About Us

About FinPay Consultants

Built by practitioners from leading card schemes, processors, and acquiring banks. 18+ years. 62 certifications. Zero failures.

Our Mission

Spec-level expertise. Production experience. Zero tolerance for vague advice.

A malformed ISO 8583 bitmap rejects millions of transactions. A missed EMV tag in DE 55 fails an MTIP certification. A misconfigured ACS generates chargeback liability shifts worth millions. The consequences of imprecision in payments are immediate and irreversible.

FinPay Consultants exists to eliminate those risks. We deliver engineering-grade guidance — grounded in scheme specifications and production experience — so clients certify without surprises.

Mission: The world's most technically rigorous payment consultancy. Precision, expertise, and genuine commitment to client outcomes — nothing else.
Our Vision

Any bank. Any geography. Same calibre of expertise.

Any bank — regardless of size or location — should have access to the technical depth that the largest global institutions command internally. We stay specialist by design. No IT strategy. No innovation theatre. Just deep technical capability in payments.

Our Story

Founded by People Who Have Lived Inside the Systems

FinPay Consultants was founded by a group of payment industry veterans with direct experience inside Visa and Mastercard network operations, global processor engineering teams, issuer processing platforms, and central bank payment oversight functions. The founding team had collectively managed over 40 scheme certifications, overseen BASE II clearing operations handling billions of transactions annually, and designed fraud rule sets protecting portfolios across three continents.

The impetus for FinPay was a recurring frustration: banks and fintechs attempting complex payment programmes — new card launches, scheme certification projects, ISO 20022 migrations — were routinely let down by generalist consultancies that lacked the protocol-level knowledge to deliver. Projects stalled at MTIP because the consultants had never authored a test script. Gateway integrations ran months over schedule because no one on the engagement team had ever read a CyberSource integration guide cover-to-cover. Fraud rule implementations went live with dangerously misconfigured velocity checks because the consultants confused account-level with BIN-level rule scope.

FinPay was built to fill that gap. From day one, every consultant we employ must demonstrate hands-on experience with the specific payment systems they advise on. We do not hire generalists and train them in payments. We recruit practitioners with years of production experience and give them the commercial and advisory framework to deliver that expertise at scale.

Today, FinPay operates across 28 countries, with active engagements spanning Gulf Cooperation Council banks, European acquirers, Asia-Pacific national schemes, and African fintech infrastructure programmes. Our 62 scheme certifications represent a zero-failure final submission rate — a record we protect fiercely through our pre-certification methodology.

How We Work

The FinPay 7-Phase Engagement Methodology

Every FinPay engagement follows a structured, repeatable framework developed over 18 years and refined across hundreds of projects. Each phase has defined entry criteria, deliverables, and exit gates — so nothing falls through the cracks and every stakeholder knows exactly where the project stands.

01

Discovery & Scoping

We begin with structured stakeholder interviews, existing documentation review, and a technical environment inventory. We map your current payment architecture — host systems, switch configurations, scheme connections, fraud platforms — against your programme objectives. Deliverables include a Project Charter, stakeholder RACI matrix, and a detailed technical scope document that governs the entire engagement.

  • Architecture inventory and documentation audit
  • Scheme membership status and certification history review
  • Regulatory and compliance baseline assessment
  • Project Charter and RACI sign-off
02

Architecture Review

A deep technical review of your payment host architecture against scheme specifications, protocol standards, and security requirements. We examine ISO 8583 message flows, HSM integration patterns, network connectivity models, settlement file structures, and 3DS server configurations — identifying structural issues before they become certification blockers or production incidents.

  • ISO 8583/20022 message flow analysis and field mapping validation
  • EMV kernel and chip personalisation profile review
  • HSM architecture, key management, and ZPK/ZMK hygiene audit
  • Architecture Review Report with prioritised finding register
03

Gap Analysis

We map your current state against the target — whether that is a Visa MTIP certification checklist, an ISO 20022 message catalogue, a PCI DSS v4.0 control framework, or a Mastercard IPM clearing specification. Every gap is categorised by severity, assigned an owner, and estimated for remediation effort. This phase produces the foundation for the Solution Design and the project plan.

  • Scheme-specific compliance gap register (MTIP/ADVT/MIP)
  • PCI DSS and EMVCo control gap mapping
  • Protocol conformance delta analysis
  • Risk-prioritised remediation roadmap
04

Solution Design

Detailed technical specifications for every remediation item identified in the gap analysis. We produce interface design documents, ISO 8583/20022 message specifications, EMV personalisation profile templates, fraud rule logic documents, and clearing file format specifications — to the level of precision that developers and vendors can implement without ambiguity.

