Payments
Payments is a deeply technical and tightly regulated industry. The world of issuers, acquirers, processors, schemes, wallets, and gateways is governed by hard specifications, scheme rulebooks, and a set of regulators. Our expertise sits where technology, product, network and regulation meet.
Our expertise is built upon two decades and more than 200 engagements across the value chain that have given our consultants direct, working knowledge of payment ecosystems. The standards like EMV, 3-D Secure, ISO 8583 and ISO 20022, the rulebooks of Visa, Mastercard and Discover, and the obligations of PSD2 / PSD3, PSR and AML — all come together where technology, product, network and regulation meet. That is where payments programmes are actually won or lost, and where we operate.
It is built from a chain of specialised players, each contributing one part of how a transaction is initiated, authorised, settled, and hopefully not disputed.
Businesses and consumers — the end customers whose interactions the entire ecosystem exists to support, and whose expectations around speed, friction, and trust shape every other layer.
The businesses accepting payments and the platforms aggregating them, whose acceptance choices, fraud tolerance, and checkout design determine where transactions actually happen and on what terms.
Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover, JCB, China Union Pay, and the local schemes operating in individual markets, which set the rules, the technical standards, and the economics that everyone else operates within.
The regulated institutions (banks, payment institutions, e-money issuers) that issue cards, wallets, and accounts, holding the customer relationship and the credit or stored-value exposure behind it.
The institutions and processors that bring merchants into the network, route their transactions for authorisation and settlement, and manage the operational and risk responsibilities on the merchant side.
The technology layer that carries authorisation and clearing messages between issuers, acquirers, and schemes, alongside the gateway providers that connect merchants and PSPs to the rails.
Technology platforms that sit between the cardholder and the merchant, reshaping how credentials are stored, presented, and protected at the point of use.
Central banks, financial conduct authorities, and standards organisations such as EMVCo and PCI SSC, whose frameworks, in a broad sense, ensure security, interoperability, and sustainability — and govern the implementations of services for all parties.
No payment proposition lives inside one institution. The licence may be carried by one party, the customer relationship by another, the rails beneath, and the rules set by bodies that none of the participants individually controls. Designing such a proposition well — or understanding it well in the context of your project — requires fluency in each piece and in how they fit together.
Our expertise sits at the heart of the payments industry, where our consultants have worked the longest and where our depth runs furthest. We have advised payment networks, issuers, acquirers, processors, wallet providers, and the fintechs building on top of them, across both established markets and emerging propositions.
Our consultants combine fluency in the scheme rules and technical standards that govern payments, understanding of the regulatory frameworks that surround them, and practical familiarity with the partner and technology choices that shape what a proposition can actually deliver.
For clients building or evolving a payment proposition, we contribute across the journey from concept through architecture to launch. For investors and acquirers evaluating payment companies, we conduct the technical and commercial due diligence that distinguishes a strong proposition from a well-presented one — where what looks straightforward in a deck often carries significant scheme, licence, and certification dependencies underneath.