Payments and fintech: players, trends, regulation, and how to crack the cases
Who does what in each region, what changed from 2024 to 2026, regulation basics, and typical case prompts.
Industry brief, with a one-minute summary: Payments and fintechFirm processes and online tests change from year to year and differ by office. Use this to prepare, and confirm the exact current steps on the firm's own careers page.
Key takeaways
- Payments is shaped by regulators and national systems as much as by companies.
- Common traps: Treating gross payment volume as revenue.
- Real-time payments keep growing. UPI processed a record of about 24.5 billion transactions in August 2026, worth about INR 29.8 trillion (Business Standard, citing NPCI data).
- Europe made instant payments standard.
- The Gulf is building national rails. The UAE is widening the use of Aani (instant payments) and Jaywan (the domestic card scheme), including for government fees (The National, August 2026).
Key idea
Payments is shaped by regulators and national systems as much as by companies. In each country, first ask which rails people use (cards, real-time payments, mobile money, cash) and who sets the fees.
| Role | Examples |
|---|---|
| Card schemes | Visa, Mastercard (global); UnionPay (China); American Express (three-party); RuPay (India); mada (Saudi Arabia); Jaywan (UAE); Elo (Brazil) |
| Real-time payment systems | UPI (India), Pix (Brazil), PayNow (Singapore), FedNow (US), SEPA Instant (euro area), Aani (UAE) |
| Acquirers and processors | Adyen (Netherlands), Stripe (US), Worldpay, Fiserv, Checkout.com (UK), Network International (UAE), Razorpay (India), Stone (Brazil) |
| Wallets and super-app payments | Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal, Alipay and WeChat Pay (China), PhonePe and Paytm (India), GrabPay (Southeast Asia), M-Pesa (Kenya), Mercado Pago (Latin America) |
| Buy now pay later | Klarna (Sweden), Affirm (US), Afterpay (owned by Block), Tabby and Tamara (Gulf) |
| Remittances | Western Union, Wise, Remitly; exchange houses such as Al Ansari Exchange and Lulu Exchange (Gulf); banks |
So-what
Many countries now run their own card scheme or real-time system to lower costs and depend less on global networks.
Trends from 2024 to 2026 (checked 28 September 2026)
- Real-time payments keep growing. UPI processed a record of about 24.5 billion transactions in August 2026, worth about INR 29.8 trillion (Business Standard, citing NPCI data). In Brazil, Pix handled about 5.4 billion transactions in September 2025 alone (Banco Central do Brasil).
- Europe made instant payments standard. Under the EU Instant Payments Regulation, euro area payment providers had to be able to receive instant transfers from January 2025 and to send them, with a free check of the payee's name, from 9 October 2025 (ECB). Wero, a European wallet built by banks, reports more than 50 million users and launched online shopping payments in Germany in late 2025 and in Belgium in March 2026 (EPI).
- The Gulf is building national rails. The UAE is widening the use of Aani (instant payments) and Jaywan (the domestic card scheme), including for government fees (The National, August 2026).
- BNPL grew up. Klarna listed on the New York Stock Exchange on 10 September 2025. In the UK, BNPL (deferred payment credit) became regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority from 15 July 2026, with affordability checks and clearer information (FCA).
- US card fees are in court. On 6 August 2025 a US district court in North Dakota vacated Regulation II, the Federal Reserve's rule that caps debit interchange, but stayed its ruling while the Fed appeals, so the cap still applied. At that time the Fed's 2023 proposal to lower the cap to 14.4 cents was still pending (Cooley). Check the current status.
- Remittances stay large. IFAD estimates that India received about USD 150.7 billion in 2025, the most of any country (as reported by The Policy Edge, September 2026). The World Bank's Remittance Prices Worldwide database tracks the cost of sending money; its global average for sending USD 200 has stayed well above the 3 percent target set in the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Check the latest data on migrant jobs and flows in the Gulf.
- Mobile money is a core business in Africa. M-Pesa earned KES 182.7 billion for Safaricom in the year to March 2026, about 45.6 percent of Safaricom Kenya's service revenue of KES 400.8 billion (Safaricom).