  • Interface design documents and API specifications
  • EMV chip profile and CDCVM configuration documents
  • Fraud rule logic specifications and decision tree documentation
  • Clearing and settlement file format specifications
05

Implementation

FinPay consultants embed alongside your development and operations teams during implementation, providing real-time technical guidance, reviewing code and configuration at the payment-logic layer, and acting as the bridge between your internal teams and external vendors or scheme representatives. We attend technical working group calls, review vendor deliverables, and manage scheme correspondence on your behalf.

  • Embedded technical advisory during development sprints
  • Vendor deliverable review and acceptance testing
  • Scheme relationship management and query resolution
  • Configuration validation for switches, gateways, and fraud platforms
06

Testing & Certification

Our pre-certification simulation programme is the cornerstone of our zero-failed-submission record. We build a full internal test environment mirroring the scheme's certification toolkit, execute every mandatory and conditional test case, validate DE 55 EMV data integrity, analyse decline reason codes, and remediate every defect before the official certification window opens. On certification day, our consultants are live on the test session with your team.

  • Internal MTIP/ADVT/CDET simulation testing (full test suite)
  • DE 55 BER-TLV data validation and EMV tag audit
  • Decline code analysis and host response mapping verification
  • Certification day support and defect rapid-response
07

Knowledge Transfer

FinPay engagements end with your team empowered, not dependent. We conduct structured handover workshops, produce operations runbooks, build internal training curricula, and run live scenario-based training sessions covering the systems and protocols we have implemented. Our goal is that your team is self-sufficient — and that you call us back for the next complex project, not for ongoing maintenance of work we have already delivered.

  • Technical operations runbooks and standard operating procedures
  • Bespoke training workshops for engineering and operations teams
  • Scheme rules and protocol change management briefings
  • Post-engagement support SLA and escalation path documentation
Why Choose Us

What Separates FinPay from Every Other Payment Consultancy

Practitioners, Not Theorists

Every FinPay consultant has operated production payment systems. Our minimum requirement is five years of hands-on experience with the specific technology domain they advise on — not a certification course and a textbook.

Specification-Level Accuracy

We work from primary sources — Visa Core Rules, Mastercard Rules, EMVCo Book 3, ISO 8583:2003, ISO 20022 UML models, PCI DSS v4.0 requirements. Our advice is traceable to the exact document and clause that governs it.

Zero Failed Final Submissions

Across 62 scheme certifications, FinPay has never had a client fail their final official certification submission. Our pre-certification simulation methodology makes this outcome predictable, not lucky.

Vendor Independence

No referral fees. No vendor partnerships. No preferred supplier lists. Our platform and technology recommendations are determined entirely by your requirements, not by commercial relationships with software vendors.

Delivery on Schedule

Scheme certification windows do not move. Regulatory deadlines do not flex. FinPay's project management discipline and technical preparation mean our clients hit their dates — with contingency plans in place if the unexpected occurs.

Global Reach, Local Knowledge

Operating across 28 countries means we understand that payment regulations, scheme participation models, and central bank requirements differ significantly by market. Our advisors bring region-specific knowledge alongside global protocol expertise.

The Team

A Leadership Team Forged in Production Payment Systems

Our senior consultants average 14 years of direct payment industry experience across card scheme operations, issuer processing, acquirer technology, and payment security — not adjacent industries, not financial services broadly, but payments specifically.

Scheme Certification Practice

Led by consultants with former Visa and Mastercard network operations backgrounds. Combined personal certification experience across MTIP, ADVT, CDET, and MIP programmes in over 15 countries.

Protocol & Technology Practice

Protocol engineers with hands-on ISO 8583 switch development, ISO 20022 migration architecture, and payment host integration experience across leading processor platforms including ACI Worldwide, FIS, Fiserv, and Temenos.

Security & Compliance Practice

QSA-certified practitioners and former PCI Security Standards Council contributors. Deep PCI DSS v4.0 implementation experience, EMVCo security assessment methodology, and payment cryptography expertise covering HSM, PKI, and key ceremony management.

Let's Discuss Your Payment Programme

Whether you are planning a new card launch, navigating a scheme certification, migrating your messaging infrastructure, or hardening your fraud and compliance posture — FinPay Consultants has the specific expertise your project demands. We are happy to start with a no-obligation scoping conversation.