledge of the financial industry, specializing in open-core banking and business process outsourcing services. Its solutions are based on cutting-edge technologies that are innovative for the industry. The core banking platform and solutions are customer-oriented, reduce time to market, are open to the integration of external services, and inspired by principles of eco-sustainability.

Veracode's software security platform continually detects flaws and vulnerabilities at every stage of the modern software development life cycle. Thanks to a powerful artificial intelligence engine trained on trillions of lines of code, it automatically generates suggested fixes for vulnerabilities found during scanning, thus preventing insecure code from spreading to other applications.

"For Veracode in Italy, this agreement is a testimony of great importance and a reason for satisfaction. We are very proud to support Centrico in the development of secure applications and to collaborate in the detection and resolution of any potential flaws," said Massimo Tripodi, Country Manager of Veracode Italy. "The financial services sector is a constant target of cyberattacks that exploit different vectors and channels, so it is essential that companies can operate with inherently secure applications, reducing risk within code."

About Centrico

Centrico, created in June 2018, is currently 83.98% owned by Banca Sella and 16.02% owned by Banca Sella Holding.In 2023, Centrico's total revenues amounted to 104.5 million euros (+21.3% compared to 2022). It provides unique core and digital banking solutions and a wide range of Information Technology and Business Process Outsourcing services to both Sella Group companies and banks, FinTechs and other innovative financial operators. It aims to contribute to the development of the Italian financial ecosystem by bringing the Group's expertise and technology, open and unique solutions in the sector, to the market.