Payments Rails
How money actually moves — from UPI to SWIFT
A practitioner track on payment instruments, India and global rails, the merchant stack, failure modes, reconciliation, and cross-border corridors. Built for PMs, ops, and product engineers who ship payment experiences.
6 lessons · ~84 min · 0% complete
- Lesson 1 · Foundations · Both
What Is a Payment? Auth, Clearing, Settlement
Separate the customer experience of 'paid' from the three rails underneath: authorization, clearing, and settlement — and why those stages matter for risk, cash, and product design.
12 min → - Lesson 2 · Practitioner · India
India Rails: UPI, IMPS, NEFT, RTGS & More
Walk India's retail and wholesale payment stack — UPI, IMPS, NEFT, RTGS, Aadhaar Pay, BBPS, and NACH — with when to use each rail and what ops teams watch.
16 min → - Lesson 3 · Practitioner · Global
Global Rails: ACH, Fedwire, SEPA, SWIFT, RTP, PIX
Compare major account-based systems outside India — US ACH and Fedwire, SEPA, UK Faster Payments, SWIFT for cross-border messaging, RTP/FedNow-style instant, and Brazil PIX as a UPI analogue.
15 min → - Lesson 4 · Practitioner · Both
Merchants, PSPs, Gateways & Acquirers
Unpack the merchant acceptance stack — card present vs card not present at a high level, and how merchants, gateways, PSPs, and acquirers divide responsibility.
14 min → - Lesson 5 · Practitioner · Both
Failures, Chargebacks Intro & Reconciliation
Treat declines, returns, chargebacks, and reconciliation as product features — not afterthoughts — with practical status design and ops workflows.
13 min → - Lesson 6 · Advanced · Both
Instant vs Batch & Cross-Border Corridors
Choose rails by liquidity, certainty, and cost — then design cross-border corridors with FX, compliance, and correspondent realities in mind.
14 min →