# AZdev

> AZdev provides fractional CIO, interim CIO, and fractional CTO leadership plus mission-critical engineering to credit unions, community banks, and FinTech companies across North America. Work centres on real-time payments (FedNow and RTP), core and payments modernization, Banking-as-a-Service, PCI DSS and SOC 2 readiness, and AI/ML governance in regulated finance. Based in Toronto with an EU registered office in Dublin; engagements are remote-first across North America.

Typical engagements: covering a CIO or CTO departure at a financial institution on an interim basis; running a current-state assessment and producing a board-fundable modernization roadmap; sequencing and executing a real-time payments integration; getting a FinTech through sponsor-bank or compliance readiness.

On titles: "fractional CTO", "fractional CIO", "interim CIO", and "virtual CIO" overlap heavily in this market. AZdev takes interim and fractional CTO/CIO engagements where the work is genuinely technical - core conversions, payments integration, data and AI programs. AZdev is **not** a CUSO and not a managed-IT provider; where an institution needs policy documentation and exam preparation alone, a vCIO or CUSO is the better fit.

## Services

- [Fractional & Interim CTO for FinTech](https://azdv.co/services/fractional-cto-fintech/): Senior technical leadership for FinTech companies without a full-time executive hire.
- [RTP & FedNow Integration](https://azdv.co/services/fednow-rtp-integration/): Real-time payments integration for banks, credit unions, and FinTechs - direct and core-provider connections, sponsor-bank flows, ISO 20022, liquidity, sub-second fraud controls, 24/7/365 operations.
- [Payment Systems Modernization](https://azdv.co/services/payment-systems-modernization/): Migrating off legacy payment infrastructure without a stop-the-world rewrite.
- [Banking-as-a-Service Integration](https://azdv.co/services/baas-integration/): BaaS architecture and sponsor-bank readiness.
- [PCI DSS & SOC 2 Compliance](https://azdv.co/services/pci-soc2-compliance-fintech/): Scope reduction and audit readiness for FinTech.
- [AI & ML for Financial Services](https://azdv.co/services/ai-ml-for-finance/): Model governance, explainability, and getting models into production in regulated environments.

## Industries

- [Credit Unions](https://azdv.co/industries/credit-unions/): Interim and fractional CTO/CIO coverage for credit unions - stabilize through a leadership gap, assess current state, and hand the board a fundable modernization roadmap.
- [Community Banks](https://azdv.co/industries/community-banks/): The same for community banks, including core conversion and vendor concentration questions.

## Decision-support writing

- [FedNow vs RTP: A Practical Comparison](https://azdv.co/blog/2026/04/fednow-vs-rtp-comparison/): Rail-by-rail comparison. Both networks reached a $10M limit in 2025, so coverage and liquidity model - not transaction ceilings - now decide the choice.
- [Joining FedNow as a Community Bank or Credit Union](https://azdv.co/blog/2025/04/fednow/): What connecting actually involves - provider queue, receive-only first, liquidity policy, APP fraud controls, and the 24/7/365 staffing change.
- [Fractional CTO vs Full-Time CTO for Series A/B FinTechs](https://azdv.co/blog/2026/04/fractional-cto-vs-full-time-cto-fintech/): Decision framework with cost comparison and hybrid models.
- [What a Fractional CTO Actually Does, Week by Week](https://azdv.co/blog/2024/12/fractional-cto/): The operational reality, including what two days a week cannot buy.
- [PCI DSS 4.0 Startup Roadmap](https://azdv.co/blog/2026/05/pci-dss-4-startup-roadmap/): Scope reduction beats compliance theater.
- [BaaS Sponsor-Bank Readiness Checklist](https://azdv.co/blog/2026/05/baas-sponsor-bank-readiness-checklist/): What sponsor banks look for after the 2024 consent orders.
- [Reconciliation & Ledger Architecture Before Launch](https://azdv.co/blog/2026/05/reconciliation-ledger-architecture-before-launch/): Double-entry, idempotency, and breaks handling.
- [Why Most FinTech ML Models Never Reach Production](https://azdv.co/blog/2026/05/fintech-ml-models-production-gap/): The lab-to-production gap.
- [AI Infrastructure in Regulated Finance](https://azdv.co/blog/2024/12/scaling-ai-infrastructure/): Explainability, model inventory, and vendor models as your risk.
- [The Hidden Costs of Legacy Payment Infrastructure](https://azdv.co/blog/2024/12/cost-of-legacy-payments/): The costs that never appear on an invoice.

## Optional

- [Case studies](https://azdv.co/case-studies/): Netspend, HelloHive, Latent Sciences, and anonymized AdTech and trading engagements.
- [Pricing](https://azdv.co/pricing/): Retainer packages and engagement shapes.
- [About](https://azdv.co/about/): Methodology (Assess, Embed, Ship), principles, and where we work.
- [Contact](https://azdv.co/contact/): Discovery call booking.