APRP: Much More than an Acronym

Cavin Tran, APRP 
Senior Cyber Specialist
Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta

Look at his LinkedIn profile and you’ll see Cavin Tran has a lot of letters after his name. In fact, he lists seven certifications, including APRP, which he added upon passing the inaugural exam in 2018. And it wasn’t to include more honors.

“In my opinion, it’s not so much about the acronym that follows my name, but the actual experience and the knowledge that I can share, which benefits everyone in the organization,” said Tran, senior cyber specialist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.

“When I go to the banks, the level of knowledge that I can communicate with the bankers definitely builds the relationships and will help us to be ahead of, or at least the same page with the bad guys, in order to be more proactive. Intelligent information sharing is very, very important.”

In fact, Tran points out that “the bad guys have their own network of communication. They know where the vulnerabilities are and share that. So we should do the same.”

When Tran heard about the new APRP credential in 2018, “I jumped on it.”

“I really think it’s a very good area to be in, especially with what I’m doing now on cybersecurity. There’s a connection between the risk associated with payments and cybersecurity risks,” he said.

“It will complete my job to know not just the cybersecurity side of it, but understand the payments risks, both domestic and international.”

One way that Tran prepared for the test was by using the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council handbooks for both retail and wholesale payment systems. He also had good information from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Federal Reserve.

Tran also said it’s helpful to have “hands-on experience with retail payments and wholesale payments, an IT background. It’s not required for the exam, but it would be good conceptually to have that understanding.”

Being a pioneer of the APRP exam, Tran helped those taking it in 2019. “I wouldn’t call it ‘coaching,’” he said, “just tips and tricks.”