INTRODUCTION TO PAYMENTS

On completion of the Payments module, you will be able to understand:

  1. How payments continue to evolve and how consumers and merchants are driving change;
  2. Why financial systems have payment settlement systems;
  3. The fundamentals of card issuing including how card transactions are made and the card management functions that banks operate;
  4. How new payment methods such as digital instant payments, payment initiation services and peer-to-peer payments are changing the payments landscape;
  5. The fundamentals of international payments;
  6. Cryptocurrencies, stablecoins and central bank digital currencies explained;
  7. How banks and merchants are combatting fraud and risk and compliance issues relevant to payments;
  8. How, because of their position, banks can play a part in digital identity.

Without payments, there wouldn’t be banking.

Payment systems are fundamental to the smooth running of national and global economies and are regulated by central banks and other financial regulators to promote stability.

We will discuss how consumers (and businesses) make and receive payments domestically and internationally. We will also discuss emerging payment innovations in response to the continued digitisation of economies and global trade and global remittances.

From Conch Shells to Cashless Money

It is widely but incorrectly reported that barter preceded money. However, our forebears very likely understood debt and credit just as well as we do, even before the arrival of currencies and money.

Debt pre-dated money, and even when money goes fully digital or cashless, we will still have debt and credit. Barter was only suitable for trading between parties that did not meet often, and had very specific needs when they did meet. From ancient times, people have used debt to do business. You credit me with what I need now, and I’ll pay you back later when I have sufficient resources. Lending remains the basis of banking.

Humans have always conducted commerce and exchanged goods. Money evolved to meet the changing needs of exchange, acting as the acceptable ‘middle-man’ in transactions. Money, no matter what form it takes, must be valued by both parties to make the exchange acceptable. At one time it was a pile of conch shells, then precious metals, and now it can be a note in a purse, a digital record in a bank account or a cryptocurrency in a digital wallet. It can still be a gold bar too!

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