Payments Academy: The Art and Architecture of Payments

Understand. Design. Build. Deliver.

A professional payments engineering and banking knowledge platform. Learn how to design a payment processing system, understand what happens to a payment at every stage, analyse ISO 20022 messages, understand how banking systems interact, identify why payments fail, design integration requirements, understand clearing and settlement, and handle real banking transformation projects with confidence. 68 chapters, 12 domains, real depth, animated diagrams and narrated audio on every lesson.

Browse the curriculum Start with Chapter 1

68Chapters

12Domains

410k+Words

493Narrated lessons

What PaymentForge is

PaymentForge is a complete payments academy, built from real banking work. Every lesson is a short narrated lesson with an animated diagram that moves as the narration plays, so you see the payment move, the field highlighted, the ledger updated, instead of reading a wall of text.

What you will be able to do. Follow a payment from initiation to settlement across every rail; read and write ISO 20022 and SWIFT messages field by field; map MT to ISO 20022; design payment APIs and integration requirements; investigate exceptions, returns and recalls; and run reconciliation and operational controls like a payments business analyst.

Who it is for. Business analysts, product owners and engineers working on payments, banking transformation, or treasury, and anyone moving into payments from another domain.

How it is organised. 12 domains, 68 chapters, 493 narrated lessons, 700 answered questions, 10 simulators, 10 labs, 14 ISO exercises, 6 capstones and 23 scenarios. Start at the beginning, or take the placement test and we will tell you exactly which course to start with.

Choose your starting point

Three ways in, depending on where you are now. Every path ends at the same place: you can follow a payment end to end and explain each step.

New to paymentsStart at the beginning. Chapter 1, What is a Payment, explains the basic building block of every payment system, from first principles.You know the basicsFollow the curriculum, 12 domains and 68 chapters, from payment fundamentals to the hands-on BA workshop and the capstone.You want hands-on practiceSkip the reading and run a payment yourself. Ten simulators, from lifecycle to exceptions, including the API playground.

Or browse the full curriculum on the Courses page: 12 domains and 68 chapters, every lesson narrated with an animated diagram. Jump to the curriculum.

Simulators: learn by doing

Reading about a payment is one thing. Running one, breaking it, and fixing it is how it sticks. Each simulator is a real working model, not a video.

Payment Lifecycle SimulatorOne payment, USD 25,000, London to Singapore. Follow it stage by stage, reference INV-8841.Cross-Border Payment ConfiguratorBuild a cross-border payment and watch the chain, the charges, and the final amount change.Payment Hub Architecture SimulatorEighteen components, in payment flow order, from the channel where an instruction arrives to settlement.ISO 20022 Message ExplorerReal structured XML examples for the seven messages that carry a payment from instruction to statement.T2 and TIPS SimulatorSettle a euro payment in T2 RTGS or in TIPS and watch the states change.Payment Accounting SimulatorEvery payment is a set of ledger entries, and every entry must balance.Payment Exception Investigation SimulatorSeventeen exceptions, as operations sees them. Read the symptom, pick the first investigation step.Payment State Machine SimulatorOne payment, USD 25,000, London to Singapore. Watch its state change at every step.

Also try the API Playground, with real payment API requests and responses, and the Scenario Simulator, where you walk a payment going wrong, step by step.

For guided practice, not just simulation, open Practice: five hands-on experiences, Mission Control, Failure Investigation Lab, ISO 20022 Mapping Workbench, Reconciliation War Room and BA Studio, each with a score.

Capstone projects: prove it

Six end-to-end projects. Each one produces the deliverables a payments BA or architect produces on a real project, with a downloadable brief to work from.

Capstone projectsSix end-to-end projects, from brief to deliverables. The closest thing to real project work in the academy.BA and PO practical labsTen hands-on labs. Each one walks through a real BA or PO task, step by step, with templates and a worked example.Timed test seriesFifteen timed tests, one per domain plus mixed mocks. 80% pass mark, with explanations after you submit.

Explore the academy

CoursesThe integrated course and 10 smaller bundles, one per area, with prices and a payment page. Timed Test Series15 timed tests, one per domain plus 3 mixed mocks. 80% pass mark, explanations after you submit. Placement Test18 applied questions across all domains. We tell you exactly which course to start with. Simulators10 simulators, including the API playground and the payment state machine. Labs10 hands-on BA and PO labs with templates and worked examples. ISO Lab14 ISO 20022 message and mapping exercises with valid and invalid XML. Message Explorer27 MT and ISO 20022 messages, field by field. Interactive Trace20 stages of one USD 25,000 payment, London to Singapore. Scenarios23 reusable payment scenarios, positive and negative paths. Capstones6 end-to-end capstone projects with downloadable briefs. FAQ700 questions learners ask, answered in detail, linked to the chapters. ReferenceGlossary, message catalogue, scheme catalogue, careers and radar.

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