A loan officer's personal laptop gets stolen at an airport. A credit union teller plugs a personal USB drive into a branch workstation. A bank executive checks email from an unpatched tablet at a hotel. Each of these scenarios happens every week across financial services, and each one represents an endpoint your organization either controls or doesn't.
The uncomfortable math: 46% of compromised systems in credential breaches trace back to unmanaged devices. That number alone should end the debate over whether endpoint management belongs on the board agenda. It does.
Microsoft Intune device compliance is how you close that gap inside the Microsoft 365 ecosystem. Not as an afterthought. As the enforcement layer that determines which devices touch your data and which ones get stopped at the door.
Endpoint security used to live in the IT department's backlog. That era ended when regulators, cyber insurers, and auditors started asking specific questions about device posture.
Here's what changed:
The question for CIOs and CISOs isn't whether to enforce device compliance. It's how quickly you can get there without disrupting operations.
Intune is Microsoft's cloud-based endpoint management platform, included in Microsoft 365 Business Premium and Enterprise E3/E5 licenses. It handles two jobs: Mobile Device Management (MDM) for company-owned hardware and Mobile Application Management (MAM) for personal devices.
An Intune compliance policy defines what a healthy device looks like. Think of it as a health check that runs continuously, not just at enrollment. Devices that pass get marked "compliant." Devices that fail get flagged and can be blocked from accessing corporate resources.
Baseline compliance checks include:
What makes this powerful for financial institutions: every compliance check generates an auditable record. When an NCUA examiner asks how you manage endpoints, you can pull a report showing encryption status, OS versions, and compliance rates across your entire fleet.
A one-size-fits-all compliance policy creates problems. A branch teller's workstation has different risk characteristics than a loan officer's personal phone. A risk-based approach treats devices differently based on what they access and the threat they represent.
Start with the minimum standard every device must meet before touching corporate data. For most financial institutions, that baseline includes BitLocker encryption on Windows devices, a minimum OS version no more than one major release behind current, a device PIN or biometric, and active antivirus with cloud-delivered protection enabled.
A mortgage company processing loan applications and a community bank running hybrid branch operations will both need these minimums. The details differ by platform (separate policies for Windows, iOS, Android, and macOS), but the principle holds.
In the Intune admin center, you create compliance policies per platform. The critical decision: what happens when a device fails?
Options range from sending the user a notification email to immediately marking the device non-compliant. For regulated organizations, most compliance frameworks expect prompt flagging rather than a week-long grace period. A credit union with 300 employees might allow 24 hours for an OS update before blocking access. A bank processing wire transfers might allow zero grace period for missing encryption.
A compliance policy alone just checks devices. Intune Conditional Access is the enforcement mechanism that acts on those checks. You create a Conditional Access rule that states: if a device is non-compliant, block access to Microsoft 365 resources.
This creates a closed loop. Intune flags a device. Conditional Access blocks that specific device. The user's other compliant devices keep working. The loan officer whose laptop missed a security update loses access on that one machine until the update installs. No phone calls to IT. No tickets. The system handles it. For a deeper look at how these policies work together, see our guide on Conditional Access rules every financial institution needs.
Deploy Conditional Access policies in "Report-Only" mode first. This shows you who would be blocked without actually stopping anyone from working. A credit union running this pilot might discover 40 devices on outdated OS versions that need attention before going live. A mortgage company might find that half their loan officers are using personal tablets that haven't been enrolled.
Two weeks of report-only data prevents the "scream test" where you flip a switch and immediately lock out half the organization.
Microsoft is adding significant capabilities to Intune for organizations on E3 and E5 licenses, and these changes matter for financial institutions:
These additions reinforce a trend: Microsoft is building Intune into a comprehensive endpoint security platform, not just a device management tool. For financial institutions already paying for E3 or E5 licenses, the capabilities are included.
One of the most common mistakes financial institutions make: buying Microsoft 365 for email and ignoring the security engine underneath.
Intune is one piece of an integrated ecosystem:
When you treat Microsoft 365 as a platform rather than a collection of apps, you eliminate the need for separate MDM, antivirus, and encryption vendors. That consolidation reduces vendor complexity and IT spend, a direct ROI for CFOs watching the budget.
Deploying device compliance policies isn't without friction. The three challenges that surface in nearly every engagement:
BYOD pushback. Loan officers and field staff resist having "company management" on personal phones. The distinction between MAM (which protects company data) and MDM (which manages the whole device) matters here. Clear communication that MAM can wipe company emails without touching personal photos defuses most resistance. For mortgage companies where loan officers live on personal devices, leading with MAM before MDM is usually the right sequence.
Configuration complexity. Intune has thousands of settings. A misconfigured policy at a credit union could lock tellers out of their core banking application mid-transaction. A policy that's too permissive at a bank might satisfy no one when the FFIEC examiner arrives. Getting the configuration right requires knowing both the technology and the regulatory expectations.
Ongoing maintenance. Compliance isn't a one-time deployment. OS versions change, new threats emerge, Microsoft updates its platform, and policies need regular tuning. A policy you set correctly six months ago may have gaps today.
Microsoft provides the tools. Configuring them for a regulated financial institution requires a different level of expertise.
ABT's Guardian operating model takes the foundation of Microsoft 365 Business Premium and layers on hardening purpose-built for financial services endpoint security. As a Tier-1 Cloud Solution Provider serving 750+ financial institutions, ABT handles Intune device compliance configuration, Conditional Access integration, and ongoing policy management.
The Guardian lifecycle covers what matters:
Whether you're a credit union preparing for an NCUA exam, a mortgage company meeting state licensing requirements, or a community bank responding to OCC guidance, Guardian closes the gap between "licensed" and "secured."
Every unmanaged device accessing your Microsoft 365 environment is a risk you can measure. Intune device compliance policies turn that risk into a controlled, auditable process. The tools are already in your Microsoft license. The question is whether they're configured to meet the standards your regulators, insurers, and board expect.
Stop guessing about your endpoint posture. Start enforcing it.
Talk to an ABT expert about Guardian and Intune device compliance or run a free Security Grade Assessment to see where your device compliance stands today.
No. When using Mobile Application Management or BYOD enrollment, Intune isolates business data from personal data on the device. IT administrators can wipe company emails and files if an employee leaves, but they cannot access personal text messages, photos, or browsing history. This separation is a core design principle of the platform.
The response depends on your policy configuration. Typically the device receives a short grace period to resolve the issue, such as installing a required OS update. If the device remains non-compliant after the grace period, Conditional Access blocks it from accessing Microsoft 365 resources like Teams, SharePoint, and OneDrive until remediation is complete.
Yes. Intune is included in Microsoft 365 Business Premium and Enterprise E3 and E5 plans. Organizations on Business Standard or Basic do not have Intune device compliance features. In 2026, Microsoft is expanding Intune capabilities in E3 and E5 to include Advanced Analytics, Endpoint Privilege Management, and Cloud PKI at no additional cost.
Intune generates documented compliance reports showing encryption status, OS versions, and device health across your entire fleet. These reports provide the audit-ready evidence that NCUA, OCC, FFIEC, and state examiners expect when they ask how your institution manages endpoint security. Policies are enforceable and logged, not just written on paper.
Yes. Intune supports full device enrollment with MDM for company-owned hardware and lighter MAM-only policies for personal devices. This dual approach lets financial institutions enforce strict compliance on corporate laptops and workstations while protecting business data on personal phones without overreaching into employee privacy.