FinTech and Digital Payments
How wallets, UPI-style rails, BNPL and neobanks actually work.
Taught by Dipesh Koirala · CFA, Financial Analyst
What you'll learn
- Map the players in a digital payment and explain the difference between authorisation, clearing and settlement
- Break a card merchant discount rate into interchange, scheme fees and acquirer margin
- Compare card networks with real-time account-to-account rails such as UPI, Pix and FedNow
- Explain how wallets and tokenisation work and how BNPL providers and neobanks make money
- Outline the licences, KYC and AML checks and open banking rules a FinTech product must satisfy
- Design a simple rules-based fraud score and choose layered controls to reduce payment fraud
About this course
Every tap of a phone at a till, every QR code scanned at a tea shop and every pay-in-four checkout runs on infrastructure most people never see. This beginner course explains how FinTech and digital payments actually work, for anyone aiming at a FinTech career, a payments product or operations role, or simply wanting to understand the industry. You will follow the money through a card transaction, from interchange and scheme fees to the merchant discount rate, and compare real-time account-to-account rails such as UPI, Pix, FedNow and Faster Payments. You will see how digital wallets, QR codes and tokenisation keep card numbers safe, and unpick the business models behind buy now pay later, neobanks and embedded finance. The course finishes with licensing, KYC and AML, open banking and the fraud controls that build trust. Short Python examples model fees, ledgers and risk rules, but no coding or finance background is required.
Course content
7 lessons- 1The FinTech Map: Who Moves Money and HowThe main FinTech segments, the life cycle of a payment, and why every product rests on a ledger.Preview
- 2Card Payments: The Four-Party Model and Card EconomicsWho takes part in a card payment, how the merchant discount is split, and who bears disputes.
- 3Real-Time Rails: UPI, Pix, FedNow and Faster PaymentsHow instant account-to-account payment systems work and why they are reshaping everyday payments.
- 4Digital Wallets, QR Codes and TokenisationPass-through and stored-value wallets, how tokenisation protects card numbers, and how wallets earn money.
- 5Lending Models: BNPL, Neobanks and Embedded FinanceBNPL unit economics, how neobanks are licensed, and how finance is embedded into non-financial apps.
- 6Regulation: Licences, KYC/AML and Open BankingThe licences FinTechs need, how KYC and AML checks run during onboarding, and how open banking shares data.
- 7Fraud, Risk and Building TrustCommon payment fraud patterns, a simple rules-based risk score, and layered defences that build trust.