Payment firms usually need a payment institution or e-money licence, and banks need a banking licence to lend with deposits. Regulators cap some fees (for example EU interchange caps of 0.2 percent for consumer debit and 0.3 percent for consumer credit cards, and US caps on debit interchange for large banks), set rules for strong customer authentication and fraud refunds, and require anti-money laundering checks, which are strict for cross-border transfers. Some countries require payment data to be stored locally, as India does. Central banks often own or run the national real-time system.
| Case prompt | Structure hint | First driver to check |
|---|---|---|
| An acquirer's profit is falling | Volume x take rate minus cost per transaction; mix of merchants and card types | Take rate by merchant segment: are large merchants getting lower prices |
| Should a bank launch a rewards credit card? | Interchange plus interest and fees, minus rewards, credit losses, funding, and acquisition cost | Share of cardholders who pay interest (revolve) and their expected credit losses |
| How should a bank respond to UPI or Pix taking card volume? | Revenue at risk, new revenue from real-time rails, cross-selling | Share of the bank's card income that comes from small everyday payments |
| Should we launch a remittance app from the Gulf to South Asia? | Corridor size, price versus exchange houses, acquisition cost, compliance, partner banks | Price gap versus current providers, including the FX margin |
| Should a merchant offer BNPL at checkout? | Extra sales and larger baskets versus a higher fee | Increase in conversion and order value compared with the extra fee |
| Size the market for a new wallet in an African country | Adults, phone ownership, bank account ownership, current cash use, agent network | Share of adults without a bank account but with a mobile phone |
So-what
Payments cases reward clear unit economics. Get the net revenue per transaction right before you discuss strategy.
Treating gross payment volume as revenue. Forgetting that interchange goes to the issuer, not the acquirer. Assuming every payment app earns fees on each payment (many earn nothing on the payment itself). Ignoring fraud and chargebacks. Forgetting the FX margin in remittances. Assuming a card case in the EU works like one in the US, when fee caps differ.
A payment processor in Brazil handles BRL 40 billion of payments a year. After interchange and scheme fees, it keeps a net take rate of 50 basis points. What is its yearly net revenue, in BRL millions?
Related modules: "Unit economics and subscription businesses" (case type) practices per-transaction and per-customer math; "Financial services P&L: banks and insurers" covers issuer profit; "Market entry" and "Pricing" fit new wallets, remittance apps, and merchant fees. See also the banking module and the internet platforms module, which covers super-apps.
Why are merchant fees on UPI payments in India so much lower than on credit cards in the US?
A remittance provider advertises "zero fees". What should you check?
Why does a BNPL provider charge merchants a higher fee than a card acquirer?
Sources for this lesson (16)
- NPCI: UPI product statistics (official, monthly)
- Business Standard: UPI sets new record at 24.51 billion transactions in August 2026
- Banco Central do Brasil: Monetary Policy Report box on Pix, December 2025 (official)
- European Central Bank: Instant Payments Regulation (official)
- EUR-Lex: Regulation (EU) 2015/751 on interchange fees for card-based payments (official)
- Federal Reserve: Regulation II, debit card interchange fees and routing (official)
- Cooley: District court vacates Regulation II debit interchange fee standard (August 2025)
- UK Financial Conduct Authority: new protections confirmed for Buy Now Pay Later borrowers (official)
- Klarna investor relations: Klarna lists on the New York Stock Exchange (September 2025, official)
- World Bank: Remittance Prices Worldwide (official database and reports)
- The Policy Edge: India remains the largest remittance recipient with USD 150.7 billion in 2025 (reporting IFAD estimates, September 2026)
- The National: UAE expands federal payment channels with Aani and Jaywan (August 2026)
- EPI Company: Wero announces the launch of its e-commerce solution in Belgium (2026, official)
- Safaricom: Group revenue hits KES 414 billion with net income of KES 100 billion in FY26 (May 2026, official)
- Press Information Bureau, Government of India: incentive scheme for low-value BHIM-UPI payments, notes zero MDR since January 2020 (official)
- Recognized public explanations of case-interview concepts and frameworks
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